Cycle: 74km

Claire and I both slept pretty badly. This was because the temperature absolutely plumetted during the night. We both woke several times before first light just hoping that the night would end and the sun could do its thing and warm us up a little!

After our unfriendly, messy chav people had left the previous day we'd been having a cracking time chatting to everyone sharing the facilities at our campsite. We said goodbye to Casten and Jessica (German cyclists; we missed Ron who was off before 8am!), our two motorbike friends and Nigel, Sara and Callum. We'd had a nice 24 hours in Queenstown and both felt so refreshed and revitalised - we were keen to get going again!

After a few domestic chores (posting stuff home and picking up tickets for our walks) we set off! It was still cold (the lady in the post office had told us her car had said it was 3 degrees at 8am!) so we were a bit sluggish in getting going. The route along Lake Wakatipu was undulating (not ridiculously as some Americans had kindly warned me) with incredible views of the Remarkables, Walter Peak and more and more snow capped and glacier covered mountains as we turned North-West. The water was perfectly clear and the roads quiet. Perfect cycling!

On the way we discussed the sudden cold snap. We floated various ideas as we were so shocked about the cold that we're a little concerned that certainly camping, and possibly cycling, might become a less feasible way of travelling round the country. We see a couple of options for us: perhaps ditch the camping and commit to hostels; cycle further and faster each day and get the hell North asap... If we post our camping gear home then we can get rid of loads of kit and weight so might just pull off longer days. We need to give this some serious thought. Perhaps we need more suitable cycling gear too.

Anyway, while we were in the sunshine it was lovely. We reached the Glenorchy Cafe (in Glenorchy which we really fell for) and after a slight dog poo incident (grrrrrr) we settled in for our standard lunch fare. The waitress told us we wouldn't be able to eat it all (a good sign that we'll be full at the end). The food was absolutely fantastic: Thai pumpkin soup with home made mega-bread (a Scott term, not a Glenorchy Cafe term) followed by huge sandwiches again with home made mega-bread. Mega-yum! And yes, if you were wondering, we did finish it all, to much congratulating by our friendly waitress. A group of excited people turned up before we left who stood up and announced (after her friend said: "you want to tell everyone here, don't you?") to us all that they'd just done a sky dive! We'd seen them floating down on our way!

The next section of the ride could have been avoided by a five minute boat trip but in typical Scott & Claire style we decided to cycle the 26km alternative option (10km unsealed)! I'm glad we did. The route was the most beautiful part of the day (and I've already raved about the first bit). The mountains opened out and we could see more glaciers and ice. There were some really weird little green hillocks that must have been grassed over terminal morraine (hello, I'm a glacier geek!) - these made for some fun photos with the mountains behind. We crossed over the turquoise Dart River (of jet boat fame) before hitting the unsealed 10km section. This climbed a little and passed through some huge trees which made a complete contrast to the rest of the day.

All in all, I think this was my favourite day of cycling so far! Just awesome.

Kinloch Lodge turned out to be a nice place with a really helpful owner who had already sorted out our walk transfers. Hmmm, a bed (after a 20 day run of camping). Hmmm, a hot tub. Hmmm, bath towels. And stunning views in a quiet location. Scottie is a happy boy.