New Zealand Tour Aotearoa 2023

Day 40:  Invercargill - Bluff - Invercargill Did someone say something about cake?  Maybe champagne would be more appropriate as we celebrate a massive achievement - riding the length of New Zealand!  Transfer to Invercargill for the final night of the tour. Made it to the end today!  We left the hotel about 9.  A few turns to get out of the city and then a straight shot down to Bluff.  The forecast was for overcast skies, a chance of showers around noon, and strong tailwinds.  Interesting sky to our left (east) as we left town.  It's raining somewhere..... Apparently this sign is spelled correctly, and they're not meaning "weiner" pigs.  Weaner pigs are little ones from weaning (about 21 days old) to about 10 weeks old.  My factoid for the day. On to the home-stretch............ First sighting of the ocean at about 12 km.  Looking at Google Maps, it appears to be a bay (that extends up to Invercargill) of Foveaux Strait which is th...

Day 39:  Mossburn - Invercargill We make a beeline for Invercargill today.  Quiet roads through rolling farmland. Another later start this morning.  Breakfast at 8 and departure around 8:45.   There was no miracle cure overnight, but I did get a good night's sleep and my head was in a better place today.  And - I'm sure downhill with a tailwind helped the situation as well.  For the first time in the trip, the kms really did fly by.  The scenery wasn't all that eye-catching so I didn't stop for as many photos as usual.  Here's a pic of the windmills I referred to yesterday.  The wind farm was opened in 2007 and has 29 turbines. The terrain is definitely flattening out as we approach the southern end of the island.   Lots of agriculture - crops and animals. Into the small town of Drummond for our lunch stop at about 60 km.  I was last (as usual), but still there before noon.  Almost missed it as I was busy looking arou...

Day 38:  Queenstown - Mossburn We begin the day with a 45-minute boat trip across Lake Wakatipu.  Today is BIG - big scenery, big day, big climb, big down, and hopefully a big southland feed!   Some days I hurt more than other days.  Today was one of those days.....  And some days I can ignore it better than other days.  Today I think that extra little bit of pain just defeated my mental fortitude to ignore it and I was just a mess as a result.  At some point I just decided that I would allow myself a pity party today and try to get back on the horse tomorrow; just two more days to go.  I also realized that one way I've dealt with the discomfort for almost 6 weeks is just to be grumpy all the time.  Apologies to all my fellow travellers....  I don't think I'll be a good inmate in the old folks' home.  Although I probably wouldn't have come on this trip except that I had already paid the money, I am truly grateful to have the opportu...