Ross to Fox Glacier

54 days I've been riding and today I thought might be the day I get to put my rain coat on. There was a light drizzle when we started but it soon petered out then after our lunch stop at Whataroa the same again but the rain coat has still not seen the light of day. Long may that continue - or at least until Sunday!

We knew today  was to be another longer ride that included a reasonable amount of climbing with three hills to get over in the last 15 km or so.

Harihari was our morning tea stop and they had the largest lamingtons you had ever seen (like twice the normal size) so I just had to have one with a cuppa. From there it was back on the bike and keep pedaling South - even though I know these roads reasonably well for anyone not familiar with the area it would be difficult to get off the trail as there is no alternative but to stay on the same road. Something you never notice in a car travelling over here is the straighness of the roads and in several instances today you could have been mistaken thinking you were on a road on the Canterbury Plains as it was a straight line for quite some distance (the green grass and bush either side of you aside that is).

Our lunch stop was at Whataroa and then it was back on the road to Franz Joseph which we chose not to stop at as that would have involved the inevitable getting back in the saddle and once again getting back in to the routine of pedalling. There's some really good riding to begin with South of Franz and then we hit the first of three hills that when we had finished had doubled the total we had climbed thus far. I got in to the grove and simply quietly pedalled away and made it through to the summit of the final and last hill before there was a fantastic downhill right in to the centre of Fox Glacier. Here I checked where the Top 10 Holiday Park was and off we went arriving just after 6:00 being probably our latest finish for the day.

I got my food intake better orgaised today than yesterday and so felt good at the end of the ride. (note to self - make sure I have an emergency ration on board). Actually up until I offloaded a bunch of stuff a couple of days back at the bach I always have had that ration with me... 

It was 8:00 PM after I had attended an online Zoom meeting before I walked the km in to town for a meal at the pub.

And so another 130 km are under the belt and I'm only five days away from being finished.