Gooday Peoples (Today we are mostly Greek Aussies)

No pictures again at the moment as this place is lacking the card reader for our camera, will load on latest as soon as we can get one.

Day 7 La Gite Hostel, Hanmer

Really nice atmosphere here both in the hostel and the place itself. Did a walk through the local forest area it was a rest day so we only did about 5 hours (Maureen has some funny ideas of rest!). We bought some cycling gloves to stop our hands from getting burned, as according to the tilt of the earth there is a large hole in the ozone layer directly above NZ. Today reluctantly had to move to YHA hostel as silly boy only booked one night at La Gite, YHA version wasn't in the same street, physically or metaphorically, but was more expensive!

Day 8 Hanmer

Up at 6.30 in an effort to miss the earliest of the sun and we are off towards Mt Lyford some 80k away. Once we had taken the turn off the main SH1 the ride was very quiet and enjoyable, stopped at Wauaia for a late breakfast of several cakes and coffee, almost immediately we started to climb the bump that is Mt Lyford, quite steep in places but we climbed steadily for 2 hours until we reached the lodge we had booked the night before. on arrival we are told that we had been upgraded (result!). The place was very swish in fact wasn't happy about us putting our bikes on the spare bed. This place had spa pools, crocquet, alpine gardens, bar and restaurant, having said all that we didn't sleep that well.

Day 9 Kaikoura

Left Mt Lyford and finished the rest of the climb and over the top, it was up and down most of the way until about the last 15K when it flattened out, with one last sting in the tail getting into Kaikoura, found the hostel which was being managed by a young couple from Hornchurch, we were located in the annex (garage) but it was quite and nicely decorated. That night we went back to the 1950s to watch Avatar in a real blast from the past cinema.

Day 10 Kaikoura

Weather overcast and very windy, we decided to talk the walk around the peninsula (another rest day) to see the seal colony who were really lazy and looked like they should be wearing shell suits, even though seals don't have shells. I expect these are some of the sights that you had seen Lee? We picked up seafood chowder on the way round Jimmy Armer's Bay which was really nice and we could have spent the whole morning there, as crayfish were half the price of the restaurants in town. Loads of really friendly people at the hostel, it's funny some places have a good VIBE!!!!

Day 11 Ure Road

Drifted away from Kaikoura quite late and made our way alongside the ocean for about 20K where we stopped for a drink and to look at another seal colony, this was a much fitter and energetic outfit. An uneventlful ride so us 85K later at Cyclists Rest, another of Brian and Julia O'Sullivan's recommendations, this place was really different from anywhere we have stayed before, a bunkhouse which was in a really beautiful location on their farm complete with vinyard. Had a really good time there, we bought our dinner from their tiny shop, all fresh stuff at really cheap prices.

Day 12 Picton

Arrived here after our first 90+k ride with a long pull away from the reatreat and a return 5k later on account of leaving our water bottles in the fridge, back up the hill resolving to remember everything in future especially we going up steep hills. It was rolling all day long with the addition of Weld Pass with 25k to go, we did sweat a little, the ride was good until the last 15k when the logging lorries were playing "get as close as we can", arrived here ar 4pm to adjourn to our suite behind the laundry room, however they serve chocolate pudding and ice cream for pudding and a free breakfast for all. As this is a rest day we are just off for a walk (rest?)