Cycle: 80km

After a fairly cold night's sleep we reverted back to our old routine of porridge before hitting the road.

Total was yet another fantastic day of cycling. We immediately left the farm land near Makarora and started cycling through the Mt Aspiring National Park. The land was similar to the other major glacial valleys we've cycled through with tree-covered hills up until the tree line, then brown vegetation before high snow peaks. The valleys were wide and flat and covered in tussock plants making a starkly contrasting yellow colour.

The ascent up to Haast Pass was fairly easy, partly due to the pass only being 540m! There was a walk to a viewpoint which was well worth the effort. We were surrounded by mountains in all directions! At the bottom of the steep section of the descent (glad we didn't go the other way!) there were the "Gates of Haast" where a river was rushing under our road as it passed over a single lane iron bridge. The water was really clear and the massive rocks polished - it must be one hell of a torrent when the water is full flow.

On the West side of the divide we were expecting rain! It's one of the wettest parts of the world with 15m rainfall on average! Luckily for us the clouds cleared and we spent the rest of the afternoon cycling through incredibly beautiful valleys. There were lots of gushing waterfalls, my favourite being the Fantail Falls where people had taken to making little cairns! There were hundreds of them, some big, some small, some on bits of wood - it was great!

The Haast River flows down to the Tasman Sea and we followed it nearly all the way today! The river plain is up to half a mile wide in places and apparently when in full flood it fills the whole width! Unbelievable!

After 80km of unbroken beauty we rolled into Haast Village. The claim here is that it's stuck in the past... Great, this meant a crap shop. After checking into our clean, but slightly clinical hostel: Haast Lodge we set ourselves in to eat sweets (never shop hungry!) and cous cous. I'm beginning to get sick of the stuff, but it's great to have when you know the shops are going to be limited!

Next stop the glaciers! Woo-hoo!