We left Andrew and Palmerston North, and headed to Feilding. I asked Elina, whether we should take the shorter or longer "shortcut"? She answered, that she doesn't mind, and anyway I want the longer, so let's go there. The road ran via Rangiwahia, and connected to the highway in Mangaweka. We didn't see any oncoming traffic in 40 kilometers. There were lots of roadkills, mostly possums there. There were also small hawks on the carcasses. When these birds heard the sound of the bike, they quickly flew away. However, such hawks don't rise so fast, and they often started towards the airflow pushed by the oncoming vehicle. So couple of times I saw the feet of the hawk very close to my helmet visor.

The scenery in the end of the road was sculptural, clay mountains with very steep walls, and a narrow road carved to this clay wall. There were small landslides all the way. The thunderstorm last night had caused one slightly bigger slide, but there was no problem getting round it with a bike. The clay road looked like just one big rainfall could flush it totally away. Before we came to the highway, we visited to see the remains of a small one generator power house, and it's dam in the woods. There was also a nice view to the valley nearby, and it's railroad bridge.

In Waiouru, a biker stopped us, and told, that there had been snowing in the Desert Road. So we should ride carefully. We stopped to have a cup of coffee in the Army Museum cafeteria, since the weather was very cold. We looked the old tanks and guns outside, while drinking our coffee. After warming up, we continued to the Desert Road. It wasn't snowing any more, but we could see some fresh snow on the roadside. The road itself wasn't frozen, but it was cold, and wet. So the grip wasn't it's best. There had also been some roadworks. The NZ asphalt is mostly a joke. It melts in a direct sunlight, and the roadworks are often sealed just spreading some tar first, and then pouring some gravel on it. The gravel isn't rolled even to the surface. This job is left for the traffic. So one should always take the roadwork signs seriously, since there's often some sticky tar and loose gravel on those spots.

From Turangi we turned west towards highway four. Then we took the highway towards north and to Waitomo caves. The Waitomo caves are famous for their glowworms. First we considered some blackwater rafting in wetsuits, but since we were already got some rain, we thought that just a dry cave tour is more suitable for us. The tour ended to a boat trip through a pitch black tunnel, of which roof was full of glowworms. It was like being under a night sky full of stars.

From Waitomo we rode to Fentresses' house according to their instructions. The house was quite big, and the place was beautiful. The house was a former farmhouse, but the farmer had built a new house nearby. This house was too new to be torn down, so he sold it, and a couple of acres of land around it.

For a dinner we ate duck, and drank wine and beer. NZ hospitality at its best. Breeding ducks was a hobby of Judy Fentress. She liked the small ducklings, and liked to watch them grow. She even had some kind of incubator for brooding the eggs. But since the sweet ducklings always grow up, and they will became too many, it was obvious, that there was a threat for a full grown duck to be eaten in this house.