80km of relaxed & car free scenic NZ - with the Marton Harvest festival as an added bonus.
It’s late March and you need a weekend away, what could be better than heading up to the Rangiitikei to ride the 2nd running of the Pedal for Pleasure. We stayed in Fielding for the night then lined up @ 8am with 18 other riders (including e bikes) who were “competing” in the 80km event – there is a 40km, a 16km and a 5km event as well, seriously good family stuff – there were loads of kids riding as we came home from our long event.
Rebecca and I rode out of the blocks with the front 4 Whanganui club riders, hung in for 10km then settled into our own more relaxed tempo.
Heading from Marton, up quiet minor roads to just South of Huntersville (bottom of the famous Mt Curl climb) wrap around towards Fordell then back to Marton – absolutely amazing countryside and a stunningly relaxed few hours. Overall there was 1,200mtrs of climbing yet we hardly ever went up a hill.
Afterwards you get to see steam engines, buy Candy Apples, ride a dray pulled behind a Clydesdale – now is there anything more classic NZ ?
If you are ok with the travelling to get there and aren’t looking for a suffer-fest then it’s a sensational little rural NZ cycle event. I think we’ll be there March 2022, come join us.
www.martonnz.com/marton-harvest-festival