Day 25 - February 4, 2023

Day 25:  Nelson - St. Arnaud

If yesterday was too exciting for you........... today should settle your nerves.  We meander out of Nelson on a friendly cycle trail and quiet country roads to St. Arnaud. 

When we showed up ready to ride this morning, Colin and Jane were showing off their new purchases.  Found them at the e-bike shop in town yesterday.  I was wearing my NZ jersey as well, so a picture was in order.


The day started out pretty mellow - almost dead flat for the first 30 km - but we paid for that later on.  Three individual climbs of about 1000 feet each, and I'm pooped!  So much for my theory that the North Island would be my training for the South Island - sigh.........  

The first section was a lovely bike trail along the waterfront between Nelson and Richmond.  About 2 km from the hotel we passed this restaurant that we dined at in 2006.


Fishermen up and at it.


The beach was a popular location for the SUP and kayak crowd.


A few more views along the cycle path (The Great Taste Trail).





Lots of agriculture as we moved away from the waterfront.  Lots of vineyards (some covered), hops, and orchards.




More views along the flat section





.I expected to see Jed Clampett come out of this house.


A nice route on the cycleway for a bit.


We then got onto a section where the RWGPS instructions and cue sheets were not very helpful.  Must have been an old routing that wasn't available anymore.  A couple of km of an easy workaround, though, and back on the route.  Then came a bit of an issue for me.  Since I primarily use just the audio prompts from RWGPS, the EA folks have been kind enough to provide me with cue sheets each day.  It didn't work so well for me today.  There was no audio prompt to take the cycle trail and my cue sheet said to take the main highway, so that's what I did.  I ended up with significantly more climbing (and traffic) than the route that we were supposed to be on.  The first of the 3 1000+ foot climbs.  The grades weren't too bad on any of them, but with the humidity and the backpack and the heavier bike, I just pour sweat.  I've never been so wet in my riding life!  And then there's so much sweat in my eyes that the water pools and burns and it's really tough to even keep my eyes open.  Not sure what the solution is, but I sure have sore eyeballs tonight!  

I was so busy trying to manage the sweat in the eyeballs thing today that I wasn't even looking for picture opportunities on the hills.  We had lunch at about 56 km, and then more climbing after lunch.  The vegetation has sure changed at this higher elevation.  No more ferns and a lot more evergreeens.  We have a couple of tree experts on the trip so they could be a lot more articulate about the trees, but that's what my untrained eye is seeing.  Lots of clear cutting (both old and new) on today's route, so many places with just bald hills.  Seems a shame.......

I thought it would never come............


 We're staying (and eating dinner) at the Alpine Lodge tonight.  Very nice.



We also stayed in St. Arnaud on our 2006 trip so I knew that a walk down to the lake (Lake Rotoiti) was worthwhile.  It didn't disappoint.




Stats for the day:

Distance:  99.5 km

Elevation (Garmin):  4289' up, 2190' down

Elevation (RWGPS):  5849' up, 3782' down.  It felt like we did somewhere in between the two measurements

Weather:  20C - about 30C.  Hot and humid.  Mostly cloudy/overcast.




Comments

  1. MervFebruary 4, 2023 at 10:50 PM

    Fab pics Sue! Thanks. The tourist bureau, or at least the tour company, should pay you.

    ReplyDelete

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