Cycle: 60km

After we'd picked which of the five beds to sleep in we slept soundly and got up in time for porridge and a 10 o'clock check out. The weather looked good and we cruised down the road to Sheffield with a tail wind helping us nicely. At Sheffield, 9km from Springfield, we felt it was time for lunch as we spotted the award-winning Original Sheffield Pie Shop! We had our first ever Kiwi pie here and they were yummy. A good cycling snack to look out for in the future. We also had boysenberry and cream cheese muffins which were quite possibly the best muffins I've ever tasted.

Now we were rocket fuelled and picked up the pace along the Old West Coast Road into Yaldhurst, just west of Christchurch. We were averaging over 30km/h (bring on tail winds and a slight downhill!) for this 40km stretch until a gust of cold Antarctic southern wind hit us in the side. Our pace dropped as we entered Chrsitchurch and the two weather systems fought it out. We made it to the Amber Holiday Park and got the tent up as quickly as possible with rain drops begining to fall!

With the prospect of a rainy afternoon ahead and only a tent to shelter in we set off on the local bus for the Antarctic Centre. This was one of Christchurchs tourist attractions that had been recommended to us and was very good indeed. We experienced a -20 degree ice storm, learnt about life on the Antarctic for animals and men and saw some Little Blue penguins that had been injured in the wild snd would not survive there anymore. They were very cute but the experience didn't top our encounter with a Little Blue in the wild in Kaikoura when we were cycling home one evening. We had fun on ice slides and trying on the various coats and then got kicked out at closing, the last ones out! We were cruelly booted into a rain storm and with no bus for 40 minutes walked over to the nearby airport for sanctuary! We dried off with a glass of red in the check-in area! Back in the city centre we found someone to serve us a pizza for dinner, bussed back to our campsite and squelched across the lawn to our bed for the night.

Happy Mothers Day Mama B and Mama J!