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| Ashburton River | Mt Somers General Store | Rangatira Valley | Longview Bed and Breakfast |
I'm sitting in a cafe rose garden in Geraldine supping sparkling elderberry with my pistachio ginger slice for lunch. That's about all I can eat after the enormous and delicious B&B breakfast including home made venison sausage. I've cycled about 50 miles so far, with only about 15 more to go today. It's a glorious day - not a cloud in the sky. Today has been steadily gently down hill, the inverse of yesterday, on the plains below the foothills. The mountains here remind me of the San Gabriels near us in Los Angeles with barren rounded tops and about the same height (6000ft), but much greener lower down with dense pine forests. And the plains are green pastures with very few people, unlike LA!
The cycling is very pleasant - good road surface with little traffic. Just a light headwind again. The roads tend to be straight for a few miles, which can get a little dull. But then there is a pretty river to cross on a single track bridge, or a one shop village a km off the road, and always the views of the green pastures leading up to the mountains on the right.
After Geraldine it was an easy 15m on back roads to the B&B just outside Pleasant Point. A few undulating hills - the 7 Sisters - provided a break from the flat plain riding, without demanding too much effort even for this late in the day. The B&B is called Longview, and there are certainly lovely views over the valley to the distant hills The owners, Anita and Alan Blakemore, grow olive trees for oil, so I told them about the Caltech Olive Festival. Tomorrow I will start cycling up into the hills.
Only 2km to cycle to dinner at the pub in Pleasant Point tonight, making 73.3 miles for the day Total 133.8 miles
