Day 54 Curio Bay to Pounawea 74km What a day! We now know what a dying southerly is. Awoke to beautiful blue skies and warmth. Cycled to Niagara Falls. It just about sums up New Zealand. A tiny wee waterfall, self deprecating, tongue-in-cheek sense of humour. "World famous in New Zealand". Then to Paoatowai and the amazing Lonely Gypsy Gallery. Run by Blair Sommerville, it's hard to explain the quirky, wondrous beauty of his gallery. Found objects lovingly tur...

Day 53 Slope Point to Curio Bay 19km After a glorious night in our 3 bedroomed house listening to the howling wind and rain and a lie in and 3 cups of tea we decided it was time to bike the final 4km to the most southerly point. The wind was blowing so hard that I had to hold the bike to stop it falling over and the photo is blurred cos we couldn't hold the camera still. At least there was no theme park though. Then back on the bike to Curio Bay. Imagine Gwith...

Day 52 Invercargill to Slope Point 71km. Late start, cooked breakfast and Stewart Island museum. Then the short hop back over to Invercargill in an even smaller plane with an even younger pilot. Reunited with 'the beast' and packed and on the road by 2pm. Further brief stop in Invercargill for Mark to have a haircut and very necessary trimming of what could only be described as sideburns. I was worried we were heading for mutton chops and the hairdresser agreed ...

Day 42-44 Stewart Island Went to sleep in clear blue skies, awoke to clear blue skies. We had made the sensible decision to fly to Stewart Island. My track record on boats hasn't been great, it was quicker, avoided cycling to Bluff and back, and was only slightly more expensive. With the weather it was also fabulous. The pilot looked about 20 which worried me slightly, but he was confident and seemed to know what he was doing. Stewart Island is a bit like the Sc...

Day 48 Tuatapere to Invercargill 87km Nice weather, early start, ideal cycling. Rolling hills down to the south coast and along eastwards past surf beaches towards Invercargill. We hit Riverton at 10ish and it so happened to be their 175th birthday party day. So we watched the town ukulele band and a procession of old tractors and motorbikes and cars. And I cleaned the bike and we went to the museum and generally had a fine old time. Rumours of the wind directio...