Day 6 Franz Josef to Hokitika... 134km

.7.45 Sunday morning the congregation met @ the 'Church of the Happy Cyclist' below the shadow of mighty Franz Joseph Glacier...'Pastor Stevie' gave the morning sermon.."Ride hard,ride strong..Spread out but stick together!..AMEN"...so off we went toward Hokitika 135ks away up the gorgeous West coast.

We rolled along at a fairly decent clip of 32kph for the first hour through cool & still low-lying mist,luscious west coast forest,morning bird-song & picturesque small lakes...till.....

At Whataroa 'Chilli"needed to use the ablutions(again!)..& I needed a 'wake-me-up' double-shot Latte...thanks to Chillis curry dinner last night his action(ALL systems tested/checked CORRECT) was faster than my coffee could be made so I had to chase the train for a good 4km to get back on--(no easy feat carrying a full takeaway HOT drink!!)..We encountered one major climb of about 3.5 k up 'Mt. Hercules' which we found no longer daunting after passing the test on the likes of the Crown Range.......Anyway on to our Cafe du Jour stop at Harihari @ approx. the 60k mark..Great coffee & HUGE muffins all round..We met a young 6-man cycle team out on their round-trip training ride out of Hokitika..we told them to give us a 15 min head start then chase..they only gave us 5!.so passed us on the first serious climb about 10 k down the road ..throwing our bottle of sunscreen at us which we had left on the cafe table(who left it behind?..who knows!).They flashed past us never to be seen again.....Arrivederci!

Nice teamwork followed(excepting the odd 'surge') as we tracked through more stunning bush/farm scenery over the last 70 ks,passing through the old mining town of Ross...our pace continued at around the earlier efforts,legs obviously getting stronger as the days fly by....then before long we were T/T ing down to our destination of Hokitika on possibly the LONGEST flat & seemingly endless home straight in living memory..it had to be at least 10k ++ before the 'Arrive' banner.....

Our nights accommodation @ the 'Beachfront Hotel' is again superb(Thanks to Anne-The Hotel Manager)....then the whole riding Team oozed in to the surf for a quick ,REFRESHING dip to loosen up the quads & calves before sourcing a local cafe for some late brunch.........so ALL GOOD so far..roll on Westport tomorrow..looks like MORE fine ,blue sky days ahead........By the way, the 'RICHARD' dunny award tonite was humbly accepted by Kimbo (lovingly given by GEOFF)for 'reasons undisclosed'.....watch "Crimewatch" during April and ALL will be revealed..nite nite x

Toddy

P.S. Page's fresh road kills today was 5

Kimbo off the front.

Some typical West Coast scenery.

Mint day today, very little wind and blue skies.

Crossing one of the many one lane bridge's.

Ange has been getting all artistic

Up Mt. Hercules

A quick dip at the beach..... Geez that water was cold!







Click here Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Untitled