An overview of the road covered during our fourth week of cycling.

2017.11.22 – [NZ] Invercargill ==> Colac Bay (46 kms | Total: 1018 kms) – Our morning breakfast was quite disruptive as a large (friendly) black dog showed up at the kitchen facility. Jenny refused to cook anything in close proximity of the dog, hence we had a very adhoc breakfast. Upon leaving the holiday park, we learned that the dog belonged to the owner’s son. The owner profusely apologized after we mentioned we had a chaotic breakfast because of the dog’s presence around the kitchen facility. Cycling out of Invercargill was quite easy as the holiday park was located almost at the northern limit of town. We cycled some 32 kms into Riverton and stopped for coffee. We briefly chatted with a lady from the US who owned a home in town and traveled to NZ every year for the winter months. This town had been recommended as a day trip by the bicycle shop salesperson where we had bought our tires two days ago. We were glad we did not bother with a day trip visit. We faced a good headwind for the remaining 15kms of the road leading to the Colac Bay holiday park. The place was somewhat disappointing by its modest/run-down facilities. To Jenny’s further disappointment, the wifi was not accessible from our own cabin. We spent sometime at the tavern to use the wifi. Jenny, with her international features, was asked by a Nepalese staff member whether she was also from Nepal. We later took a stroll along the beach front area but to our surprise, it was dead quiet. Back at the holiday park, we met two young adult girls that had just finished their day 3 of a 80-day hike on the south island – and we thought we were crazy some days! We had our evening meal at the tavern – the only place in the village.

2017.11.23 – [NZ] Colac Bay ==> Tuatapere (38 kms | Total: 1055 kms) – In the morning, a light mist covered the surrounding mountains. In the kitchen during another quick breakfast, we met a professor from Hawaii. We had a brief but enjoyable chat with him. We took pleasure in the winding and undulating road – especially without any headwind. We stopped at a nice and unexpected café in Orepuki – just in time for our usual first morning stop at about 15kms. Our 15 minutes conversation with the owner was quite insightful regarding our on-going concern with the cost of food in NZ. Given his explanations and views, we started to better understand the higher prices of food. We had to agree that we had found the food quite tasty in NZ. The road continued to be most enjoyable with its scenery, occasional ocean views and few vehicles. At one lookout area, a local gentleman recommended that we protect ourselves well from the sun with sunscreen – more so for me than Jenny who was told she already had a darker complexion! Upon arriving in Tuatapere, we checked into a backpacker accommodation shortly after lunch time. The building provided us with our own room with a shared kitchen and washroom facilities. In the early evenings we met a couple from BC who had been cycling for the past seven weeks in NZ and were going in the opposite direction. We exchanged a few road tidbits. As Tuatapere’s claim to fame with its the title of sausage capital of NZ, we opted to cook some for our evening meal. Later in the evening, we took a walk along the main street and discovered a small path into the village’s own pride garden.

2017.11.24 – [NZ] Tuatapere ==> Manapouri (83 kms | Total: 1138 kms) – After some modest cycling over the past two days, we needed to tackle a 80+km ride to Manapouri – as there were no accommodation or any other facilities until then. In the morning, we tried to leave a bit earlier to avoid any early headwinds that could blow us back into town according to the backpacker facility owner. Our first stop was at the old Clifden Suspension bridge where we met Michael, a cyclist from Australia. He had setup camp beside the bridge along side a number of other RVs. We briefly chatted with Michael before returning to the long road ahead of us. We took regular breaks in shaded areas along the road as the sun was out in full force. We had a hard climb at the 50km marker which considerably tired us. The last thirty kms appeared quite long for us. We arrived at our accommodation in Manapouri with great relief. The campground/lodge was quite small but very busy and fully occupied. As soon as we settled into our cabin, Jenny and I were both starving and we ended eating pretty much all our remaining food supply – well anything that was not moving! A few hours later, we walked 1.5km to a restaurant for our evening meal. We suspected the restaurant regretted offering us a complementary salad bar!

2017.11.25 – [NZ] Manapouri ==> Te Anau (26 kms | Total: 1164 kms) – Jenny and I both slept very well. We had expected to have a light breakfast at one of the cafés in town but they did not appear to be open – possibly because they open later on Saturdays. Regardless, the ride into Te Anau was only 20kms on a pretty level road. We arrived in Te Anau before lunch time. Our welcome at the holiday park and its apparent modern facilities impressed us. Staff made some great recommendations in response to our request for possible excursions tomorrow. As our cabin/room was not quite ready, we cycled into town to have a coffee and a light lunch. We took the opportunity to discuss our next day excursion options. After only a few minutes into Te Anau’s town center, we felt its relaxing atmosphere. Back at the holiday park, our cabin was upgraded to a larger room – nice. Later, we cycled back the short distance into town to buy some groceries for our evening meal. We booked ourselves on a full-day bus/cruise to Milford Sound – some 120 kms from town. We enjoyed our evening meal while watching a rain fall.

