Well hello there,

So glad we had a day off on 22/02 as it did nothing but rain all day. We have been really luckly in terms of weather and have not had to cycled in pouring rain at all yet! (i hope i have not spoke too soon)

23/02 - 35.18 miles to Greymouth. It was a great cycle. The sun was out and made everything look so beautiful. We arrived at a 'top 10' campsite that wanted to charge us $36 which we thought was daylight robbery so we cycled further down to another campsite which was only $24 and had a free hot pool which we of course made great use of.

24/02 - 48.97 just outside of Pukekora again it was a great day cycle and it was a 'golrious' day. We even went further then planned as we felt so good. (must have been the hot pool the day before) Had an Ice cream (hokey Pokey) which we dont get back at home but it is a vanilla flavour with crunchy honeycomb in it yummmy!!Found a great hostel on the side of the road it was an old church and was right beside the lake.

25/02 - 38.96 miles to Whataroa. The weather was overcast so there was a nice breeze in the air. Had a few up and down hill and one that was 183m high. Met a lovely couple at the hostel last night david and colleen. David was scottish and thought what we were doing was absoulty fantastic. Arrived into the village and met lots of German cyclist who were on a touring holiday and they gave us all there left over food which was really nice of them. we decided to get a caravan for and extra $10 and it was the best decision as, as soon as we got in the rained and rain all night right through to the morning. It finished raining at 10am the next day and that was what time we had to be out and everything was lovely and dry. Perrrrfect!!!

26/02 - 21 miles to Franz Josef we cycled fast today so we did not get caught in the rain but it held out and in fact turned out to be a lovely day. found a hostel and paid for two nights camping and the last night in a double which we were looking forward to.

27/02 - today was the Glacier walking. We got there for 9am amd got all kitted out in the boots, coats etc. All on the bus and headed to the Glacier. On the ice was sooo cool it was so blue and we did not expect it to be so dirty. Where the ice has pushed on the ground it has collected alot of dirt. we thought they would have been a few more extreme things to do but at least we done it and we can tick it off our list of things to done. It had ended up being an 8hr day in total

28/02 - Oh my goodness i can hardly walk!!! My legs were sooo sore. Jonnys were ok but i was in sooo much pain. Today i just sat in the the hot tub and rubbed my legs all day. Got all our washing done ready for tomoz.

01/03 - My goodness isnt time going fast?? Legs still very very sore but still got on the bike and managed to cycle 59.66miles to a DOC campsite at lake paringa. getting on the bike was really hard as i could hardly clip in to my peddals as my muscles were so sore. it was quite a horrible day for me and i really pushed myself. Got to the campsite and went for a shower (swim in the lake was the shower) which i think heled my legs. I also think cycling helped too as it got the blood flowing but my it was hard work!!

02/03 - 37.55 miles after being attacked by sandflies. They really eat you alive over here. Why do they give them such a nice name they should be called 'little terrors' Legs were better today pain starting to ease off. We arrived to Hasst and cycled and extra 8km to shop as we did not think there would be one in the town we were going to stay and when we got there there was a shop bigger than the one we went to. DOH!!!! never mind

03/03 - Rest day before the BIG day!! today we are having arest day as we have a big climb tomoz. All the over cyclist have told us that they have a great down hill which will be our up hill

Oh dear......till then xx