The ups and downs of adventure

If there weren't any tough spots, it wouldn't be an adventure... it
would just be a vacation!

Wednesday was such an amazing day (and I forgot to mention that we saw
dolphins from the ferry!) that I knew things couldn't possibly get
better the next day, and would likely be a little less amazing.

Sure enough, it turned out twednesday night hat I had a slow leak in
my tire and would need to replace the tube. No big deal, but a bit of
a downer to get one so early in the trip.

But while inspecting my tire I realized that there was a fairly
significant cut in it. Embarrassingly enough, I had noticed this a
couple of weeks ago and thought about replacing it... but hadn't had
any trouble since then... Now I was feeling stupid for not having
replaced it before a Big Trip. At least Nelson, a town big enough to
have a bike shop, was only 40 miles away...

The riding started off on an up side - beautiful scenery, some sun,
not too hilly. Then a bit of a downer - a long climb. But then another
up - the top! And a long downhill! But, uh oh... Construction zone
and dirt and gravel... Psssht! Another flat. Curses! Time to use my
last spare tube (and why didn't I bring a patch kit?)

On the up side, there was a nice bike path for the last few miles of
riding into nelson. On the down side, it was starting to get pretty
overcast...

Nelson did indeed have a pretty large bike shop with tires (I opted
for a 28 instead of a 23..,), tubes and patch kits (yay!) but, like
many large bike shops, the staff wasn't overly helpful (boo).

There was a convenient bakery/takeaway shop with a nice bench outside
(yay!) but the milkshake was repulsive (boo - are all milkshakes in
New Zealand like that? I'm too scared to try another one to find out...)

The way out of town also had a nice bike path and the going was pretty
flat (yay!). But then it started to spit a little rain.

I was kicking along faster than I expected (yay!) but then ended up
kind of in the middle of nowhere when it started to rain harder and my
legs were getting worn out (boo).

I had read that free camping is legal in New Zealand, although you
should get permission from the property owner first. Time to test out
that theory...

Fortunately Ms. Hope didn't mind me staying in her yard under a big
tree (double yay!), but when I woke up in the middle of the night it
was raining pretty hard... And I felt some dripping on my head (time
to dig out the headlamp and adjust the rain fly)... And I started to
worry about the next day of cycling... And that scary creaking noise
my bike had started making.

I put off getting out of the tent as long as possible, but the idea of
spending a whole day in a one-man tent with my stinky gear was far
less appealing than riding in the rain... so at 7:45 I started putting
my things together and was eventually on my way.

To give you am idea of just how reluctant I was to get out of the tent
this morning, I opted I eat my granola cold (because I didn't want to
get out of the tent to cook) and dry (because my water bottle was
outside the tent) and with my hands (the spork was also outside the
tent).

I did get soaked on the ride this morning, but the weather was
mercifully warm and I rode with fingerless gloves!

By noon I reached St. Arnaud, after much slow uphill cycling. I had
decided to spend a night in the backpacker's accommodations here to
dry out, do laundry, and recharge (literally, my phone was dead). Not
bad for $11.50 USD.

The hike that I did this afternoon up to Mt. Roberts (about 5000') in
Nelson Lakes National Park left me feeling recharged and very happy,
even if my feet were soaked and the views were limited. Towards the
end of the hike I finally had views of Lake Roiti, which it turns out
is the bluest lake I've ever seen!

Hooray for adventure! And the joys of making it through the rainy bits
so that we can appreciate the sun even more!

Sorry I've no new pictures to post from my phone!

Ps- Tomorrow I may be camping again, so may not post again for a
couple of days. I'm heading west to Westport from here, then south
towards paparoa national park and greymouth.