Day 2

Woke up at 7:15 to rain. Yuck. This made it take longer than it would normally to pack up the campsite. I used my jeans with the cycle-computer-losing hole in the pocket to towel everything off before I packed it away, and then threw them away. Cooked up some hard-boiled eggs and the rest of the sausages and debated about whether or not to dig a hole and do my business. It turns out I'm running low on water and don't know if I can spare it to wash my hands. Got a decent amount of cranberry juice though, so at least I won't get a urinary tract infection ;)

My $4 “glacier” gloves have holes in the fingers, and started to freaking hurt in the frigid air. Got out the handwarmers, cracked them and watched white snot seemingly shoot out of the metal disks to fill the plastic. Stuck them under my gloves and made a world of difference.

Eketahuna was not far at all! Unfortunately it's about 9:00 and nothing's open. Spent a very slow shopping trip getting a can of soup and hand sanitizer, and an 80c pair of gloves to go under my existing ones. Got a coffee and lamb and mint pie with green snotty mint sauce oozing out of it, all for the express purpose of using their toilet to fill up my empty cranberry juice bottle with water. Keep seeing the same people around this town, it's ridiculously small. According to Wikipedia “Eketahuna” works in Kiwi English like “Timbuktu” does in American English, and can designate anywhere in BFE.

It's funny but I keep seeing signs like “enjoy country living” as if it's the most glamorous thing in the world. Since it's obviously targeted at city folk, I can't help but wonder if “country living” has a better reputation here than in the states where farmers are without exception idiots who have sex with their daughters like Cletus on the Simpsons.

Weather is nasy all around the north island apparently, but I'm going to get out of the Eketahuna library and brave it while the sun is at it's zenith.

...........

Getting to Pahiatua was easy enough riding, weather calmed down for the most part although was still a bit cold and wet. Unfortunately it started coming down again once I reached Pahiatua. I decided since I was making good time why not keep the momentum going? I had originally been aiming to make camp in Woodville, but after looking at the map I noticed there was a shortcut route to Palmerston North:


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First though, stopped at New World and got some Hot Cross Buns for breakfast. (I guess the whole easter craze has managed to influence my jewish stomach if not my brain)

A woman warned me that there was "a bit of a hill" going up route 2, which I had originally planned to take, although I'd get to see some gorge or other which was quite pretty, but perhaps dangerous in the dark on a bike. There was a "hill" on the shortcut route I planned to take as well, but I decided to stick to my guns and get to Palmy by nightfall. The hill turned out to be a veritable freaking mountain so I scarfed down a few buns and some cranberry juice for energy and am not ashamed to say that I stopped for breath a few times. As it started to get dark, though, it was downhill practically all the way to Aokautere. I figured there weren't any campsites *in* Palmerston North, so I'd camp here, but...Aokautere is less of a stick town and more of a city suburb with a New World, a video store and Pacific College, what seemed like a 3rd rate university. Had to put a new screw & nut in my bike rack, one of the bottom mounts somehow came off and started scraping against the chain spoke (or whatever you call that thing.) Hope that doesn't happen again at an inopportune time. It was freaking cold so I got a hot chocolate at an italian pizzeria with real italians (!!) and after talking to a kid at the video store, decided to head for Palmy proper, thinking maybe I could camp in a park.

On the way, I passed Massey University and figured what the hell, I'll camp on the college grounds and they'll just figure I'm some student doing an ISP sponsored by John Moore or something.

Unfortunately I somehow missed Massey Proper and headed into where all the science laboratories were. after some mucking about on campus and passing about 6 "warning: hazardous chemicals" signs, found a wooded area guarded by a scary looking sign that probably said something like "Danger: landmines" or "WARNING: VELOCIRAPTOR CLONING" but like an idiot I didn't even stop to check. there was just a chickenwire fence that I could easily lift my bike over, but first I scouted out the area, probably trampling valuable botanical research in the process, and found a nice secluded spot behind a big bushy tree with a stream nearby. I made camp there all the while wondering what kind of fine I would get if i was caught, and whether I could get extradited for trespassing. Tomorrow, Palmstern North!