Saturday Two Hauls of Te Kaiterau

Kaikoura for a birthday weekend and rain on the horizon so got out while the boys were paddling.  Drove to end of Kowhai Bush Rd and started into the Kaiterau.  Trail much drier than expected (given we'd had a bit of rain in town), and I climbed and I climbed.  Not sure what I think of the distance measurers as you ride.  The first one, 0.5 km feels like it's a lot further in than that.  The rest seem about right.  Met a woman at about the 2.5 km mark, walking down.  Good climb, got the oxygen flowing into me which made me feel a bit better after a bit too much nice wine (1996 Lastrada Syrah, yum).  Anyway, the whole ride was measured as 6.6 kms but really it's 10.  The detail of the MMR seems to miss a few of the convolutions of the trail not to mention it's verticality.  7 kms up, back and forth, zig and zag - 35 or so minutes.  Then into the 3 kms down - started out tires grabbing a surface off the trail and flinging globs of it up and caking everything for the first few hundred metres, then it settled and in the forest was a lot of fun.  More fun than you can shake a stick at.  My wrist felt okay after Thursday's crash too.. Kaiterau number 1.  Total time elapsed, 44 minutes. The tramper woman was at the bottom and commented on how fast I'd been to get down again.   Meant to be 10 kms, 400m.  MMR? 6.2km, 377m

Drove back to Dave's. and the boys were back from paddling, and Paul was keen to ride so we went back out there, weather threatening.  We headed in, trail was in same condition as before, tho we got a couple of small showers as we climbed.  Paul eventually mastered the hairpins.  I gave him the tip of leading corners with the front wheel wide and he found that made it easier.  He'd stalled on a fair few before that.  Eventually we made the top, I think about 5 minutes slower than my first effort.  There were a couple on bikes at the top, who'd pushed up Mt Fyffe Track (2 kms). Mad.  The rain started with aplomb.  I led off into the descent and it was already wetter than before, more flingy and mucky.  Again, this settled a little way down, tho slightly more caution was needed in the more open bits.  I'd put my jacket on at the top so it was getting dirty instead of me getting wet.  Good bomb.  Stopped every now and then to let Paul catch up.  He loved it.  A good 10 minutes later and I'm out the end.  Nice..  Second time around 6.6 kms, 379m