Kia Ora,
Mimi and I circled into Invercargill before hitting the biking roads, reason: Burt Munro’s motorcycle from The World’s Fastest Indian, part of a large collection at, surprisingly, a hardware store whose founder was a huge motorcycle racer himself. He collected many of them and they are on display in a big space in the middle of the hardware store.
The day was beautiful...sun sun sun and clear skies. Cooler temps in the early morning, so of shoulder, but well-paved. More varied terrain today, starting with open farmland surrounded by low hills, all green, thousands of sheep, some cattle, and not the mountains of fjord land. As the day progressed we closed the gap to the coast, so picked up some coastal hills, winds and lots of rolling roadways. After tea break the six of us agreed on a later lunch rendezvous where most of us would call it a day at around 85K. We stopped at a former school building turned into a restaurant called Niagara Falls where Mimi devoured Bluff Oysters. Once again, a wonderful meal. One of our members, Greg, did continue on and finished with a last long challenging climb, doing 116K, a personal best. It was pretty funny at dinner, as Greg all but fell asleep at the table. Our dinner was delicious. Some had mussels, some had venison, some had pumpkin ravioli (Mimi), some had chicken (Denny.) A wonderful little place pretty much in the middle of nowhere, as they say.
Our hotel is sweet. No restaurant nearby, so Em our guide will be preparing our breakfast tomorrow morning. There is also a very funky little Curios shop right up the road, full of antiques and a very small camper van cafe and a ‘museum’ of sorts where the owner has placed all sorts of hands-on ‘Turn-the-wheel-here’ and ‘Press-this-button’ quirky inventions.
Now it is apres nine at night, and rain is starting. Could make us look twice at tomorrow’s last 60K route. Mimi is concerned about a very very imposing tough 6 km climb and then another a bit shorter. I am more worried about descents, if the roads are wet. Will assess in the morning. We are all hoping to complete this shorter 60K ride as it is the last one. But weather for tomorrow looks pretty grim - heavy rain and cooler temps.
Em will pick us up around 1:00 pm and drive us the last hour and a half to Larnach Castle on the Otago Peninsula, off Dunedin, so we can enjoy the late afternoon there. We go our separate ways Friday morning, with Greg spending a night at the same hotel in Dunedin where we will be staying for three nights before heading toward ChristChurch.
Mimi is hoping for an after-event massage in Dunedin.
Cannot believe it will be our last day of cycling!
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| The van in full mess mode |
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| The motorcycles in the Hardware store |
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| The outside of motorcycle - used in movie |
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| Probably should have bought this,huh?! |
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| In Invecargill |
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| Thanks, Asher! |
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| Arriving at Niagara Cafe - 85K mark and Mac's cow |
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| Niagara Cafe |
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| Back of restaurant where we sat...former school house |
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| Bluff oysters.... delicious! Notice they are served w/o shell in NZ |
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| Entrance |
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| Arriving in this quirky intriguing spot. The name means 'Where the forsst meets the sea' in Maori |
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| So many interesting things here! |
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| Spacious - great bed - interesting decor! |
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| Cute beach decor |
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| View form our balcony - water cisterns are very common sights |
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| The fun place u the road - closed on Wednesdays...dang! |
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| Turn the wheel and the sheep's skull yawns... |
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| I found out that if I had ushed this, I would have gotten sprayed! |
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| OMG! |
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| Another long one way bridge |
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| The gang coming to pick us up for dinner |
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| Beautiful view from up high on way to dinner - last sun for two days! |
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| Dinner in Owaka where we would be passing through on bikes tomorrow |
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| Warming up by fire after his longest ride 117k (?) |
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| Ravioli - yummmmmm |
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