New Zealand 2023: Day 7. Cycling Ohakune

By the numbers

1 bike

20.19kms

24,286 steps

 

I woke in the early hours to hear the wail of sirens for the volunteer firies to be called out of bed. Thats what I was told it meant and could be anything from helping remove a tree to tires or even attend a wreck. I did however check the Geonet app as I am not far from Ruapehu and earthquakes are a thing. The next thing I was wondering as there was daylight was to why my alarm had not gone off. There was a reason why. I did not have that set for the weekend and it was silent. That didn’t bother me in the slightest. The bed was comfortable and it was warm too, but I had other plans.

 

Before getting my bike, I needed some breakfast as I only had around an hour before the shop opened so I wanted some fuel before leaving, and along the way picked up two sandwiches for the road as I didn’t know if I would need them. Basically I didn’t know how long I would be out on my bike for or where exactly as that would be the biggest mystery. The shop was open a touch early and I was able to get fitted out for my bike and at the same time got gloves only as it was bloody cold out there. I wasn’t the only one that was there luckily as there were several others that got electric bikes, while I had the normal one. They wouldn’t just take me up to Horopito, which is where the trail starts for the Old Coach road. The Coach road itself if a historic road used in the early days before the train came through and parts still have the old cobble stones used. This was also where the workers stayed while building the railway line that is now used between Wellington and Auckland. At the start of the track is a wreckers called Smash Palace that was used for a movie of the same name and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. You could visit that if you wanted. One of the guys who dropped the small group of us off gave us a talking to about the trail and what to watchout for.

 

I was late starting off as I put on my raincoat and just took my time while the others basically vanished before I left for the Smash Palace. I was taking my time going down the trail. There were parts that were going uphill that I was walking the bike along as I did not want to ride up hill, but was wheeling down the slopes. One part I didn’t attempt to ride down was near the Taonui viaduct, a bridge that you cant cross, but will pass underneath and was all about the metal and construction methods used. Throughout the trail there were information boards, where I would stop and take pictures and even of just the scenery. That created a surprise when someone was coming down the track and came across me on the side of the track. It was around midday that I came across my first bunch of walkers and riders going up the trail. I was glad I was going down as I don’t think I would have made it up. I was just taking my time as I had the bike all day and the weather was pretty windy even though there was rain about, but not much. I nearly slipped over on some leave the once in front of a bunch of hikers, but that was the only time. Throughout the whole ride I only seen people going down. Apart from the two going up. I was glad that I took the time today as the weather had been better than yesterday. Only one of the viaducts you could walk across and it used to be used for bungy jumps too at one stage Hapuawhenua viaduct was another one that had been bypassed when the new one had been built and it was a one way since it basically was a bridge to nowhere as you had to turn around. The bridge had information about how the community helped to preserve it for the future

 

I made it down, although I didn’t realise I had made it that far until I found the little carpark. I was at the end of a country road, so decided to try and ride back to town. I ended up with a headwind, which meant walking would have been better and I ended up walking back with the bike until I got to one end of Ohakune. I had good luck as the Northern explorer came through at the same time I made it back into town. I was watching it as it went past.. I was planning on riding through the town until a local mentioned the 2km riverside track was worth taking, so I did until the end. I had to ride a little bit further into town where the shop was and I was able to return the bike. They were happy that I enjoyed myself and just took my time instead of trying to make it down in two hours. It was mid afternoon and I wanted to put washing on as I had two jumpers that needed washing and one that would have been stinky from the ride. I wanted to have a rest as well after the ride as I knew I would have to go out to dinner later on as there seem to be only restaurants here and very few if any quick and easy places. Still it was a good day out and I was happy I went and rode on the old coach road.

 

New Zealand 2023: Day 6 Late to Ohakune

By the numbers

1 bus

7.37 kms

9,421 steps

The early hours I was woken up by both the rain and someone who had de4cided they wanted to run their car. I have no idea what the go with that one is, but earlier in the evening the person was constantly going to their car to the point they set the car alarm off. Once my alarm went off I knew what sort of day it would be since I could hear the rain and the fact that I was going to be leaving Palmerston North for Ohakune.

