Author: neil

The cold clear night led to the soaking-wet-est tent we’ve had in some time. But since we had a shorter day of mostly-trail riding today, we just woke up naturally, and eventually the sun rose over the mountains and the rays baked it mostly-dry before I even took it down (that’s never happened, usually it’s…

At their 7am opening we entered McDonald’s for breakfast (er, I mean, “Macca’s for some brekkie”), since it was steps away from the Backpackers and the last chain eatery we’re likely to see for some time (Greymouth is by far the largest town on the lightly-populated West Coast). There is apparently no Macca’s early-morning old-folks…

We finally had a day where we didn’t need to balance timing! All factors were in favor of an early start, so we set the alarm for 5am. By the time we were ready to roll at 7:15, a few other souls had roused, but we had the facilities to ourselves through breakfast. The early…

Today was a rare occasion when an unheralded destination ends up eclipsing the journey as the memory of the day. Which was particularly impressive in this case because I had seen a cycling guidebook (at our Blenheim WarmShowers hosts) describe the ride from Springs Junction to Reefton as a world-class stretch of bicycle touring. And…

Today we just had a bit more climbing to do before we got to the top of Lewis Pass. Once again, since we had a short day of riding, and nothing to do before check-in at our AirBNB, we took our time getting on the road. I wasn’t sure if yesterday’s one-way construction would still…