Return to Siberia

It was a few nights before Christmas and I was in the last hour of my shift getting ready to go home, when with an almighty rumble came a major earthquake. It even felt big in Wellington - the building was rolling for about two minutes - and it was obvious that it must have been big somewhere. Within seconds, as the earth came to a stop reports started coming in from Gisborne of houses down, gas leaks, fires, and people stuck in elevators. It sure made for a quick last hour of work!

I cycled back to Siberia Bend on the Rimutaka Incline track, this time going a bit further and doing 26km all up. At one stage I hit 32kph acording to the GPS, which is pretty good for me on a mountain bike. Friends are trying to talk me in to doing the ride around Lake Taupo next year - somehow I think I might need a bit more practice first!

The column you can see to the right-of-center used to hold up a bridge over the creek bed, the site of the only major accident during the 77-year operation of the Incline railroad, when a huge gust of wind blew a train off the bridge and into the gully below. It is called siberia for its inhospitable environment, and even on a nice sunny day there is an eerie chill in this gully and in the tunnel leading to it.