 

The rain had stopped long enough for me to walk to the bus stop where the bus was waiting for me. I was there early enough that I didn’t need to worry. Turns out the bus wont be leaving on time as the driver was waiting for the bus from Napier to arrive and that one was going to be around 15 mins late or so. This mean we were late to every stop we had to make to get other passengers.. I mean I didn’t have anywhere else to be apart from on my seat heading to Ohakune. Most of the way it was raining and there were roadworks for some slips that had occurred sometime ago. By the time we made it to Wanganui, my teeth were floating and pretty much was a pit stop for several other people too. The bus didn’t actually have a toilet unfortunately, I checked and the door didn’t open. The pickup point in Wanganui had changed since I was last in the area. It was a little out of town last time and not near the town centre. There were only two toilets though and a little bit of a wait, though when I realised I thought it was pretty funny. It was drizzling in the town and the rain seemed to be following us up the hill. By the time we arrived in Ohakune, I was around an hour late. The guy beside me didn’t seem to understand I wanted off even though I stood up. He had been sleeping, but still was a touch slow on the uptake. I soon found Ohakune to be a little bit we, but cold.

 

I started to wonder why I had booked a place to stay that was a little bit of a walk, although it was worth it for the name, being Hobbit Motor lodge. Along the way I went past the bike hire shop that I wanted as I needed to talk to them about the bike I wanted to hire and they hadn’t replied to my email. I was wondering how I found out about the motorlodge when I don’t think the bus had gone past last time, or I had seen a sign for it though I do know the bus stopped at the toilets. The people at the accommodation were expecting me and I could feel the chill in the air. I handed the milk back when it was offered to me. The weather was all over the place and I wanted to get out an explore at least one part of Ohakune. Checkout was at 10am on Monday and I had the idea I can wait in the library as the bus doesn’t come til around 1pm. The town seems spread out in parts, but I headed to where I thought there was food. Supermarket didn’t have sandwiches. I visited the bike shop and found they do have my booking and I was good as gold, which made me happy. Even if it wasn’t raining in the morning tomorrow, I would be set for a ride of the old coach road. Though I wouldn’t be going near the last railway spike as it was likely I would be riding on the road.... uphill with cars. The coach road was when they used horses and not modern vehicles. It started raining and then stopped as I got coffee and a pie. I spilt the coffee inside my umbrella, that is how skilled I am, and all over my hands. Not burnt though.

 

Without getting wet, I found the carrot theme park that included a few vegetables like Parsnip, carrot, Swead and a Brussel Sprout. The whole park was all to do with promoting the vegetables grown in Ohakune and surrounding areas. I decided that I had enough of the weather as it kept raining on and off, but the weather report mentioned hail and storms two of which I did not want to get stuck in. I grabbed a quick meal of chicken and chips as I didn’t really know what I wanted to eat, and didn’t want to wait around as some of the restaurants didn’t open until 5pm. I didn’t want to walk to where the train station is either as I might change my mind once I seen the food there. Since I am on the bike going down the track, I will have a look. Making it back to my room, meant I had to turn on the heater as the room was cold. At least I will be warm for a little while.

Day 5 Having a Feilding Day

By the numbers

2 bus’

2 archive centres

14.51 kms

17,886 steps

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from the weather as I was going to spend all day in Feilding. It could just start raining 20 mins up the road for all I would know. The sky looked clear, but there was strong wind. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt and my new hat with a flap to protect my neck from the sun. I might look dorky, but I should have been wearing it yesterday as I got sunburnt then. I had the rest of my dinner from the night before as I had gotten a large meal and couldn’t finish it off, and weak coffee from the motel supplied stash. The motel is basically where I only spend the night and stash my bags.

 

The bus that I was meant to be catching had its start from Palmerston North as it headed for Auckland. I arrived early and gave the driver my name and I was able to board whenever I wanted to. So many people asked where the bus was going as it had the destination on the front. I was off to Feilding as I wanted to do some research and had emailed a family history archive centre, who never got back to me. I knew they were all volunteers though so that could be why. It didn’t take long for the bus to arrive and drop me off in the town. I could have taken a local bus, but I didn’t know at the time of booking, I could have done that. I made my way to the local museum via the sale yards, but I had learnt I could do a tour of them too even though I was a day early.

 

The Coach house museum was all about the early settlers and their way of life in the early days and how the area become known as Feilding. It was named after someone and was all part of an emigration plan to settle people from England who wanted a new life out of poverty. I was after information on some of the settlers who had been assisted to New Zealand. The ticket seller had come into the museum to grab me when the archivist was available. Turns out once the archivist was available that the information had been compiled into a book that was published this year by a researcher who I had last had contact with a number of years ago. The archivist did give me some lessons on how to search for people through newspapers and even another local archive centre. I had actually thought that place was where I happened to be. No there was actually an actual Archive Centre that had material from many old councils with records being available online too. I said I would be there after I finished at the museum. I was blessed with good fortune. Once I finished with the archivist, I went for a wander through the museum to complete my local history journey by looking at old vehicles like John Deere tractors and a horse drawn hearse. I did see several names I recognised and did use notes on my phone to type them out.

