Day One
I'm going to do this in stages, just in case I spend ages typing only to find that something has crashed or not loaded.
Day 1 was spent following the Southern Scenic Route (
https://www.southernscenicroute.co.nz/)
I didn't set off until about 11 am, mostly because I didn't intend to do a huge number of kilometres every day, instead allowing myself time to stop and enjoy the scenery. I knew where I was going to spend the first night, so packed my sleeping bag, sleeping mat and tent, along with my stove and pots and for some unknown reason, my Swiss Army knife - more on that later.
The first leg was only about 4 km - I stopped at McIver and Veitch, which has just been given the BMW dealership. This is great news as the previous main dealer was Christchurch, a five hour ride away. The reason for the stop was to invest in a gel seat cover which I had seen a couple of days before. This is probably the second best biking related purchase I've ever made - the first being a Sena headset. So, I fitted the gel seat on the forecourt, casting envious glances in the direction of the new 800 Adventure, fully kitted out with farkles galore, and then set off properly. To the petrol station.
Stopping for petrol became a bit of a morning ritual. I wasn't too sure where I would be able to get petrol along the route, so figured that starting each day with a full tank would be the way forward. Tank topped up I hit the motorway and then joined the Southern Scenic Route.
This is effectively a coast road that runs down the southern edge of the South Island. I have done the first bit before, albeit in the opposite direction. We actually take our students down to this beach as part of their geology field trip. My accompaniment for this first leg was a few episodes of Desert Island Discs that I had downloaded. The SSR winds its way down the coast to Taieri Mouth before cutting inland to Milton. Milton is a bit of a local joke - The Milton Hilton being the medium security prison. Its a one horse town that only exists because of the watersports on Lake Waihola.
From Milton to Balclutha is a deadly dull stretch of highway. The weather was nice, the bike was humming along, the podcasts kept coming so all was good with the world. I stopped at Old Sod Cottage - partly to stretch my legs, partly because I had the citizens of UKGSER in mind. The cottage is kept as a museum of what conditions were like when Otago was frontier land and it was being farmed for the first time. Photos taken it was back on the bike to head into Balclutha for lunch.
This is where I feel like I start to let down the readers. I had intended to regale people with tales of slabs of steak and chips you could surf on, but a slight miscalculation involving finances (the gel seat was more than I expected) meant that I went to the supermarket and got a packet of crisps. Still, crisps are good, so I was happily back on the bike for the rest of the afternoon. I took a diversion to Nugget Point, which has a fantastic lighthouse and seal colony, but it this is a 1 km walk and seeing as I was in bike gear and the sun was shining, I just went up to the viewing point which showed neither. Then back on the bike to Owaka (the place of the canoe). Here I faced a dilemma. Owaka has a couple of nice cafes, and is the nearest 'town' to where I would be camping, so should I buy some dinner and take it with me, or ride back into town?
In the end, I bought some peaches, a ciabatta and a tin of spaghetti. Then I set off in completely the wrong direction, despite having been here at least four times. After about 10 km I hit the first gravel road of the ride. Considering how clueless I am on gravel I was taking it easy and caught up to a shepherd taking what seemed like hundreds of sheep for a walk. I followed along behind, quite grateful for the low speed over the rough surface.
The campsite is one that I have used when taking Duke of Ed groups around this area, so I set up the tent and was grateful that I'd brought dinner with me, instead of having to go 15 km back down the gravel road. It was at this point that I realised that I had bought a tin of spaghetti without thinking about how I was going to open it. Then I remembered that I had thrown the Swiss Army knife into the pannier. Then it was into my sleeping bag, out with the Kindle and off to sleep.
Although the day was on roads that I have done before, the ride was great. The weather was warm, roads quiet and I have to say that having a gel seat made the five or so hours in the saddle a pleasure. I stopped quite a few times to take photos - when I work out how to post them properly then I'll add them to the thread.