DAY 10 - Palmerston North to Lower Hutt

DAY 10 - Palmerston North to Lower Hutt – 242km /  13:30 total / 10:39 Riding time /  23 kph average

Today was to be the biggest planned distance to cover in the tour. After my little bro got up at 5:30 to cook me breakfast (bless him!) and dropped me back at the bridge I kicked off at 7 and did the stiff climb out of Palmie up over the Tararua mountain ranges. It was even colder this morning with the temperature hovering around the high single digits for a while. I stopped in Pahiatua for a flat white and pie although I hadn't planned to and then flew through to Eketahuna to photograph the giant kiwi and eat more food. I was feeling strong today and the discomfort of yesterday was almost gone. As I had said on my facebook post, I felt like a new man.

The scenery is very different here, the fields are brown instead of the lush green I had seen through the Waikato. The day had heated up and the tail wind meant I screamed into Masterton on the aerobars without having to do a lot of work. I rode with Tamzin the spin doctor for a while, lunched with her and pushed on to catch Stu Smith. It was now completely boiling again and water was consumed at a great rate. I caught Stu but then lost him again as he stopped at Fielding and I followed the route to bypass it. 

I reach the bottom of the Rimutaka cycle trail just before 5PM and wanting to get to my Uncle before it was too late I trundled up the stiff 400m climb to the top. It was all ridable and took me about 35 minutes as I passed through the 3 tunnels. 

The descent on the other side was just simply amazing and went on and on and on. This was the first time I had done this track and really enjoyed it. 

I found my way onto the Hutt river trail single track but this ended up being longer than I expected as it widened out to a gravel road. I detoured off the track at Belmont and cycled up the 2K steep hill to my Uncle Tim's place in Belmont heights arriving at around 8:30ish. I ate all the food I could find in his cupboards and crashed out for a sleep. Surprisingly I felt pretty good after the 240K plus ride although the terrain had been mainly flat with the two big climbs.