 

Having half a day left before I could catch a bus back to Palmerston North, meant the local archives was a blessing in disguise as I wanted to look through some rate books for the locality of Pohangina near Palmerston North. I had used my phone to search for the records I wanted to look at and since they were two rates books, I was looking for my 3x great grandfather who was in that town and it seemed before he died, someone else had paid his rates and was his neighbour. I followed the neighbour for a number of years and seemed to be well off. I have no idea who he is, but seems to be interesting to me. The archives closed at 430pm and it wasn’t long after 4pm that I had finished looking through and taking pictures of the records. I checked what I was taking pictures of to make sure they could be read as that would have been awkward getting home and everything was blurry. On my first visit to Feilding I had come across this archives centre and I had wanted to visit it again, but I never knew it had become some sort of hub.

 

All day I could hear the noise of something racing around a track, so on a whim and because I had the time, I decided to go looking for the source of this noise. I walked down the road from the Coach House museum towards a park on my map called Kowhai, but a sign next to it had Mansfeild Park that after Googling came up as a race circuit. I was hoping the racing noises wouldn’t stop as I got closer and I didn’t know if I could watch anything on the race track. The wind had picked up and it tried to take my hat off me at the same time, but luckily it attaches itself to me. My bladder wanted to say hello, and I went to use the loo and there was dead silence when I got out as it was like the racing finished at 5pm. I walked to the entrance of the circuit and people were driving out so I would pretty much guess I missed out on watching some sort of race demonstration, even though I wasn’t sure if I could actually get inside to watch. There is only so far you can push being innocent and acting dumb, though I would just push anyway.. I did get to see something I wasn’t expecting and that was the old Tote building that was once part of the horse race track. It was New Zealand’s first electric totaliser that could place bets on the horses for you, much like the TAB offices.

 

I ended up walking back to the train station through the middle of Feilding as it was getting closer to the time I had to catch the bus. I knew if I was late the bus would be on time, but if I was early, the bus would be late. It was coming from Auckland and I had no idea if there was plenty of road works along the way. I did get to see the bus going to Wanganui going in the other direction. I was the only one to be picked up in Feilding just like I was the only one to get off. Palmerston North was actually pretty quiet when I got back just after 7pm. I think today the graduates from university were being congratulated as they were setting up a tent in the central park.

New Zealand 2023: Day 4: Wandering Palmerston North

 

By the numbers

20.44kms

26,080 steps

 

I was expecting it to rain and I had been warm during the night, so was expecting the rain. I did wakeup to daylight around the curtains, but I thought the weather would be like the forecast and be cold and wet. Turns out there was light cloud and no rain so I was happy for that part. I was pleasantly surprised that where I was staying near the CBD the place I was at happened to be pretty much quiet without much noise at all.

 

My plan for the day was to visit the archives to look at the council minute book and then head out to Kelvin Grove cemetery. I did note that there were a few bus services in the morning and I could have gone out there in the morning instead of the afternoon. I decided to get the library out of the way and then head out by bus once I had finished. After reading 4 years of council minutes skimming the correspondence in to see if I was after the person mentioned, I was more than ready to move on after my brain was fried. I found what I was after and then some so I was happy with what I came across.

 

I walked to the bus stop on the other side of the town square from the library to see when the next bus would come and just as I walked in the bus out to Kelvin Grove was leaving. That was how good my luck was. The next service would be around 40 mins later and I decided I would walk in the direction of the cemetery and walk back. That would be something like an hour long trek one way. Along the way I came across Terrace End cemetery, where I had family and thought now was a good time to update the photos I had of the headstones. The cemetery is one of the earlier cemeteries in the town, which replaced one that was closer as it was too wet. I had the dogs at the Animal rescue barking at me as I was trying to remember where the people were. I found all I was looking for, though I wasn’t going to stay too long as I didn’t want to run out of time. Off I went along the footpath that headed out towards the cemetery I wanted to be at until I came to a halt. The path ran out and finished inside a retirement village, and I wasn’t exactly comfortable walking along the side of the road being a state highway.

