Kiwi brevet 2012. Day 3

Lees Valley to Flock Station; 125km
A typical start to this day with a can of cold bake beans. Yum! The night before I had realised that I had left a pair of bike shorts somewhere in the Brothers station. Oh well, this was going to be a one pair of bike shorts event. As many of you will know, keeping things clean down stairs is top priority. I was going to have to wash my shorts in the evening when the opportunity presented itself. I broke camp around six. The road down to the head of Wharfdale trail was awesome. Slight downhill and superb scenery. Into the Wharfdale trail and I was soon joined by some other riders. Some navigation issues out of the way and we were soon at Wharfdale hut. I knew the next section was going to be a bit of a push, but I didn’t quite anticipate how muddy it would be! I was soon pushing/riding with Peter McKenzie. He was not so into this, whereas I loved it as it was for filling the adventure side of the brevet for me. On the down side it certainly was slow going. We soon cruised out of the Wharfdale towards Sheffield and then devoured some well-earned pies and coffee.

I rolled on towards Springfield and the impressive Porters pass. Half way up I was regretting the third pie. As I summited, I joined up with Martin and Alistair and we proceeded to ride to Flock Hill Station together. I was blown away when discovered that these two guys were in there fifties. I thought to myself how inspiring and I will be happy if I am doing these crazy bike adventures at that age. Top marks Alistair and Martin! The scenery through the Castle hill area is truly spectacular. The one down side was there was a heap traffic on the road as most of Christchurch was returning home. We arrived at Flock Hill station around seven.  The first, second and third beer went down real well, closely followed by a really good chicken burger. We were soon joined by Clair, Joel and Karin. Great sharing with them adventures of the day.  It was certainly great having a shower and feeling the comfort of a mattress. Roll on day three. Good to go to sleep knowing that a good chunk of the Arthurs pass climb was out of the way.