Fat Bloke on a Bike

Whataday!    Whataday! The antithesis of yesterday’s ride! I kinda knew that South Island was going to be kind to me. Taking that 50 mile ferry ride seems to have put me in a different country. The roads are better, the scenery is kinder. The weather is so much better. And the people - well they’re just as friendly as their cousins on the other island.  I knew today was gonna be good day. The quiet before the storm which arrives tomorrow evening and the main reason that I’m planning to stay here in Kaicoura for the next 3 nights. I knew because of all the weather searches that whilst I possibly could cycle into the Molesworth yesterday and today for sure there was no way I was getting out alive. The forecast for snow and freezing conditions has only worsened. However what I expected today was a cloudy day with a gentle tailwind to usher me into Kaicoura.  What a beautiful day. Started last night when I looked out of my motel room late to see the stars in the sky with...

My goodness!    Less than 40 miles today and only about 1500ft of ascent but - bloody hell!    Whataday! This was supposed to be the easy day today. A decent hill climb out of Blenheim then some rolly stuff through the hills to Ward. A place surrounded by wineries. A one horse town except I think the horse is out of town today. One petrol station with an attached self service cafe and one motel. It’s the only place where I could stop before the next main town of Kaicoura some 52 more miles away along the pacific highway.    Tomorrow is Saturday so I’m hoping for a reduction in the silly 50 ton double articulated stuff en route.  One advantage about booking home stays is you get to meet folk. Another couple of a similar age. A part retired dairy farmer and his partner, a lady, again from South Africa. I’m getting a strong impression post the end of apartheid of a gradual descent into compound life where white folk lived in properties surrounded with ste...

Hooray!    Hooray!    You’re back!    Where have you been.    You must have so much to tell. Oh how have I missed you my children!   Well yes. Today …oh sorry, yeah yeah, sorry I’m happy. I’ll take those thank you…. Sorry thats just google listening to and typing verbatim into my BLOG my conversation with the waiter in the Indian restaurant here in Blenheim. I didn’t ask it to. I did not invite it. It just did. One never knows when the internet is listening in does one? 🤔. I hate the internet… Even my brother of course. A man who has fulsomely wrapped his life around social media. With Alexa’s beady ear always on the prowl for every single utterance in the living room. So of course when he had an argument with his partner, or perhaps his son, good old Alexa interjected with its opinion at the most inopportune moment... Just before having its innards re-arranged and its cables ripped out… But yes. My legs are back!    The knee ...