Empire State of Mind
........Ok ready? First......the 4pm set-off. I had booked a 10am ferry to North Island and planned the itinerary around that. It meant a 6:30am departure from our accommodation, no biggie. Then the bastards changed the sailing time to 7:30!!!
It was actually a pretty nice 24 mile ride in the dark, as we more or less had the roads to ourselves, but it was a rude awakening at 3:45 this morning.
The crossing was good and my stomach contents remained on the inside. On arrival into Wellington we had to cycle a couple of miles into the centre of the city where we caught a 2nd ferry, this time across the harbour to Days Bay. This was a much smaller boat and the stomach was churning nicely when we finally got off.
The ride from there to our accommodation in Featherston was a bit of a curates egg......the first 20 miles were lovely, mostly on a cycle path following the harbour's edge then beside a river. Unfortunately we then got to the head of the valley where 2 very stiff climbs awaited us. The only compensation was the final 7 mile scream down the other side on some of the creamiest tarmac imaginable.
We are staying in the Empire Hotel which is....err....um....'interesting'. The first alarm bell was when we pulled up outside and were immediately accosted by the pub drunk who wanted to be our best mate. When we entered the pub we realised he was just 'A' pub drunk and had friends. A motly collection of wrong-uns looked up blearily from their beer glasses to watch us check in. By the looks of things they had been drinking steadily since about Wednesday. The landlady, a formidable South African who looks like she had trained by dealing with rogue lions, sent our new best friend back to his table and showed us to our room.
"Make sure you put your bikes in your room, on now account leave them out" she said. This is in stark contrast to everywhere else we go where they say "just leave them over there by that bush....they'll be good as gold".
We said we would be seeing her for dinner and she replied "you'll probably be better walking into town.....its only a 10 minute walk". If the owner thinks the food is crap.. .
So, North Island is now our lobster. Tomorrow we are promised another stonking great headwind. You've guessed it.......bugger.
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