According to my wall calendar, its been over 5 weeks since I did a real ride on Sunday. This is because I was away one weekend, the weather was crap for about 3 and last week I still felt a bit krank.
Today I recommence my Sunday rides. With the assistance of Google Maps - here are todays statistics:
Carterton - Martinborough via Ponatahi 1.1/2 hours = 29.8km
Martinborough - Greytown - Matarawa 1.3/4 hours = 41.4km
Total km = 71.2/1000
The ride over to Martinborough felt a bit sluggish. Once there I had coffee and a freshly cooked lemon muffin at the Straw house. We then went to the TK market, which is of a pretty good standard. I had a long conversation with a man who screen prints tea towels (about where he gets his inspiration from (old Kiwi sayings), a short conversation with Emma Makes, (whose site Small Town Stories is linked on my side bar), coffee from the train man (although Emma is a train lady), and fresh walnuts. All in all a nice vibe and worth riding over for, I'll probably return to buy some wine barrel seats. Maybe.
I decided to ride the "easy" way home via Greytown. Well, its easy once you get out of the hill climb of Martinborough. On the whole I really like this route. I know it well. Except I really don't riding through Greytown. Both pedestrians and car drivers from "out of town" so lack traffic ettiquite. I turned off into the Westside after the Greytown bridge and rode home via Matarawa. This made the journey slightly longer, but avoided the stress of riding on the motorway.
Unfortunately, it rained quite heavily from Greytown and then home. So I didn't have to imagine being a "duck" (an analogy Hutt girl uses - a good one as its about focusing on using your legs)...as I pretty much felt like a duck!
Speaking of birdlife - I thought I was going to become victim to a magpie attack at the Martinborough/Featherston turn off. This magpie circled my head a couple of times - very closely. Then it stopped. It was a little bit scary though.
I finished the ride by frightening the local dairy owner in my cycling gear when I went to buy the Sunday paper...
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