Day 41 Arrowtown to Queenstown 21km And the tourism capital of New Zealand. It's a funny thing. Only a third of all New Zealanders live on the South Island and yet for the last few days we have found ourselves in more heavily trafficked areas than ever before. And never more so than today. A lovely night last night(apart from my neurotic wonderings about the tent catching fire from all the fireworks...) and a lovely cycle ride this morning into Queenstown. An...

Day 40 Omarama to Arrowtown 158km New Years Eve. An early start as we had a big climb over the Lindis Pass and central Otago can get hot. We made good time and felt OK so decided to keep going. Lunch in Cromwell and a bit of a dither about an upcoming gorge. The usual advice to try to avoid it but no real alternative so in the end we cycled on. And it was really lovely. Dramatic and steep sided with rushing water at the bottom. And after the gorge back into vine...

Day 39 Mount Cook to Omarama 98km Two beers meant up twice in the night. Magically clear skies with millions of stars but too cold to stay outside so still no further on on the southern cross front. Still cold on the morning but a lovely fast ride and in Omarama by midday. And into the world of gliding. Mark booked a flight and we pitched our tent in the Omarama Soaring Club campsite where hundreds of people hang out waiting to glide or talking about gliding. ...

Day 38 Twizel to Mount Cook 68km Awoke to sunshine and a clear blue sky. Beautiful ride up to Mount Cook, the highest mountain in Australasia and part of the Southern Alps. Stunning scenery the whole way. We had planned to tramp up to Mueller Hut but unfortunately it was full. So we are camping in a DOC site at the base of the mountain. We tramped half way up anyway, snoozed in the sun, walked down and headed to the visitor centre and Edmund Hillary Museum. Then...

Day 37 Tekapo to Twizel 58km We should have believed the forecast and been patient. Instead, we dithered for an hour and set off when there was a break in the weather. So we ended up cycling a horrible 3 hours in wind and rain and hail and baling out at Twizel. It cleared, as promised, in the afternoon and now is hot and sunny. New Zealand, even more than Cornwall can do the four seasons in a day. So we plan to detour into the mountains tomorrow and walk up to o...