We are currently house sitting for sister Jenny. This entails feeding Bessy the dog, the chucks, horse and calves. Also making sure there are still ten (or was it 11) sheep, two cows and a bull.

Having completed our chores our time is free.

After several coffees and time wasting we decide to go for a bike ride. he sun has been out all mornng but is now threatening to hide behind some clouds.

Having wasted a few more minutes getting changed it is off we go. Turning right out of the gate we head off down the road. Having only got a few metres it starts to spit with rain. I stop to put on my jacket just as it starts to rain slightly more heavily. We decide to head back and just manage to get the bikes into the garage before the sky opens up.

Not wanting to waste the day after the rain stops and we have had lunch we decide to have another try at getting ot on our bikes.

We head off gently cycling along, it’s not long before I start to treat it as a bit of a work out and start pushing myself a bit more. I soon left Jo behind.

I rode to the end of the road and admired the view while I waited for her.

While I was waiting I heard a dog barking. I wasn’t sure where it was as I didn’t see or hear any dogs as I rode along. The dog barked angrily for several minutes before stopping.

Eventually Jo appeared.

“Why on earth did you ride off and leave my fending off that dog. I thought it was going to attack me” she shouted at me. “I had to ump off my bike and get it between me and the dog, the owner eventually came out and called it off.”

Ooops. I must remember to look back and check where Jo is when we are out cycling.

We turned around and headed back. Thank goodness there was no sign of the dog.

Here is the track of the completed ride.

Well my birthday is here again, yet another year to tick off.

To celebrate, seeing as I now have summer birthdays, we decided to go to Queen Elizabeth Park and take a look & have a little ride.

We took the beach side route along the sand dunes, although there is a track it is quite steep in places as it goes over the sand dunes. Although it was only a short ride we both felt that we had a good work out.

The only thing I would do different next time would be to stop along the way and have a swim.

As it’s a long week-end and a fine Saturday morning we decided to get up and travel over the hill to the Hutt Valley and cycle the Rimutaka Rail Trail.

We have been saying for some time that we must do this ride.

Following an old railway line there is a steady incline, we cycled to the summit tunnel, but decided to turn around and head back as it had started to rain slightly.

Thecycle back although down hill was nearly as hard as the cycle up due to the strong head wind.

On the way back home the weather changed and we drove through a very heavy downpour. Lucky we didn’t carry on cycling otherwise we would have got very wet.