I write this sitting in a large kitchen in the Station Lodge and Guesthouse in Ohakune, just having filled my belly with poached eggs and banana on toast. We’ve just come back from riding up the mountain; a pretty hard climb if you’re not familiar with it, but the view from the top is well worth the effort.
Today is day three of our summer training camp. On the first day (Tue 18th) we rode from Palmerston North to Wanganui via Hunterville. We completed about 140 km that day, and climbed a total of 1200m. Next day we road up State Hwy 4 to Ohakune (105 km) which meant another 1500m of climbing. Needless to say, there were a few tired legs last night.
Denise Brown and Carol Roberts are accompanying nine riders, providing much needed encouragement, logistics, and nutritional support (read: great meals!).
The camp concludes in Saturday, so that some of us can get back to enjoy Simon’s BBQ. Tomorrow we are going to do a loop back towards Wanganui, then back via Field’s Track. Then, on Saturday morning, we might head over to National Park and do the climb to Whakapapa. We should all have better climbing form when we get back.
All the riders are enjoying themselves and there’s already talk about what we’ll do next year.
Those on the camp include: George Roberts, Luuk van Wagtendonk, Elizabeth Stannard, Nate Levin, Josh Kendall, Carne Groube, Robert Stannard, Graeme Bull, myself, Denise, and Carol.
We’ do a short recovery ride later this afternoon, but meanwhile I’m off for a well-earned nap!
Steve.