Day 10 Part 5/6 Taumarunui to Pipiriki continued...

Day 10 Part 5/6 Taumarunui to Pipiriki continued...

Raetihi to Pipiriki 26 kms

A Crystal moment

Once or twice this side of death

Things can make one hold his breath

.....Robert Tristram Coffin

It is 4.30 and although several locals have proudly advised the road is all sealed. They say it has some big hills and to beware of logging trucks. I dawdle a bit more. An articulated truck is loading steers and as I stop the last of these huge beasts clatters up the ramp and the driver slams the gate and starts getting ready to go. I exchange pleasantries with the cocky. Things are drying off, the beef price is high. We could do with some rain. It was 30 degrees when he left home a few minutes earlier. I think of wee Shaun, our congenial Irish vegetarian, placid but with a violent streak when it comes to hurling, in tech department, and his mantra  "Meat is murder" and am tempted to ask if ever feels sorry forthe beasts. I know it it would be very bad taste to ruin one of the most significant days of his year but don't get the chance. He wishes me a farewell, look out for logging trucks, you will enjoy the road and is gone to supervise the driver. I get into my work, 5 kms up for the last view of Ruapehu and Ngaruhoe, an arty selfie in the mirror, a thumbs up to a woman in a car who is wearing a huge smile and a moko as she slows, shouts 'All good?" Then disappears over the crest. 

Top of the hill out of Raetihi

Probably the last view of Ruapehu and Ngaruhoe

I mount up and Easy Rider through the bends reaching 40 + kmph. The wind is instantly cooler. I'm on the south side and it's forested. The saddle bags behave and I swing out across the road on the clear spots and tuck in close, but not too close because this is loose greywacke country and rock falls at we common. It is 5 kms free wheeling. I approach a short bridge over a deep ravine but get a glimpse of beehives to my right. Last photo for the day. I get off pull off the right glove with my teeth because the touch screen won't work with them. A young dog barks plaintively somewhere up behind a woolshed across the gorge and am greeted with the most extraordinary sight. My immediate impression is of a bee Stonehenge. The photos don't do it justice. There are 30-40 pallets of hive boxes in a massive circle. The air is alive with movement and the air is thrumming, vibrating with energy but warm and peaceful. I walk into the middle and imagine climbing the steep face on the other side of the clearing to look down from the trees. The bees are coming in in like swarms of fighters to the Stars Wars death star. There are three different coloured landing aprons and some are thick with bees clambering over each other to get in. It is incredible.

Later at night I'm still buzzing and the lines from Coffin's poem comes to me.