The last day of the ride began reasonably early and we made use of the ever so slight average decline in elevation from around 300 meters down to sea level. With no wind it meant we knocked out the first 100 km in 4 hours and 8 minutes which we were quite chuffed with.
At Winton where we stopped for a coffee and cake we were met by Marty, a friend of Rob and Ruths who had ridden out to meet up with us.
On our ride in to Invercargill it looked like my record 59 days without putting on the raincoat was thing to be dashed as rain dark clouds had been in the sky all morning however each time we rode towards them they would seem to move away from us. However about 5 km out of Invercargill it began to spit a bit and then get a little worse. At the corner we had to stop at we had a committee meeting as to whether we need to get out raincoats out of their bags. It was decided that it wasn't that bad just yet and so we carried on. Just as before we soon find ourselves out of that dampness and by the time we got to Main Street Invercargill fire our lunch stop the sun was out!
It was a quick lunch before we got back on the cycle trail that then took us all the to the signpost at Bluff. That is bar the wee deviation I made as I spotted Bluff Hill and knew that I couldn't ride past it without first of all getting to the top of it. So if up the hill I went and ride it all even the 21% gradient.
A quick ride down had us at the finish of what was great journey being the breadth of the North Island and the length of the country.
There i was met by Terry and Trish who took me back to their home where we had an enjoyable evening before they dropped me off at Marty's where Rob and Ruth had the rental ute waiting for our drive back up to Christchurch and my own bed once again.
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