Cycle: 110km

Our three "rest" days over we were up early and out of the fairly scummy Berlins early. There was a thick fog through the valleys while we cycled along the river until we made our first stop at Inangahua, a tiny settlement with a shop and small cafe. I have a feeling the farmers were admiring my lycra while Claire played with the farm dog. Apparently he'd lost his tail whilst fighting with a pig his owner was trying to kill. You've got to love these outback Kiwis.

The mist cleared as we continued our route up alongside the Buller River and through nearby farmland for most of the day. We lunched at a great cafe called the Riverside Cafe in Murchison and did some planning. We hadn't had mobile reception for days and weren't expecting it for another 36 hours so needed to book some stuff. We booked ourselves into the White Elephant in Motueka, a freedom kayak for two days and some Abel Tasman accommodation with Aquapackers.

Unfortunately this took a while with lots of calls to the kayak people so we left Murchison with not much time to get all the way to Glenhope, but at least we were feeling fairly organised for the next few days.

The remainder of the cycle continued to be generally uphill and undulating and due to the lack of light we really pushed ourselves for the final 45km or so. We finally arrived at our cyclist-friendly hostel for the night as it really got dark. Their driveway was rediculously steep and gravel and a total killer after 110km of hard riding! Hu-Ha Bikepackers was lovely. We had booked but they'd forgotten so we chatted to the owner Sam as the room was prepared. We were the only people there and enjoyed the log fire and Abba records during the evening. There was a North Island Pedallers Paradise book which we used to check our plans for the North Island. Luckily all our planned days were reasonably and mostly flat! That was a relief. The only problem is the near suicidal route out of Wellington but we came up with a hillier, much safer, alternative.

After the terrible bed the night before we really needed a good one after the long day. We got it! A great bed in a quiet location was just what we wanted for a good night's sleep.