My farm stay at Hawarden was simply fantastic. For anyone wanting a quiet and relaxing stay in the country check out Bentleys Country Stay, Hawarden. Approx 2.5 km for Hawarden itself – I arrived, followed the signs around to the apartment and as it was unlocked and ready for me I unpacked, had a shower and met 3 cats during that process.

A bit later on (after a bit of blog updating and dot watching) I met 3 dogs – who were having an awesome time running laps around the house and were very friendly – jumped up beside me on the sun lounger and hung out.

Finally the human hosts and I met. She was looking for a car and so had no idea I had been there happily ensconced for 2 hours. The farm stay was supposed to be fully self catering but I must have liked hungry so I ended up with toast and eggs for breakfast plus some sticky date pudding for dessert.

The riding from Hawarden to Rangiora was really pleasant. A mixture of seal and gravel with enough climbing to make it interesting. The roads rolled through Pyramid Valley- old limestone area so some cool rocks in the hills. I thought I knew where I popped out coming into Rangiora but turned out to be completely wrong – following the guidebook worked a treat. I was able to ride straight to the campground including finding a stop bank to ride on for the last 1km.

Had a nice stay at the campground in Rangiora. Andy came out and met me for dinner and I got him to bring out the bike cleaning gear and gave a chain a good clean. Bike looked and rode a lot better after a clean.