Fleeing the storm

31/1

On this day, I got up a bit earlier and made myself an Aeropress coffee. I had resupplied with some 'Havana' beans from New World. We didn't quite make it on the road as early as I had hoped, but it was still a good start. Pulling into Bealey Hotel, we had breakfast there.

Bealey Hotel pancake, bacon, banana... something else breakfast

The sky is angry behind us

But not angry where we are going

We had a brief stop at Castle Hill, where part of Lord of the Rings was allegedly filmed. To me it was a bunch of rocks.

Rocks

People admiring rocks

I also catch up on some messages and the remaining 2/5 of my ciabatta.

We make good time to Porters Pass. Here is the descent. Brakes were applied to remain stationary at the top of the pass.

We roll into Springfield and have a chat with David. I won't mention his nationality, but there does seem to be a trend with almost every young traveller we meet! David has a pretty well beaten bike with the front rack broken and a few spokes missing in the back wheel. He was hoping to make it up Arthur's Pass, even hitchhiking, but with the storm coming in, I suggested ice cream at Darfield instead. He's done just about every significant road in NZ. He also mentioned some ridiculous scheme where the place that he bought his bike will refund him half the purchase price upon return of the bike in any condition.

People off their bicycles at the Springfield Donut

At this point James wanted to book accommodation at Oxford and for once I was the one saying to hold off. We bash our way with a kind of cross-tail wind until we get to Oxford and refuel at the supermarket. It was only 4PM at that time and I wanted to push onto Rangiora, for my own selfish reasons. But maybe I can be a Randian hero today.

So James then books some motel on his phone and we push 30km/h to Rangiora. The motel is quite reasonable but the room is hot. We go to Monteith's for dinner under advice from the motel operator.

$20 mains night

I decide to stay in Rangiora for another night and book the same motel for about $25 cheaper, because that's what I do.

Feijoa yoghurt