Day 6 - Turanghi to Warangi - 173km
Right then, first things first with some place pronunciations, in Kiwi, "whack" is pronounced "fack" - note, that this is true pronunciation, so not making it up :) hehe...as you read through todays blog, this kept me entertained for at least oooo..several hours today.
ok then...first off, the legs felt pretty good earlier this morning :) probably due to my extra 90mins sleep the day before....oooo yeah !!!
NO CHAIN DAY TODAY!!!
Second things next....we rolled out at about 8.15 this morning and less than 5km into it (almost warmed up by this point)...and we hit the first climb of the day (total 1985m of climbing), Papakai, which rolls through the Tongiriro National Park....absolutely stunning landscape, initially a mix of the lake district, UK style scenary and then melts into French Alpine type territory....
Halfway up the first climb....a good 10 mins climb....we got absolutely "p*ssed on", a little cool out but the climbing kept us warm.
The big climb was Whakapapa (bear in mind the pronunciation at the start!), and you have enough comedy to entertain ooooo.....3 people for at least the next hour and a half...
many variations on the theme...."where the whakapapa is that?", "whats the Mata Mata?" (from previous day)....hehe....comedy genius!
Basically the route today, was really hilly with some solid climbing throughout the day and a solid headwind for the last 20km or so. Most of the morning was spent in a great 3-up time trial stylee with Tara "The Train" Norton and Douglas "The Doctor", rolling around.
We were making great progress, when all got a bit warm (sun came out), so we stopped to remove jackets....and then THE Molina Train arrived with 2 more in tow and we formed an awesome paceline for the next 3 hours.
Legs feeling great today and mentally really on it today - getting used to the century's racking up :) (5 in a row - oooo yeah!). How'd d'ya like them apples!
Right then key place names for the day are;
Turanghi
Taurewa (next to Whakapapa - hehe....brilliant!)
Waikune
pokaka
Raetihi
kakatahi
Upokongaro
and finally rolling into Wanganui to round out about 173km of riding.
Catch up tomorrow for Day 7 - Wanganui to Palmerston - 201km.
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Dude, I snowboarded on the Whakapapa volcano, and laughed at the pronunciation. Favorite ride was the Karapoti classic not far from there.
ReplyDeleteKris is impressed that you are using correct pronunciation of Maori, but would ask you to refrain from making childish jokes at the expense of her Whanau.
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed that you find the language as amusing as I do.