Cycle: 50km

After several really tough days we had a shorted day planned for today. As such we did what we always do under these circumstances: had a lazy morning. We slept in and had a relaxing breakfast before checking out of our room and using the internet at Global Village, our hostel, getting our blog up to date.

The next five days of cycling were to be through a very unpopulated part of the country as we made our way from the West Coast to the North Coast of the South Island. Most drivers would simply not stop but there are some nice hostels (and some not so nice hostels) so we thought we would break the journey up as best as we could.

Today's cycling was only 50km, but after the preceding days efforts (no real days off since Wanaka (about 500km away) it proves to be tiring nonetheless. There was very little flat terrain today and the hills were all steep up and down so we found the going much more tiring than we were hoping for.

Our journey up the West Coast had, until this point, been not very coastal! We had spent most of the time cycling through rainforest and skirting the edges of the Southern Alps. Today this all changes and we finally had the dramatic coastal views (from the tops of the aforementioned hills!) This was the West Coast we were expecting and we were pleasantly surprised. Even in the continuing grey weather the views were spectacular and beautiful.

The climax of the day was exploring the famous Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki. This have a big reputation but how good can some slatey rocks be? Very good! These didn't disappoint us at all. The rocks were quite remarkable and the cormorants and sunset really made for a great experience! The blow-hole wasn't blowing unfortunately but it apparently takes a big storm to get it really going.

We switched on all the lights we had and cycled the final (uphill, grrr) 3km to our acclaimed hostel for the night: Te Nikau. The Nikau is a type of tree that had suddenly appeared everywhere today. It's the only native palm tree in New Zealand and makes things like quite South Pacific.

We were checked in by a lovely lady whom we bought wine from ($12 - what a bargain) and ordered our loaf of fresh bread for the following morning. We enjoyed a pleasant evening drinking our wine and playing scrabble, trying to ignore the nice-but-annoying hippy-want-to-be posh Nelson-ites!