The real journey starts tomorrow though today I did get down to the bottom of SH1 (Stirling Point) where the South Island is according to Maori legend connected via a chain to its anchor (Stewart Island). The 60km round trip proved the bike to be in good shape and the wind to be cruel, one minute helping me cruise uphill at 40km/h the next with a struggling 10 km/h down hill.
I've been staying at a place called Sparky's Backpackers the last 2 nights. Sparky is pretty eccentric and slightly obsessed with Burt Monroe (watch Anthony Hopkins in "The Fastest Indian" if you want to know who Burt is). So have the place is Burt Monroe / fastest Indian themed and half is just a hodge podge. I am for instance staying in the Egyptian room. The room had so Egyptian like painting and bunk beds with super hero sheets; Sparky must have gotten side tracked, or maybe it has some connect to the hot tub he fired up every night to soak in with his guests. Amazingly some seem to crawl in there with him, yuk!

Heading for Lumsden early tomorrow. I hope the sun comes out!