2017.11.26 – [NZ] Te Anau ==> (0 kms | Total: 1164 kms) – As our one-day rest in Te Anau was not initially planned, we wanted to fully enjoy our stay here. Our Milford Sound excursion driver/guide, Terry, promptly picked us up at our holiday park at 8am. Terry introduced each guest as he picked them up at different accommodation in town. As a local Te Anau resident, he offered insightful commentary throughout our trip to Milford Sound. Our tour included over a dozen stops along the journey. We did only a few stops on the way into Milford Sound in order to catch our 10:30am excursion boat. The one hour and three quarter excursion on a smaller capacity boat proved to be our best way to actually see and photograph some NZ wildlife. We saw dolphins, sea lions and even a real-life penguin. Our tour package included a great packed lunch that we ate during our boat cruise. Needless to say, the views both on the water and on land were simply awesome. We completed all the planned stops on our return journey to Te Anau, including an afternoon tea/scone break. We arrived in town shortly after 6:00pm with an amazing level of satisfaction from this day trip excursion, mostly thanks to the dedication and local knowledge of our tour driver/guide – Terry. To wrap-up our tourist day, we had some great pizza for our evening meal at the Italian restaurant.

2017.11.27 – [NZ] ==> Mossburn (61 kms | Total: 1225 kms) – For breakfast, we had some croissants and yogurt which we bought the previous evening before our evening meal. The road to Mossburn offered a steady gentle climb. The sun was again shinning in full force. As we arrived in the small town of Mossburn shortly after lunch we stopped at a café for some lattes and a light meal. At the Mossburn Railway Hotel, where there were no railroad in sight, the door was locked. The notice on the door suggested that the restaurant was closed today – the only one in town. As Jenny had managed to book this hotel a few days ago from Booking.com. We were briefly reminded of our last experience reserving some accommodation with Booking.com in Owaka (in the Catlins) where the place ended up being closed. We were relieved to find the owner working in a shed in the back of the hotel. The owner promptly showed us our room and gave us a tour of the hotel which proved to be a bit of a challenge initially with the many different hallways and countless doors leading to the toilet, shower room, breakfast room, restaurant and tavern. We had our evening meal at the hotel’s restaurant/tavern – as the place was not actually closed on Monday’s except in their winter months. Later in the evening, we went for a walk on the main street to confirm the sleepy nature of the village.

2017.11.28 – [NZ] Mossburn ==> Kingston (71 kms | Total: 1296 kms) – We fully enjoyed our hotel’s complementary continental breakfast. Although our route was longer than the previous day, we cycled through a number of smaller towns which appeared to make the journey more enjoyable. The sun was still shining strong. We arrived in Kingston in the early afternoon. Jenny had desperately attempted to reserve some cabin accommodation in town but for some unexplained reason, the prices were simply much higher than our usual accommodation. We visited a first place where Jenny had attempted to book an AirBnB accommodation. We were both glad the reservation had not worked. I managed to convince Jenny to setup the tent at the holiday park and hope for the best regarding the forecast rain. After our shower, we had an early meal at the restaurant across from the holiday park. In the evening, we relaxed in the park’s lounge facility.

2017.11.29 – [NZ] Kingston ==> Queenstown (54 kms | Total: 1349 kms) – We both had a great night sleep – and there were no rain during night. We stopped at yesterday’s restaurant for a light breakfast before taking the road towards Queenstown. If it was not for the heavy vehicle traffic, we felt this was one of the most enjoyable ride to-date. The road followed the lake shore for much of the 50 kms distance into Queenstown. The views were great but the cycling was also a lot of work with the many ups and downs. After crossing a bridge under construction leading into the suburb of Queenstown, we cycled on a gravel bicycle path for 10kms into town. We struggled walking the tandem up a very step hill (a reminder of Dunedin streets) to rejoin the road towards our holiday park. We bought a few food supplies along the way before tackling the last four kms to our holiday park. As the road name hinted, Gorge road, we had a strenuous walk up with the tandem on the other side of the gorge – with only a half km away from our holiday park. Arriving in Queenstown was very exhilarating for us as it was somewhat of a major milestone. On our first week of cycling, we learned in Lake Tekapo that most tourists in RVs were taking the direct road, over the Southern Alps, to Queenstown. Jenny did not quite understand why it would take us another three weeks to get to Queenstown… but we eventually did! Needless to say we were pleased to check into our en-suite cabin for the next few days. Jenny promptly did some clothes washing. The wind and sun ensured the clothes would dry quickly. Given the road incline between the downtown and our holiday park, we counted on taking advantage of the holiday park’s courtesy shuttle into downtown. For our evening meal, we had some roast chicken and veggies which we purchased earlier.

2017.11.30 – [NZ] Queenstown ==> Queenstown (0 kms | Total: 1349 kms) – We cooked our own egg breakfast this morning. We were the only passengers for the 11am shuttle service into downtown. We slowly walked the few streets that made up the city center. We later visited Queenstown’s garden. We stopped at McCafé for some lattes and light snacks. Before taking our shuttle back to our holiday park at 4:15pm, we did a more ample grocery shopping meant to cover the remainder of our meals in Queenstown. We had some delicious ribs and salmon with veggies for our evening meal.

2017.12.01 – [NZ] Queenstown ==> Queenstown (0 kms | Total: 1349 kms) – After our breakfast, I did a routine tandem maintenance while Jenny caught up with our trip expenditure tracking. In the early afternoon, we visited a nearby jet boat tour operator and captured a few photos of the excitement! We took another shuttle at 3:00pm to allow us a final visit of Queenstown center as our route tomorrow would not pass by the city center. We enjoyed another visit at the McCafé. We did some final grocery purchases before our return pick up at 5:15pm to our holiday park. Jenny prepared a great evening meal of meat balls and veggie. Although not totally bored, Jenny and I are already looking forward to hitting the road with the tandem tomorrow.