into a rest day at Napier

20-21 November - The morning at Ohakune was cool but dry. Wind was still blowing, but it promised to be a tail wind. The route was now eastbound to a bush camp in the mountains and advertised to be the toughest day of the trip due to steep climbs.

Deer were introduced to New Zealand by settlers. We haven't seen any in the wild, but we've seen a few farms that raise them. Here it looks like all the does are in one corral while the buck looks after his family in another. Funny looking deer, I'd say.

 Onward and more wild turkeys.

Eight kilometers of moderately rough dirt road but absolutely worth it for the scenery.

The climbs were steep. So were the descents - has to be careful on the gravel. On hard surfaces, we were regularly hitting 70 km/hr while using lots of brake.

As the morning went on, we saw more sunshine and were able to look back at mountains that were totally in cloud yesterday.

We never got on the flat today. We'd be lucky to get over 6 km/hr on the climbs - small chain ring and big free wheel the whole way.

And then there would be a couple of kilometers of break-neck descent - big chain ring, small free wheel. I don't think we used any of the gears in between for more than a few minutes of the 8+ hours we rode today.

The final climb was the first one that the NZ highway department saw fit to post as steep with warnings to trucks to use low gear both going up and down. And it certainly was the toughest. Ursula walked it as did many others. I didn't, but probably should have. It was 2 km at a speed of maybe 4.5 km/hr, barely ahead of Ursula. Then another steep descent. The valley below was the night's campsite about 800 metres off the road behind the hill to the left. And we were very glad to get there and extremely thankful that it was a good tailwind all day.

Sunrise in camp promising another sunny day...

 Breakfast finished and everyone gets out of camp at the same time and immediately onto one of those 5 km/hr hills - great warmup!

Beautiful clear day - tailwind for most of it - great view descending toward Hawke's Bay, and birds along the way...

Yellowhammer (I think)

more wild turkeys

Black swans with five cygnets -
I wonder if white swans have black cygnets?

Warm when we got down out of the hills and a bit of very relaxing rail trail.... 

...on the way into Napier which is known for its art deco architecture. A 1931 earthquake resulted in fires that could not be controlled due to damaged infrastructure and the town was largely destroyed. It was rebuilt in the style of the day. 

As I write this, we haven't got into the downtown, so you'll have to wait for photos.

We were early afternoon into the motel for the rest day and were able (with about 4 minutes to spare) to get onto an excursion out to Cape Kidnappers and its gannet colonies, which I'll put in the next post.