Day 4: Oxford

There seem to be 2 schools of thought around beetroot. For some it is a delight to be added to every meal, permeating it’s pinky earthiness into everything on the plate. For others it is the devil’s work. This evil is most exaggerated when placed on that culinary delicacy, the hamburger. Here it spreads its unnatural violent pink into the bun and turns a great joy into a thing of horror. This quintessentially New Zealand thing almost made me revoke my citizenship but then I thought there is more to this country than bad taste. 
Feel free to guess which camp I’m in. It’s not often I would say this, but it turns out that Dave Mac is also on the side of what is good and right. The other 2 not so much. 
Today we had two excellent beetroot free burgers for lunch. But a bit happened before that. 
We had a slightly slow start to the day. We didn’t think we could cross the river on our own steam and the unimog was only going to appear mid morning. That meant a leisurely start. You probably still don’t want to know this but the loo still has a great view and the blow flies are still resident. Nothing leisurely about that. 
Anyway we headed off towards the homestead. The navigators had been there the night before but still seemed a little confused which way to go. To be fair, it was difficult as there were 2 choices and the didn’t seem to know which one they had used. It’s tricky as one headed straight up the mountain and the straight down. Happily resolved we had a quick chat with O at the homestead and then headed to the Clarence crossing to have a look. Quickly established that the truck was needed and on cue it arrived, driven by Loaf who played rugby with Bernie back in the day. Bernie must have been pretty crap as Loaf is quite somewhat older. 
Loading the truck was tricky and the ride across was a bit like throwing 5 guys, thier gear and 5 motorbikes into a tumble dryer and seeing what happens. Nobody died. 
By now the heat was beginning to crank up as we headed up and over the Seaward Kaikōura range. A good number of fun but quite chunky creek crossings on the way up and then climbing up to well over a kilometre, to be treated by incredibly spectacular views to both the East and West. A long steep descent followed with quite a bit of don’t cock this up because the trip to the bottom would not have been interrupted by anything but terminal velocity. 
Then a baking hot transport along the inland route into Huranui through Amberley to Okuku pass and the off road section through Lees Valley in the Canterbury foothills. The Okuku river crossing can be sporty but today it was kind. With temperatures up to 33 degrees it was frankly getting a bit much. Some good fast sections of deep pea metal at 100km/hr felt very Dakar with the bike waggling around as it sought a line. 
Out through the Ashley river gorge and pizzas and beer in Oxford. 
Big day, baked to a crisp but all of us happy. What’s not to like. https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1S3PXzLrT1pDQlhc1ZZQNXFdUjV2ZlJtqhttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1G-VYFE7KQ79FMDufuLyA-2Sq4NM6pk_Ehttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1p89hm5n1Mml-2QE_ATRXV38B1W8hchn3https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1vcH_gUVp6y77JP61YCy41shquOwpw7_hhttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1l4VFYKwEHh4BquW0Wi7QAlAubFL8Prtthttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1hmmByMHFo9ztGwaB5ZSeKqDjK_RfeT_Ahttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1NkWOYl1YpX_N_H01rm9hDkxoeU_E95zUhttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=19-8x2cvuHxlNLA5vUCSootFFQ05wEqT7https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1P0yC3IKxeeOD7ASx7_v3UES_24u5twrohttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1qOjOxUPz1aZti4s_-VcifwpU5dj7SN2t


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