Day 38 - February 17, 2023

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 opportunity to see this lovely country the way I have.  While some of the folks are saying they don't want the trip to end and they want to just keep going, I have to say that this time around I'm ready to give my body a break and not ride for a while.  

Whine, whine, whine........  Another beautiful day for us.  We left the hotel at 8 am to catch a barge at about 8:15.






Beautiful big tree at the launch site.


The crossing of Lake Wakatipu was about 12 km and took about an hour.  We landed at Walter Peak Farm.  




Everyone else went in for coffee, but I knew the whole day was going to be a slow-going struggle for me so I kept going.  Besides, I still fail to see the draw of that vile beverage.......

Ho hum.... beautiful vistas all morning.  I saw quite a few self-supported cyclists on the road going in either direction.  It is part of the "Around the Mountains" cycle trail and it seems at least some of them were doing that.  So many cycle trip options in this country!





















About this time the others caught up with me.  I also realized that I had no capacity today to climb any amount of hill.  Thought I might be walking for the rest of the day, but that would be about another 70 km so hoped to get back on the bike at the top of the hill. 


Some nice views back down the valley.  The advantage of walking the bike - photo ops!  


The overcast skies of earlier this morning morphed into some interesting cloud formations.  Once we got up on top, we had miles and miles of wide open views.  Kind of reminded me of Alaska.  But - I had pretty much put the camera away.  I was so far behind by then, and just mentally fried.  Just hung my head and waited for it to be over.







We had a brief van stop at about 50 km.  I didn't have much of an appetite today so had skipped lunch.  I had a banana and a cookie at the van and plodded on.  I passed the van at about 65 km; they had a flat tire and were busy changing it.  They passed me again about an hour later, so good work ladies!  BTW - Tom left us yesterday and Theresa is our new guide (along with Kerry) for the last few days.  An upgrade, I think, and hopefully less work on Kerry's shoulders. 

We were on gravel until about 80 km; ugh.  Finally - paved road.  About 5 km later the RWGPS instructions took me off into a field somewhere.  Um, no thank you.  Thankfully the c(l)ue sheet provided instructions to stay on the paved road.  And finally into Mossburn, our destination for the day.  I needed to just get horizontal, so passed on dinner and ate my packed lunch instead.



Hopefully the tendons (and the brain) will feel better tomorrow..............  A long day, but no gravel and mostly downhill.


Stats for the day:

Distance:  102.4 km

Elevation (Garmin):  2816' up, 3008' down

Elevation (RWGPS):  2992' up, 3146' down

Weather: 13 - 25C.  Quite overcast to start.  Then sunny with scattered clouds.  A bit of a substantial headwind all day.  As we came in to Mossburn we could see windmills scattered over the hillside.  A sure sign that wind is a thing here.




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