It's the end of day 20 so I'm truly a rubbish blogger. Time with wifi has been hard to come by. Much of the day is taken up by cycling, putting up tent, cooking huge meals on a trangia, packing panniers, endless suncream and insect spray applications etc etc. No time for relaxing on this part of the trip. The scenery has been amazing, hopefully will get some photos up soon. Will try not to include too much lycra though. Here's a summary to bring things up to date:
12th rest day- legs tired after walk!
13th 50 km cycled, through wind, rain and my personal favourite up hills in horizontal hail. Treat of bed not tent much needed!
14th 15km cycled, preparations for canoe and cycle with no shops for five days made harder by there only being a petrol station to buy food from. Rice, tuna and jam sandwiches it is then!
15th 37km canoe-d. Weary arms, but fast high river helped. Only one near capsize!
16th 29km canoe and the first sunshine for ages. Beautifully peaceful and a lovely 6k walk to the bridge to nowhere (look it up, it really goes nowhere)
17th 21km canoe, 18km cycled. Great last day on the river, though between the rapids and the gravel roads it's surprising that there were no falls! All over tired and not much food left, no shops until Wanganui.
18th 76km cycle- longest day yet, really flagging until a shop at about 3pm- it might sound strange but it's difficult in countryside areas to find enough food some days- I'm probably using about double the usual amount of energy at least at the moment cycling with luggage on the bike. The ride was great as there was a vintage car rally - like riding through a film set as they all drove past along the river.
19th bus to Wellington, 13km ride, most up Mt Victoria in very very windy Wellington.
20th rest and tourist in NZ's little capital city
21st 17km around welly. Ate interesting food and saw Polynesian Zumba at a Pacific Islands festival, great music and banana pudding.
22nd Ferry to South Island, 66km cycled. Amazing views cycling west from picton, sad to see lots of forest areas being logged though. More sunshine is certainly helping, and that everywhere you go in NZ looks like a postcard.
23rd BIG DAY! Thought only 50ish km would be manageable as 2 very big hill climbs, but obviously beans on toast (well, bread- toast is tricky on a trangia) is the fuel of champions, as got to Nelson earlier than expected feeling fresh. Made it 96km to a beautiful beach side camp- winner!
24th left tent etc at camp so a ride without bags - lovely! That and mainly flat road along some lovely coast meant that 60km wasn't too tiring. The ice cream at Kaiteriteri beach helped too!
Today, 25th jan, 37km back to Nelson. Shame to repeat a section but needed a vaccination for South America, there's not many big enough towns round these parts for that kind of thing. Sad to say my Spanish learning is not going well. The kindle app and free Sherlock Holmes and old Australia travel books have been distracting me! Must try harder with that. Tomorrow there's two very big hills, and pretty much continual slight uphill all day. Scary thought. Fuelled up with a well-known brand of takeaway pizza this evening. At this point I will mention the importance of a balanced diet. Everything is fine in moderation though, and my mum will pleased to read that I'm doing my best with my 5 a day. Sleep time, rest before pedalling. Hope you're all well, Miss B
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