Cycle: 124km

We got up in the gloom for a warm breakfast (it was still very cold, outside and inside if the heaters weren't blaring). On looking out the window all we could see was fog, which we presumed would burn off.

We were wrong. The fog stayed with us until midday, through 40km of cycling. Neither of us are sure wwhat freezing fog is exactly, but this morinng was foggy and freezing so I guess it was freezing fog?! We both had frozen water droplets on our eyelashes, ice on the inner elbow creases of our jackets, Scott had ice on his shorts and we had a nice icew hite trimming on our pannier bag straps. All we could do was keep our heads down and pedal to keep warm. It was boring and uncomfortable. I developed the technique of cycling with my hands close together, just behind my hadlebar bag to keep the wind chill off of them. We had a very quick stop to eat at 20km and then again in a small town where miraculously the fog and cloud lifted and we cycled the remaing 20km into Lumsden in glorious sunshine with fine views of snow capped mountains! How a rubbish day can be rescued!

Lumsden was a small sevice town but was the biggest town in the hood for some time. We ended up in the gKiwii equivalnet of a greasy spoon because the one decent looking cafe was fully booked up (the best spot for Sunday lunch for locals). The food in the greasy spoon was ok actually, the biggest down was the lousy cup of tea! Cups of tea are quite precious to us on the road, especially on a cold day. Nevermind, we had full tummies and semi-defrosted feet for the remaining 60km to Kingston, on the southern banks of Lake Wakitipu.

The cycle north was through a valley of snowy peaks and hte road undualted just enough to keep us occupied and warm! We were making such good time that we had an extra stop in Athol for coffee and cake. We cycled hard today all day today (with religious 5 and 3km rotationsin the lead) and I was pretty pooped when we arrived at the Kingston Motels and Holiday Park. Close to Kingston we passed the most perfect mirror lake I'd yet seen, we were whizzing past to quickly to stop for a photo though. At the park we had booked a cabin, our first time on a campsite and not in a tent! The cabin was very basic, just a bed in a shed, but it had a heater, kettle and toaster and the managers gave us an extra blanket to go with our summer sleeping bags. We also used the hot water bottles as it was another freezing night. It had been -7 degrees in Athol (20km down the road) last night.