Cycle: 58km

We got up leisurely as, although a hard day, the wasn't far to cycle today. We spend the morning in Arrowtown, delaying our ascent of the Crown Saddle! We posted about 7kg of our kit back to Jersey, including our tent, other camping equipment and some books. This is it! No more camping! It's just too cold and we worked out we'd used the tent for four nights in the last month or so, whereas we were using it nearly every day prior to reaching Queenstown when Autumn really kicked in.

After building up our energy reserves with pies and the best muffins ever we let these settle while we had some good coffee in Joe's Garage (complete with adjustable wrench door handles!) We made ourselves feel-homesick (well, setting-up-a-new-home-sick by reading interior design magazines and browsing the household shops in town).

Eventually, after chatting to a couple of random cyclists, we set off. Our route was over the famous Crown Range Road which cuts a direct path to Wanaka and saves about 60km! The only problem is the 1080m pass, making this the highest state highway in the country! The road out of Arrowtown was very scenic and flat and we passed a snaking road that looked like an insane farm track up the hill to our left. Claire commented: "At least we're not going up that!" at which point I spotted a campervan struggling up the road and quietly pointed out: "Yes, we are." Claire's response said it all: "Oh."

The first 3km were up the road we'd just seen, but its bark was much worse than its bite. Carefully pacing ourselves up this hill we conserved our legs and were rewarded with amazing views of Arrowtown, the Kawarau Gorge, the Remarkables, Coronet Peak and even the corner of Lake Wakatipu! Stunning!

Next up was a rolling 5km before the serious part of the climb: 3.5km of unrelenting steep, winding road. People are advised not to take trailers along here as it gets dangerous. We passed signs telling us it might be icy then proceeded to pass more and more snow as we neared the top. About 750m into the climb I noticed that Claire wasn't in her easiest gear! By 2 gears! This made things a bit easier and we gently continued trying to avoid blowing up! We got lots of waves and hoots and even some applause for tackling the hill! It's about 700m of ascending in less than 10km and really it's a 300m in 3km stint followed by 100m in 5km and then another really steep 300m in 3km!

The view from the top was excellent, once again we could see all the way to Lake Wakatipu and this time further up the Gibbston Valley to the wineries based there. At the top a nice man asked us if we were going up or down? Urmmm...?!? down... We asked him to take a picture but he bucked the responsibility to a nice Scot instead!

The descent was absolutely brilliant! Smooth tarmac for much of it and not too steep that we lost all our height too quickly. There was a slight headwind but it didn't make much difference! I was glad for all the new kit we'd bought in Invercargill: not pedalling for 15km in the cold would have really have made us cold without our new gloves and arm and leg warmers. We do look a bit dorky but it's good stuff!

We stopped for a fab muffin (second of the day!) and cups of tea in the brilliant Cardrona Hotel (c1863!) which most Kiwis seem to know about and drop into if they're in the area. It had unexpectantly good service and good and tea, and a lovely open fire. Most fires here are in wood burning stoves but this was a proper open one and much the better for it! We ate our muffins relaxing infront of the fire sitting in the comfy Chesterfield sofas!

We raced into Wanaka which immediately made a good impression on us. A lovely lake surrounded by snow-peaked mountains. It has well manicured lawns and trees and flash shops and cafes and bars. There was a good atmosphere permiating the place. We arrived at our hostel, Wanaka Bakpaka, which is awesome! Lovely lounge with superb views over Lake Wanaka. Our room (the famous Room 16: "Best Value Lakeside Views in Wanaka) lived up to its reputation and we settled in for an evening of reading, red wine and bread and dips.

This was the best day I've had in a while and really reminded us as to why we're in New Zealand. Beautiful views, challenging cycling, great town and comfortable accommodation. No regrets in sending the tent home!