14th Dec - Waimate to Dunedin

It took ages to get all of my paper work together for visas, get an antivirus program on my machine, speak to Gill (Anty) and Geoff on skype, finish emailing and planning route south and pack..... I did not get on the road until past 1. Pat very kindly gave me a lift some of the way and then I got on my bike for the hilly route to Dunedin.

The weather was lovely when I left Oamaru and the ride along the coast was great. Tail wind.












I started off well today but as the weather turned cold and gray my mood was bad for the first time in the trip. I had checked the stats on my blog in the UK and was disappointed to find that hardly any of my family and close friends had even looked at it in the 3 months that I had been away :-( It left like they had forgotten me. I realise that everyone is busy getting on with their lives and I am off having the time of my life but it is just nice to think that you are being thought about by the people you care for. I have been very happy traveling on my own and not been lonely as I have met loads of great people but today it kinda got me down. I have been fighting off a cold since arriving in NZ, was all hormonal and I was tired having been up late and up early for the last few nights at Pat's. My legs were just not the same as usual.






As I had stopped just thinking about things this lovely other American girl came over to say hello. She is the first other cycle tourer that I have seen on her own. I am rubbish with names (sorry - please email me). Talking with her put me in a much better mood.

I did not have very far to bike today verses the distance that I had been doing the week before in Aus but I really struggled today - I was being a pathetic girl! I found out that I could not bike the highway 1 (the most direct route to Dunedin) and I still had a hilly 20km to go to get to Dunedin by 7.30 at night (I had done 100km by that point). Jenny and Adrian (from warm showers) very very kindly picked me up and drove me back to theirs. It was great to get warm in a shower and then have some fish pie and great company.




They are very friendly people from the UK that moved over to NZ 4 years ago. They have also done loads of bike touring. It was really interesting to hear there take on the differences between the 2 countries and how great NZ is for outdoor people. They also said that Dunedin has a great community spirit and loads going on socially. We had lovely evening and an early night.

They are cycling on the West Coast over Christmas and so it may work out that I can meet up with them and bike for part of the trip with them :-) Hope so.