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| Lake Moeraki |
Blue skies and light winds start off the day - great cycling conditions. I'm just over half way, at the only stopping point in 70 miles - a cafe at a salmon farm. The ride has been very good, quite varied with part on coastal plains and part detouring inland through the rain forest and alongside Lake Moreki and Lake Paringa. The roads were empty, there was a light tail wind, and the scenery was gorgeous. There was one tiring part going up and down 3 steep hills in quick succession with a maximum of about 600ft from sea level, with the dips between down to 300ft. It doesn't sound too much, but these were definitely the hardest hills so far.
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| Dark Clouds |
After lunch it was downhill back to the coast at Bruce Bay, and then flat - an easy 20 miles. Big, dark black clouds were threatening over the mountains, and although my route kept away for sometime, eventually it started to rain, and the last 10 miles was through rain that was heavy at times. This was quite manageable though, and I and the gear stayed dry under our respective rain covers. The rain stopped just before my destination, Fox Glacier, and it's now sunny again, with clouds still low over the mountains behind the town.
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| Fox Glacier Town |
Fox Glacier is a cute (somehow) collection of motels, cafes, and places selling helicopter flights to the glacier. It's tiny, the center is just a block in size, and then more motels etc. straddle the road down to Mathieson Lake. The weather forecast isn't good for tomorrow, so I may not get to see the glacier. It's a nice stopping spot anyway. I'm staying in the Ivory Towers Backpackers hostel (in a private room, not a dorm). The room is spartan, but there are lots of nice corners inside and out in the hostel for sitting, and it has WiFi and Internet.
It was 81.4 miles to Fox Glacier. After dinner I cycled 6km down to Lake Mathieson to see if there would be a nice sunset view of the mountains. There wasn't.
