Bitter sweet. Do you have one “special” experience in life that the phrase “bitter sweet” describes perfectly? I do.

The Waikato River Trail.

West of Rotarua on the New Zealand north Island is a 100 km cycling trail that follows the Waikato river as it courses through some beautiful lush country side. One hundred kilometres. I’ve ridden that distance in a day before, and this trail follows a river so it can’t be that steep or difficult can it? Or can it?

Inviting, well prepared trails at the start of the ride

Views across the Waikato River

Yes, it can. The ride started out great. Perfect weather. Heaps of enthusiasm. Soaking up the environment. The first half of the ride was fine. Body coped beautifully. After that, however, it was a struggle.

One of the many board walks …

… and bridges

Large distances of that river is flanked with low lying hills and the Kiwis method for dealing with these is to see how many switchbacks they can carve into them. To the uninitiated a switchback is a hairpin bend with less emphasis on the bend and more on the hairpin i.e. a sharp 170 degree change of direction. And often they are used to take you the shortest distance up a hill.

Just over half way – and now for the switchbacks!

Lush grazing land beside the river

The result; a steep gradient with sharp turns to prevent any chance of getting into a rhythm or maintaining momentum. Well, I describe it that way because after switch back number 1, 286 (give or take) that’s how I remember it!

One of the less arduous sections of the trail

Sadly, I don’t have any photos of the switchbacks — I was too tired to take the SLR camera out of my backpack!!!

The best forests and views were on the second half but I didn’t enjoy them nearly as much as I should have. I was in survival mode. I did finish the ride in the evening dusk and was totally exhausted, probably the most exhausted I had ever been  in one day since my younger marathon days.

The Kiwis use this invention to prevent motor vehicles abusing the well prepared trials

Below is a poem I wrote that recalls my bitter sweet Waikato River Trail experience. It was published in the Waikato River Trail Newsletter. I suspect the Kiwis had a bit of a chuckle at my Aussie enthusiasm and underestimation of the difficulty of their trail. (Click on the poem then click on it again to zoom in to read it)