 

While I wanted to visit the cemetery, I decided this was something that would be better for another trip and to head out by bus instead. I should have done my research a bit better as I didn’t realise that Palmerston North had its own bus service running around. It has been a while since I was last in the town so I could be forgiven for that one. The alternative plan was actually across the road and that was part of the river walk back to town. It was something like 6kms from the walking / bridle trail. It wasn’t a bush track or anything as it was a concrete path that followed the river and I was planning on walking into the far side of the town and just walk to my accommodation. Looking at my map and the map that I walked past, I started to think that it would be better to exit the trail earlier and head in a direct route. Every now and again I would cross a sign that tells you to keep an eye out for walkers. I thought there would be more information along the way. Getting off the path at Albert street turned out to be a great ideas as I decided there were two local areas I could walk past to update my photos on and that was Milverton Park and Milverton Avenue. It was beginning to become a longer walk than I realised as I was feeling exhausted and I looked at how far I had walked and at that point it had been 17kms. Milverton Park did have an information panel about the history of the area and the man who donated the land to the town. Pretty sure all this was new and hadn’t been there last time I was in the town.

 

There was a plan to return early enough so that I could get some washing done as there was a need for that to be done, and where I was staying had one washing machine and dryer. My luck worked for me as there was no one using either. I decided the rest of the afternoon meant that I would have a rest and sort myself out for my trip to Feilding the next day. Hopefully for more research that is if they got my email, but they are volunteers so I cant be too hard on them. It was a good late afternoon checking on washing and watching shows on my computer that I hadn’t done much of.

New Zealand 2023 Day 3: Off to Palmerston North

By the numbers

6,348 steps

4.89kms

1 bus

 

The weather report had said it was going to be nice weather today since I was leaving Wellington. I just happened to look outside and there wasn’t blue sky at all, and it was raining. I walked outside and it was still raining, though I had to get some breakfast while watching all the commuters pile into the city from the train station. Somehow my pocket made a 3 minute pocket video with my phone and I still don’t know how it did that. There was just an ever growing parade of people that did not seem to end. Today the plan was to get the bus to Palmerston North where I would be spending a few days before leaving on the Friday. I knew where I had to catch the bus at the train station and I was still there within half hour of it leaving even though I had thought it might have arrived early. The driver didn’t even need to leave the bus to grab the bags as it was like a food van, but you were handing over your bag with a destination instead. Then we had to give out names once he arrived at the door.

 

It was only a 2 hour bus ride to Palmerston North and I was also in the firing line to order some tickets to an event in March that came online at 1pm local time. To say I had plans was an understatement. My phone wouldn’t be able to use the bus wifi for that purpose due to the fact it restricted many websites by calling them unsafe including local websites that involved tourist traps like museums. Even if I tried, I would likely be restricted from buying tickets. I was happy just to be looking at the country side and not reading a book. I usually read a book. The weather did change as it went from wet to just cloudy, and then again its supposed to be raining tomorrow. We shall see what happens.

 

Once I got off the bus, I had to orientate myself as to where I should be walking as my phone map nearly had me lost as I gathered my bearings. Soon I was wandering the streets heading in the right direction for the place I was staying. I had no problems until my card decided that it would be declined even when tapped. I had to resort to my other card that worked exactly the same way with a pin too. The strange thing is that the card works everywhere else, and even worked 5 mins later when I bought a music festival ticket. The room I will be in for the next couple of days is really good and I will be comfortable. Good staying in a motel and it seems to be quiet and we shall see if that is actually true or not. My next location was the archives.

 

Having to grab lunch and a coffee on the way, I headed to Palmerston North Library, where I planned to spend the afternoon, although due to the bus wifi telling me the website was unsafe, I wasn’t sure when it would close. I walked in and had to ask the guy at the information desk as last time I went down stairs to the archives, but now the reading room was on level 2. I went up and they were expecting me and we had a chat. The archive room had been taken over by all the archive records. They were running out of room too. I was showing a contoured map of where a property was and I was happy to see an old map for a couple of minutes. Though looking through the council minute books for certain dates that I came across in newspapers did eventually bear fruit and I was happy even though I started looking in the minute books for 1901, when the announcement for closing at 6pm came over. The archivist was really helpful as he looked at the council rate books to see what was there as I was looking for several people and they didn’t appear apart from another family member care of the Palmerston North Fire brigade, but that was the brother of the person I was looking at. Turns out the archivist has a day off tomorrow, so I was lucky to come in when I did. I had even thought about a soft cushion for a fragile book that they had not even thought about. The last thing I wanted to do was to damage a fragile book from threw 1900s. Still I have most of the day tomorrow to head back and keep looking at several other dates in the council minute book. Did I mention how much I love trying to read cursive that progressively gets bad closer to the end of the book?

 

I got lost trying to find the exit to the library and realised I had to go down to the next floor instead of wandering around looking like I was lost or trapped. I decided that after the afternoon of reading, I would head back to my room for a shower and an easy night as there happened to be some better food joints than Wellington here. I got myself a pork roast as that comes with veggies.