We had a wonderful start to the year, spending a day off the bikes with Sue and Derek, some wonderful warm showers hosts. We explored the local area, picked a load of raspberries, and spent a lovely evening exchanging cycling stories and routes.

We then rolled down to Invercargill, and spent the night with Becky, a cyclist we met at a campsite last week, who had invited us to stay if we came to Invercargill! We enjoyed looking round the park, seeing some touristy sights, and attempted to cycle down to Bluff but were thwarted by the crazy strong headwind.

From Invercargill we headed west, following the southland traverse on tiny backroads through farmland. Not the most interesting riding, but we had some good campsites, and soon joined the Round-the-Mountain trail up to Kingstown.

Our route got much more interesting. We were soon surrounded by huge mountains and hills, and arriving at the lake was breathtaking. We cycled on the main road around the lake, very windy and rolling, but soon got to Queenstown.

Queenstown was nice but really busy and touristy. We met up with Matt and Kathy, some Leeds fixed gear friends who have emigrated, and enjoyed quite a few beers and a catch up.

The next day we went to the airport to meet Maggie! We are super excited and happy to have her join us for a week on tour! So far we have enjoyed some touristy hanging out in Queenstown, including going up on the gondola and racing on the luge, and wasted a rainy day hanging out. But now we are heading out from Queenstown to do lots of cycling and hanging out in the sun.

Jade

Jim’s words – Driving, Coasting, Wind, Dull, Queenstown, Burger and Luge.