Garston to Invercargill

Day 33 - Tuesday 30 March 2010

Dist: 126 km. Av. Speed: 26 km/hr. Cal: 2648. Ride Time: 4 hours 50 min

What a blast - today reminded me of the Hanmer to Christchurch leg last Sunday but this time the bike was fully loaded and I was without Joris to share the drafting work. Conditions were absolutely perfect; 20 degrees, overcast, 8 knot tail wind and generally downhill all the way. It was so good, and I made such good time that I decided to carry on to Invercargill and still arrived before five.

It wasn’t the earliest of starts. I finished and posted yesterday’s blog entry, Bev made me a lovely breakfast and I had to do some running repairs to the pannier carrier, but I finally pulled out of the B&B driveway just before 10:30. I decided against swapping the mtb tyres for the road tyres for this leg, mainly because I couldn’t be bothered and time was ticking along as well.

There was a warm northerly breeze blowing down the valley and it picked me up and got me quickly up to speed as I turned left on to the highway south, and the end of New Zealand. There was rain forecast and heavy rain warnings for Fiordland and Stewart Island so I was keen to get some distance under my belt before anything changed.

The highway follows the valleys in the shadow of the mountains and snakes its way southward only changing grade to rise up over the old glacial moraines before rolling into the next valley. That was the general pattern as I sat on about 30km/h for most of the morning grinning away to myself because it’s just good fun biking in those conditions (even on mtb tyres). On the flats and slight descents my legs felt fine but I did find though that after yesterday they died very quickly at the slightest hint of a climb - it would have been a long day with a head wind!

After lunching at Lumsden I noted the sign saying 44km back to Garston and 50km on to Winton and the time was 1:00pm as I got rolling again. As if conditions weren’t good enough, they got even better after lunch (or was it the chicken pie) and before I knew it I was almost in Winton.

At the 80km point I experienced another ‘moment’… I’d struggled up a fairly easy but longish grade and the road swung around to the right at the top of the rise, I was admiring the scenery to my left looking down the valley but as I swung back to the front and passed through a cutting in the road all of Southland seemed to open up in front of me and there in the background was Stewart Island. I laughed out loud as it suddenly dawned on me, there was no more New Zealand after that. I was almost there.

The 10k down to Winton was over in a flash and I’d arrived before school got out. I’d made such good time that I decided to cancel my motel there and carry on to Invercargill, only another 30km down the track. At the rate I was going I’d be there in a shade over an hour.

A quick stop for more sustenance helped and I charged on down the slope to New Zealand’s most southern city feeling fantastic and fuelled by enthusiasm. It was a huge buzz to be entering Invercargill and I was tempted to carry on to the Bluff just because I was feeling so good. But it would have been a 60km round trip on top of the 125 I’d already done, so luckily my rational brain took over and said “stop here”.

Saucy Sander met me at the town clock as it chimed five times and we battled through rush hour traffic (yeah right) to meet up with Katherine and the kids back at their lovely home.

So just a short day tomorrow, then I’ll pack up the bike ready to head home. I’m looking at staying an extra night here in Invercargill so we can go to a Southern Sharks basketball game at Stadium Southland on Thursday night and will then I’ll fly back on Friday, catch up with the family at the Baeur Cup in Auckland, hitch a ride back to Waihi with Almo on Saturday morning ready for the Waihi College reunion on Saturday night.