No go

Within the first couple of kms I pass the 'poo trucks'. They idle in a car park I bike past, their lights flashing and rotating as the drivers sort where they'll clear silt from sewers.

I skirt an intersection with a challenging right turn via a series of side streets. Then back to the main route with a dedicated cycle lane. Not that it helped much this morning. As I entered the next intersection a van turned on top of me. Somehow he didn't flatten me.

The cyclist behind me got their number. She's a cop and couldn't wait to follow up. Yus! For once a cop when I needed one.

Then it's on down a long straight that takes me to the edge of the city centre (not that we have one any more), over some bumps and rough bits and a squeeze around a section of road under repair. This section had just been repaired prior to the February earthquake. I note it's a bigger job this time.

A run of the gauntlet by the hospital and then into Hagley Park and around the edge, up Kilmarnok and over more earthquake humps and bumps, through Deans Bush and the leafy streets close to the university.

Finally a route of university roads, paths, cross-country and off-road to the verandah where I park my bike.

Some parts of campus are no-go. I can't work this one out at the base of part of the Erskine Building. I think the problem is the design feature of river stones embedded into an end wall have cracked and shed in earthquakes. I was comfortable enough crouched by the barricade.