Wednesday 12th February - A day in Wanaka

The forecast said rain at 2 p.m. and they were right. We had a cabin this morning and when we woke we could tell there was a change in the weather. It had been rather hot when we arrived two days ago, but today the high was 15c and this morning it was a good deal less than that. So yesterday we sat here with the sun belting down on the cabin and the windows open and now I have the heater on. It must have dropped 10 degrees!

We went out this morning along the valley road that is a dead end. It was traffic free, we had no weight on board and the gradients were reasonable. A good job as we were both still really tired. Listening to the rain belting down on the cabin now I am so glad we are not in the tent. The bikes are in the dry as well which makes me happy. Catherine has gone into town to get her hair done as she felt it looked in need of sorting when she viewed the photos. I just hope she is still in the salon at the moment!  It's pelting down! 

I have had a day at sorting out what happens next. We are going to go to Queenstown and that will probably be the furthest south we get (although we may go on a few sightseeing trips from there, so these may take us further South). We reckon a week to see Queenstown and then we will start heading East and then North. So Queenstown will be our turnaround point in effect.

I used my jasmine speciality selected soap this morning, yummy! And I even managed a proper shave and Catherine has attacked my "Dennis Healy" eye brows with her nail scissors. What with Catherine's hair being done Kiwi style you will not recognise us on the next photo.

We found a cafe on our ride along the valley. It was cold and overcast and the campsite that this was attached to was closing up as the kids are back at school now. Suddenly that autumn end of season feeling was creeping in.

Not what you call light weight camping!

But you could always have this luxury lodge we saw

It was so peaceful, few road and few people