Being the tourist town that it is and there being no "tourists" the Cafe did not open until 8:00 AM so it was a later start for us this morning. The day was absolutely stunning weatherwise and only got better with the temperature rising to 26 degrees.
Again the scenery has changed from the day before and today we had bush clad hills rising through to the Alps with stunning coastal views from Bruce Bay and Knights Point. Out in the open air as you are when riding your bike and only a metre or so away from her you begin to see just how very fragile the landscape and country is and how very exposed to nature this region in particular is. With perhaps a rainfall of 10 meters or more in places (Christchurch gets about 60 cm) it truly id "Rainforest" country and after the recent floods the scars are very noticable caused by the slips or the wild flooding out across the river plains. It will always be a never ending job clearing up after severe weather events whether it be on the road or the land.
"Ice Cream and Coffee - Bruce Bay Beach" is what the sign said. Unfortunaely the local at Bruce Bay said "Nah, they really should take that sign down - there is no Ice Cream or Coffee at Bruce Bay. Just as well I had a muffin on board that I ate while sitting on the steps of the hall.
There were no major hills untill the latter stages of our ride and we zipped along very nicely with my Garmin telling me I was averaging about 21 - 22 kph which was all very nice. Today the road was busy with other cyclists and there was a commercial tour group being escorted on a South Island journey - there were probably about 30 of them and all clad in matching lycra and on road bikes. As the second bunch passed I upped the speed and tucked in behind for a few km's. 33 - 35 kph which is what I we were doing I can manage in a bunch on my roadbike but it is a big ask on a fully loaded mountain bike and so after about 3 or 4 km's at that pace and before I got to take my turn at the front I peeled off and left them to it (I also didn't like the look of the rise in the road ahead as well).
Maybe I should have stuck with them for just that bit longer as a couple of K's down the Road was the Salmon farm Cafe and I had to line up and wait behind them all while they placed their lunch orders! Not only that, but as the cafe was grossly understaffed it was then probably a 30 minute wait before the pot of tea appeared!
The problem with long stops like this is that when you go to get back on the bike those legs that were working reasonably well prior ro stopping somehow are now not so keen to get back in to the swing of things. Fortunately there were no hills just yet and they did come round.
The hills did eventually arrive but were no major problem and the stop at Knights Point halfway up made for a short breather.
Going up the hills had brought my average speed on the Garmin back down to under 19 kph and knowing there no more hills in front I moved up through the gears and pushed on at speed and watched as the average speed began to rise eventutally topping the 20 kph mark - I was pleased but had to keep the pressure on to avoid it now slipping. Then I arrived at the Haast River bridge to find the bridge repair gang had just stopped the traffic a moment before I arrived and I had a 15 minute wait for the green light.
From the bridge it is only 4 km's in to Haast and a Milkshake. I arrived, found the dairy and made my way to the Milkshake counter only to find they had run out of MILK! A cup of tea and some potatoe chips would have to do.
We were looking forward to meeting up with Alistair and Carol at their holiday home in Queenstown on Thursday night and then again for the ride in to Bluff and back with them to Queenstown for Saturday night. Unfortunately they got some positive news today that they didn't want to receive (as in a positive Covid test) and now they are isolating at home in Christchurch! This means our plans which would have been the icing on the cake in the final stages of our ride are requiring some re-thinking. And not only that but Carol had already done her shopping for the Queenstown stay and I know we are missing out on simply the best "Lamb Shnks" Thursday night and "Pork Belly" Saturday night! It does mean though that through their period of self isolating they are going to enjoy some lovely meals.
The annoying thing from today was that after a lot of effort to crack the 20 kph mark on my Garmin bike computer, my Strava log for the day has only recorded me as achieving 17.5 kph!
I'm happy to know that in this case Garmin got it right and Strava must have recorded some of the time I was stopped.
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