Day 23 Pahiatua to Masterton 65km
Tent soaked, drizzling hard. Sat around for an hour wondering what to do and decided to set off and get to Masterton as fast as we could in the rain.
As per normal in NZ it stopped 20 minutes later and we had a pleasant ride over Mount Bruce. We stopped at the bird sanctuary at the top and went for a 4km bush walk. Saw a Tui (common as anything here) a rabbit, lots of midges and some really big, ugly eels but no birds. A huge effort goes into controlling the rats, stoats, cats & possums that have devastated the little bits of native bush that we've left standing! They have left a single "judas goat" complete with radiotracking device. Goats are naturally herd animals so the judas goat enables them to cull wild goats that hook up with it. Brutal but effective apparently. But it was a nice walk and, of course, a lovely lunch.
Next stop the Wee Red Barn winery/fruit place run by an enterprising scot where we bought raspberries and blueberries and a good 2009 Riesling.
Then into Masterton. We had intended to cycle on but somehow ended up in their fantastic museum on a private guided tour for schoolteachers, complete with wine and nibbles. The new exhibit was a comprehensive history of the loss of the Local tribes land to the colonialists & recent attempts to restore both land rights & the duty of custodianship of the land. So we stayed the night here in a backpackers where I watched the Masterchef Australia final. I'm afraid I got bored part way through round 2 so don't know the result....