Wednesday January 8, 2014

I was able to skype Joy, my sister today from the library in Amberley, she has been diagnosed with cancer.  What crappy news. She will have more news for me when she sees the oncologist etc on January 21, 2014. We may change our plans, and do the UK and Europe next.  We will decide when we get more news from Joy.

We started our ride later than usual at 10:00. The wind changes again!!  Today started warm and sunny.  The later start wasn’t a problem as our warm-showers host would not be available until 6:00pm and we only had 45 ks to cycle, an easy day or so we thought.  We had a gale force head wind all the way into Christchurch.  It was an horrendous ride.  We had to come away from State Highway 1 at Woodend as it turned into a motorway.  I wonder what the difference is from 2-lane road driving at 100 kph to motorway driving at 100 kph.  We rejoined Main Road North which seemed suicidal to me at the time.  Four-lane road (dual-carriageway) with speeds in excess of 100 kph (England think the A52, Canada think Highway 11).  It did have a wider shoulder but the cars didn’t give us an inch.  We were on that section for about 4 ks.

We stopped at Woodend for a sandwich and a cup of tea.  We had a great, cheap lunch even cheaper as my tea was free.  There wasn’t a button on the cash register for tea so I got it for free.  Paula, the lady that served us invited us on her boat in Picton (we can go fishing) if she is up there at the same time as we are when we go back to Wellington.

We came across a New Town just outside of Christchurch.