15th December has arrived so quickly, we have settled into our house sit. Jude decides that we need to have a day out of Motueka and a change from our regular MTB ride to Rewaka’s Ginger Box for our daily coffee, a round trip of 25 km. She had been looking at some rides in a cycling tracks book she found at our house sit and thought the Flora Track would be a good change…. marked as “easy” she seemed pretty happy to leave the eBike batteries at home for this one…. I say nothing. Well I’m no stranger to Jude and her desires to try new locations for rides so I load the bike rack and bikes onto the Jimny and away we go. 38 kilometres later and after the Jimny climbed her way up a steep narrow metal road the the Flora Track – Kahurangi National Park 900mtrs above sea level, I started to get the feeling that Jude may not be too sure about the label “easy”… I say nothing. The coolness of altitude is the first thing you notice and maybe we don’t have enough layers on… but something about the location tells me the cool air won’t be a problem if anything a blessing… I say nothing. After signing in that we are on the track, we head off and into a wee accent which is just long enough to get the heart and lungs going and just enough to get that thigh burn… you know that feeling as you warm into the physical strain. Jude comment at least the rest of the track is downhill which it does for the next 7.5 km… I say nothing. The track is easy going 4×4 trail, a little bumpy but nothing to worry about and because it is downhill is a “easy” track to ride, a couple of small fords to cross but enjoyable. At 3 km in we pass the Flora Hut where we were greeted by a couple of trampers taking a break. We continue downhill for the next 5km, the track has some lovely views with rather steep drop offs down to the creeks that are numerous in the area and finally arrive at the Gridiron Huts. Lovely location in the Bush and the shelter are literally rock overhangs which have platforms built under them elevated enough to be safe from unexpected flooding. With a quick snack and a drink it was time to face the 8km uphill slog, Jude says this is going to be a workout and a half, I hop on my MTB and I say nothing. Jude has headed off just before me and had hopped off her bike to push as the track was really steep… Managing to do the first 150mtrs, deliberately just enough to get in front of her before having to get off and push my bike up for 50mtrs. Determined to ride as much of this climb out as possible, my thighs burning in agony, heart and respiratory rate almost maxing out trying to maintain anaerobic performance… I kept thinking this ain’t too bad and I pleased to have the health and fitness to challenge myself… anything to motivate me lol. I’d reach the top of each climb and wait for Jude who is doing well, being a smaller person and pushing the same weighted bike(22kg) as myself she simply didn’t have the muscle size and ended pushing her bike up a few more times than I had to. These are the times I wish I had bought my bike battery or had a non eBike that weighed less than 50% of these eBikes and with better climbing gears. Two and a half hours after starting we reached the end of our ride… it’s been a while since we pushed ourselves and although we both worked hard, we weren’t as cooked as I thought we were… I take my hat off to my girl, she is not afraid of hard work, naturally stubborn and determined which irrelevant to my grumbling drives me to do better, to push myself…. I say nothing… don’t need to as she already knows.
