Fox Glacier To Haast

Germain Berube and I arranged to ride together today. His roomie, Richard Hanke, asked if he could join us. I was surprised because Richard is one of the fast riders in our group. I suspect that he needed a day at a casual pace to recharge his energy level. He pulled us for 120 kms giving us a chance to put less pressure in our legs. So today is "Richard Hanke Appreciation Day".

We started the day by packing our bags into the van at 7:00 and riding about 1km to a restaurant for breakfast. We had a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, tomatoes and coffee. It was chilly outside, so it was nice to sit in the restaurant for a casual meal while the sun tried to get over the mountain.

As you can see in the above photo, the terrain was very flat. It continued that way most of the day. I stayed in my big chain ring 75% of the time. We stopped halfway into the ride at a café in a salmon farm. I had a good blueberry muffin and a cappuccino.

Back on the road, we began to ride over some rollers. We played leapfrog with a couple of Brits who were fully loaded and riding at our pace. One of them had been to the US to ride across the country. Both riders were very strong.

Toward the end of the ride we had to grind up three sharp peaks. Germain and I struggled while Richard flew.mhe waited for us before the last downhill.

We stopped at nature area that is one of the major wetlands in the South Island. Richard is a magnet for biting bugs, so we got out of there in a hurry.

We reached the motel fairly early.

I don't have a link to my ride because the Internet is not cooperating.

One of the things unique about traveling on these highways is the number of bridges and the fact that they are all one way bridges. You have to make sure nobody is heading in your before you start across. Coming into Haast we rode over a very long bridge that had a couple of turnouts along the way. Vehicles respect bicyclists' rights and wait patiently for us to get across.

After our social hour, Ann and I joined most of our group at the motel's bar/cafe for dinner. She had a falafel salad which she reported as the best salad on our trip. I had a hamburger which was OK.

It is now time to shut down for the day.