Up at 8 to say good bye to Kerry when he left for work. I called my mum and a couple of other people to catch up and tried to do some things on the net. Kerry came back about lunch time and we chatted some more. I ate too much pumpkin soup for lunch.....
I am still trying to get my gps tracks sorted with all of the routes in AUS to upload on to the net and spent a while sorting it out using Kerry's net connection. Kerry kindly gave me a lift to Balclutha as he was going that way back to work and the route to town is on a major highway and not great to bike. We went in Ivan. I love his truck! He got Russian style signs made for the side. A huge character...
It was late in the afternoon by the time I had wandered round town to have a look and buy some fruit and supplies. Again it was cloudy and reasonably cold. The road south of Balclutha was pretty though and quite. It is a hilly road through the Catlins I was planning on going a reasonable distance this afternoon but at about 8 I decided to stop at a lovely little picnic site at Papatowai. Although there was another 1 hour or so of light and my legs and mood were fine to carry on the place was perfect to stop. There were some toilets and no houses over looking. It is not a camping area but as it was late and I was planning on leaving early tomorrow evening I did not think it would be a problem.
There were great views of the ocean and the cliffs. I had my tent up by 8.30 and was sitting reading my book when a german guy called Christoph came along. He had been for an evening swim in the esturary. I was quite impressed as I was freezing cold by that point. My body has not yet addusted to the temperature change from Australia.
There was also a cold wind blowing and it was a cloudy gray night. We sat and chatted till 10.30 about our travels etc. He seemed a really nice guy and offered me his spare sleeping bag - as mine is only a summer one and he took pity on me as at the time I was talking to him I was wearing all of my clothes (about 6 layers). We decided that it might be fun to have some company tomorrow and go off and do some walks etc in the Catlins instead of biking it.
I am still trying to get my gps tracks sorted with all of the routes in AUS to upload on to the net and spent a while sorting it out using Kerry's net connection. Kerry kindly gave me a lift to Balclutha as he was going that way back to work and the route to town is on a major highway and not great to bike. We went in Ivan. I love his truck! He got Russian style signs made for the side. A huge character...
It was late in the afternoon by the time I had wandered round town to have a look and buy some fruit and supplies. Again it was cloudy and reasonably cold. The road south of Balclutha was pretty though and quite. It is a hilly road through the Catlins I was planning on going a reasonable distance this afternoon but at about 8 I decided to stop at a lovely little picnic site at Papatowai. Although there was another 1 hour or so of light and my legs and mood were fine to carry on the place was perfect to stop. There were some toilets and no houses over looking. It is not a camping area but as it was late and I was planning on leaving early tomorrow evening I did not think it would be a problem.
There were great views of the ocean and the cliffs. I had my tent up by 8.30 and was sitting reading my book when a german guy called Christoph came along. He had been for an evening swim in the esturary. I was quite impressed as I was freezing cold by that point. My body has not yet addusted to the temperature change from Australia.
There was also a cold wind blowing and it was a cloudy gray night. We sat and chatted till 10.30 about our travels etc. He seemed a really nice guy and offered me his spare sleeping bag - as mine is only a summer one and he took pity on me as at the time I was talking to him I was wearing all of my clothes (about 6 layers). We decided that it might be fun to have some company tomorrow and go off and do some walks etc in the Catlins instead of biking it.
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