Sounds of The 80's

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Yesterday we withdrew all our miles from the bank.  The idea was to have a very short ride to Wellington so we wouldn't need an early start and would not be under any pressure to make the ferry.  Since the ferry was 4.5 hours late this was hardly needed.

So we are now penniless (err...mileless)  and still needing about 70 miles for our cunning plan.  Our solution is to do 80 per day for the next 4 days - a moderately ambitious target down the hilly west coast.  We will see how it goes.

Some bonus tracks:

I Should be so Lucky

This morning Neil realised that an annoying rattle was being caused by a broken stay on his rack.  We bodged a repair which lasted 20 miles then it failed and the other stay broke too.  Bugger.  We were in the middle of nowhere and needed someone who could weld aluminium....not an every day skill. Buggering bugger.  It was Sunday. Double bugger with knobs on.  Within 1 mile we found a small marina with a shiny new marine engineering facility (maintaining boats involves lots of aluminium welding!).  Usually closed on a Sunday,the guy was working overtime as he was busy. An hour later the rack was better than new.  Today would have been a good day to buy a lottery ticket!

Ride Like The Wind

We were riding from Picton to Nelson, as pretty a ride as you will find anywhere on Earth.  Despite a late start, a  fair delay for rack mending and some biggish hills we had done our 72 miles by 4:30.  We had a bit of wind-assist here and there but we just felt strong with near perfect weather and the best scenery you could wish for.  The pictures are of Queen Charlotte Sound.

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