Cycle: 104km

Finally we were leaving Te Anau! We'd been based here for nearly two weeks and had pretty much moved in to the YHA! We still had a few jobs to do in town so didn't manage to leave Te Anau until 11am. We were a little concerned about this because of the shortening days and that we were planning to cycle over 100km.

So, running late already we were confronted with our first technical hitch of the day after about 10km. Due to non-fitting parts I'd been a little ingenius with the fitting of our pannier racks. Unfortunately after 4800km Claire's reflector bracket (cunningly used as an integral part of the weight bearing rack) gave up and Claire skidded to a halt as the rack swung round and acted like a huge break pad against the asphalt! After some thinking we made it very secure using lots of electrical tape, some string and our tent packing strapping!

After all this fun and a whole 21km of cycling we stopped for a refuel and nerve-calmer for Claire in Manapouri. Apparently Lake Manapouri is the prettiest lake in New Zealand. We dropped into a nice cafe in a converted church with all kinds of almost antique bits of crockery lying around.

Now running even further behind schedule, but fully revitalised, we embarked on the remaining 80km. The mountains near Lake Manapouri are still bordering the fiordland so were looking stunning with the scattering of snow on the peaks.

As we moved further from the national parks the land became more and more agricultural, something of a feature of the Southland. We had one notable climb, Jericho Hill, on which Claire set an excellent pace. This provided excellent views of the last of the real snow-capped mountains.

We were rightly a little paranoid about the lack of daylight we had. We pushed ourselves and with a tailwind were able to maintain nearly 30km/h for much of the flat terrain. This was really good fun and we felt great after quite a long time off the bike. We managed our longest stint yet without a break: 65km! We eventually stopped for a few minutes at the Clifton Suspension Bridge. This is not quite as impressive as the real Clifton Suspension Bridge but you have to give the Kiwis credit for trying! It was a vital bridge at the beginning of the 19th century connecting the Southland to the Fiordland before the river was tempered by the massive hydro-electric schemes.

We eventually rolled into Tuatapere (after pumping up my punctured back tyre several times) at dusk and checked into our slightly strange hostel. This was run by an unfriendly, unhelpful man who seemed to expect us to be greatful that his hostel existed. Hmmm. It was very empty until a bus load of people arrived who created a good atmosphere for the evening. We went to bed feeling virtuous after our big, fast day, anticipating fatigued legs the next day.