Started this day with a 45 minute climb out of the Gorge. Some sections were probably the steepest yet.
Coats on for a breezy fast downhill hitting 57 Ks an hour.
Tea rooms at Palmerston for a pie and coffee and cake and a mint from the local police woman then Highway 1 with lots of 100k traffic until Waikouaiti for large custard squares and our own coffee. Another climb out of a town and then fast downhill until the turn off to Karatane.
A local told us about his recent family cycle trip in Portugal and Morocco and then another funny conversation with a woman who had canoes sticking out of her car window exhorting us to have a swim in the estuary. We had to turn her down because we’d had too many stops already and went straight into another steep hill overlooking an amazing bay. At the lookout we met Tarik from Australia who was very keen to know about cycle touring and keen to try it and we spoke for half an hour as it gradually got colder. Then we had a fast downhill hitting 60 Ks an hour and some rolling country roads until Warrington.
