arcadiagt5

A glorious ride on a quiet road followed by some hard work on gravel.

The riding around Nelson isn't particularly friendly so we drove for a while to a picnic spot for breakfast. Some nice photos from (and beneath) a nearby bridge.

Then we drove to Havelock for a glorious ride along a bayside on a quiet road. While there were a number of climbs on this ride there were also a number of tight cornering descents. ie Much fun was had. :)

Add in the fact that it was a quiet road with truly spectacular scenery and it was a wonderful mornings ride. This road also appears to be a favourite Sunday morning cycling route for the locals - there were a lot of riders coming the other way all morning - and I can certainly understand why.

As we arrived in Picton we saw the ferry arriving from the North Island. That and a shift from a quiet road to the State Highway with offloaded ferry traffic made for a rather less pleasant riding experience. I got onto the bus shortly past Koromiko for the drive to the winery for a very pleasant lunch.

After lunch we drove towards Kaikoura but stopped for what would be a short ride with good scenery but some gravel. Remind me never to ride on gravel ever again. The downhills can be fun but the rest is just hard work. And slipping the chain off the front rings is something I could have done without. I persevered until we were back on a proper surface but due to a slight mixup in directions some of us elected to wait at an interesting corner while Russell rounded up the strays.

After that we finished the drive to Kaikoura for a pizza meal before getting ready for the last day of the first tour.

And now the stats: