Bye Bye Motorhome

 We left sunny lake Wanaka for very grey and cold Twizel, where we stopped for coffee. Happily, by the time we got to Lake Tekapo the sun was shining, so we went for a bike ride along the canal - a man made river that powers the hydro-electricity plant for the region. Oh what bliss, for the first time, 70% of the ride was on road base. Of course, the rest was dastardly gravel. So we just did 30kms, and at the end stopped to talk to a fisherman. The canal has salmon and trout, and he just had to regale us with his fishy stories. Turns out he is from Trinidad, but has lived in NZ for 30 years. 

We decided to stay in Fairlie for our last night, away from the hustle and bustle of the tourist towns. We took a tour of the town to check out the restaurant scene, but it's Tuesday and only the pubs were open, so we decided to eat the remaining  contents of the fridge and have a bottle of wine. We're up to chocolate now.

Tomorrow we only have 60kms to travel, and we kiss goodbye to the motor home and the bikes. So no biking until the big day on Saturday. I can hardly wait.

By the northern end of the Clutha (Matai Au) River just as we were having evening drinks and Jesus decended from the clouds

The Kowhai bushes are gone replaced by these little beauties. If anyone can identify them we would be grateful.

That one is Mt Cook (Aoraki). No. we are not riding from its 3724 mtr height, merely from its foothills. We do have to cross the Fox river across which there is no bridge, instead you get up enough speed travelling downhill to cross the river evil knevil style.

They have all kinds of sheep in NZ, in this case these large long necks are used mainly for carpet runners

Me providing a demonstration of how to handle the "large shingle" roads

If you were to take off on the lake Tekapo Canal, you would pretty much end up on Mt Cook.

Deposited at the end of the this section of trail by a beam of light

The kowhai is back!