Micheal Allison was the Ride Leader this week and armed with his ever so trusty GPS - we set off in search of those elusive Geo-caches!

The first section of the ride was along the Heathcote Towpath, as we rode out towards Rapaki Track.

Today the towpath turned out to be a nice piece of single track, not too muddy and mercifully free of pedestrians.

We negotiated the Tunnel Road round-about and just after we'd crossed the Woolstoon Tidal Barrage – Carls rear dérailleur stopped working.

We all gathered round for a bit of road side surgery, offering good pieces of advice on: How expensive it was going to be; Where the nearest bike shop was; How far was it, exactly, to walk back to the car?; and how much better Shimano was than other inferior brands in general. But after a short while the offending SRAM jockey wheel was cleaned, reassembled and slapped back (minus a few bearings) into position.

Rapaki Track turned out to be super dry, with fine dust sliding along the ground as the warm breeze sauntered across the slopes. After the first gate every one peeled off the layers for the climb. Then we were reminded that we were actually here to look for a Geo-cache or two. So we got off our bikes and started to hunt for the first hidden treasure of the trip.

It was about this time - that Mike discovered he'd lost all the clues... Luckily he'd got the cache locations logged in his GPS, and swore he could remember the rest of the clues - except for the details on the one we were currently looking for...

After spending 15 minutes searching amongst the tussock and the sheep for the container – we formally declared the cache lost. So the group remounted and climbed to the top of the Track, which happened without incident, until I snapped my chain.  This was quickly fixed with the aide of a handy split link and Graeme's virgin chain breaker.

After a quick stop at the top, the group turned left and rode along Summit Road. Carl and I hit Witch Hill Track alone, and joined up with the rest of the group for the ride to Castle Rock.

(The Witch Hill track is always a bit of a challenging ride, but I thought some of the rocks had grown a tad since last I rode it.)

Castle Rock found us hunting for another Geo-cache. This time the elusive object was found and we scribbled our names in the accompanying notebook. By this time the wind had picked up a small amount, and I was glad to ride down the Castle Rock Single Track towards the Bridle path.

We picked our way down the Bridal Path, dodging the really gravelly bits and trying not to scare the tourists out for an educational hike. At the bottom we hunted in vain for another cache, then had another go looking for the final cache, which was apparently on some roadside corner, before giving up and riding back to Ferrymead.

Mike however hung back till he found that last trove, and eventually caught up with a big smile on his face.

Back at Ferrymead: We all had a natter by the in car park – sorted out a few of club details and declared it a good ride on a good day!

Riders

Rob, Carl, Ian, Graeme    Ride Leader: Michael Allison

Sundries

No one fell off. 

Mike was sporting a brand spanking new Helmut Cam, am is still trying to get the position right so he doesn't take so many pictues of his front tyre. ;-)