Nov 21: Long Ride – Torere to Whakatane

Day 10: Torere to Whakatane

first puncture of the day

Torere – where’s that?

Torere is 20 km east of Whakatane. We left from there to make sure that distance travelled today would add up tot the 1000 km total (the distance from Opotoki to Whakatane – our final destination for today) does not give us enough total distance unless we add on the additional distance to Torere.

Conditions today on the road were pretty good. Very warm – Opotoki was expecting a high today in the late twenties. Generally sunny, with some high cloud. Breezy, bordering on windy, and mostly a head wind. Countryside is rolling green hills, farmland. The portions of ride along the coast were really nice- through glades of spreading weathered pohutukawas.

Opotoki coastline

Stuart Harris joined us for the last part of today’s ride, through the valleys that carry streams into the estuary next to Ohope Beach. In spite of the head wind, the ride today was enjoyable, with interesting views of the coast and beaches. We took turns at the front when the breeze was strongest.

To finish we had to contend with the long hill between Ohope and Whakatane. Would have preferred to get that hill out of the way at the beginning of the ride, but can’t do much about that!  As it happened the hill was no too bad, and we arrived in Whakatane early afternoon, still feeling in pretty good shape.

In relative terms today’s ride was one of the shorter rides, so that probably explains why the ride was not too taxing. By now we are also getting a bit more conditioned to sitting on the bike seat each day. However, the butt still gets really sore after about 60 km of cycling!

Stats for Day 10 of the Long Ride: total trip was 67 km, with a total cycling time of 3 hrs 11 mins. The average speed was 21 km/h .

pink booties & jandals!!??