Cycle: 94km

It had rained in the night and so we dawdled over breakfast and packing to let the tent dry as much as possible in the clear morning skies. We set off bound for Akaroa, a small town on the Banks Peninsula.

This was to become the day of tea stops! Our first stop, after some pretty uninspiring riding, was at the Tai Tapu cafe where we had tea for two, twice, and date scones. 10 flat km later we stopped at the Blue Duck Cafe in Motukarara for tea for two and giant Afghan cookies. Now we really had to make up some ground but sadly the head wind (a southerly, so from the Antarctic and cold) picked up as we were overtaken by a skinny Brit on a carbon bike with no kit - grrr! He was jolly friendly though. Thankfully we turned north and benefitted from the tail wind for our ride into Little River and up the 476m ascent to Hilltop. We climbed for 6km and felt really good. At the top we were astounded by the view of the volcanic crater and surrounding rim. Although the weather was grey and windy the visibiity was good so we opted to stay up high and get to Akaroa via the Summit Road (bobbing along the rim of the crater) rather than to drop down immediately and approach at sea level.

We had gone from quite a boring day to an amazingly captivating day and enjoy the ups and downs for a few km as we made our way round the crater. The wind was clearly picking up and passing some of the saddles was quite hairy as the wind buffeted us from the side. We stopped for emergency snacks in the shelter of a hedge and carried on as the rain began. We were still fairly sheltered as we travelled north-ish but as soon as we began to track east we were horribly exposed and the wind drove the rain right through our clothes. By this point we were 700m up and still had two more downs and ups and about 20km to go. It was all fine, we were just cold and wet but then the visibility dropped right down, we couldn't feel our feet and our brakes ceased working. Bugger. We stoically pedalled on, neither wanted to say how cold we were until Scott spotted a road sign indicating a road down to sea level that would also cut our journey by 5km. I think my brain was frozen as I didn't even think of dropping down! We took the road and as civilisation began to appear before my eyes I felt a lot happier. We reached the junction with the main sea level road and then told each other how cold we were! It was amazing how quickly the weather came in and we went from being happy as Larry to very vulnerable. With ice blocks for extremities and knocking knees (really) we made for Akaroa and were glad of the two 200m climbs on the way - as least they went some way to warming us up. Scott raised the idea of not going to the Top 10 campsite (plan A) but treating ourselves to somewhere with fluffy towels, bigger than our postage stamp, quick drying variety! Needless to say I didn't need convincing and we found a lovely motel with a lovely owner who gave us a lovely room. I couldn't feel my feet and walking was difficult but we put on dry clothes and went out in hunt of fish and chips before the shops shut. We were just in the nick of time for a take-away fish meal and met a cycle tour guide, for Back Roads, in the chippie. He'd been caught out in the sudden weather change too. Back in our motel room lounge we ate, drank red wine and had a spa bath, location of our debrief!