It’s a fairly short and gentle downhill run into historic, little Naseby...and right at the outskirts of town, the BM decides it had enough of the coarse gravel for a while...of course, it had to be the rear, as usual.
Jo wobbles into town and it’s time to get the tools and spare tubes out. Thankfully we’ve got all that’s needed to fix things...but boy, that sun’s got some punch!!
Popping the bead with the side-stand of the DR....
....and some drongo has previously used some black mounting gunk...and shitloads of it, it’s just running out everywhere.
Naseby’s Athenaeum is today’s library...and as the external appearance suggests, started life as a church in the 1800’s.
No bar-codes and self-checkout here!
Right next to it, this little surprise...
Chain going back on, nip up a few bolts and bits and we’ll be ready to roll again.
In hindsight, this turned out to be the only flat of the whole trip...8 bikes, 4000k’s each, lots of gravel roads....that’s 32.000k’s with a single flat, no bloody complaints, sir!!
It’s still fairly early, despite the flat...checking the maps, we could turn south and have a nibble at the Old Dunstan Rd, eh?
Fuel first, though...and there sure’s nothing in Naseby. It’s the weekend, too....nothing in Ranfurly either.
Let’s tack south and try to pick up some juice somewhere along the way...Wedderburn, no... Idaburn, zilch.... Oturehua’s got a single bowser, but it’s locked...Ida Valley? nope....Poolburn? nada...Omakau? outta luck again, the servo is locked...and for sale.
Another 20k’s into Alexandra then...and right next to the bowser is a bike-shop, which opens the door for us to grab a couple of spare tubes...just in case! Makes the 40 extra-k’s only half as bad...it’s a good feeling to have fresh stock.
A big thanks to the kid behind the counter of the servo for unlocking the bike-shop, thanks buddy!
The locals are out in force, it’s a bewdy of a day, some air force trainers are flying some great formation-loops over the valleys and hillsides, and life seems good and settled in this little pocket of the world.