Cycle: 87km

Big hill day! After checking out of the White Elephant (which had lovely grounds and could be really nice) we stopped in Hat Trick Lodge to book our lodgings for the way back over the hill (we had to go back through Motueka on the way back from Collingwood and didn't fancy the White Elephant again). This hostel seemed much calmer and cleaner and had a tabby called Jack who liked me picking him up! We called in to Muses cafe for a cooked breakfast and mugs of tea to see us over the bump.

The climb began 10km outside of Motueka and we were ready for steepness but it turned out to be about 14km of not-too-steep up to a summit of 791m. We really enjoyed it. There was not too much traffic and what there was couldn't go too fast due to the windy roads. We had great views on the way up over Tasman Bay and on way down over Golden Bay. The descent was brilliant and we whizzed down 10km in no time (it looks like a harder ascent going back but we tried not to think about that and enjoy the downhill). The hill was dotted with marbe limestone karsts and loooked quite dramatic.

We had to pedal the 20km into Takaka where we stopped at the highly recommended Wholemeal Cafe a local institution. Tom, our kayak guide had reommended the chocolate cake here and the carrot cake in the Grape Escape near Nelson, it would be not to try wouldn't it? We had great food and coffee then a funny adventure in the Fresh Choice supermarket - nobody would tell Scott where to put his basket.

The last 30km to Collingwood were undulating and we encountered coastal views and aggressive drivers (not with us but with each other, and we thought this was chilled out hippy territory?). Our hostel, Somerset House turned out to be one of the best yet! It was superclean and frienly and oganised and you get free breakfast of freshly baked bread. Brilliant. And they have a friendly ginger and white cat and ginger dog. We went to bed (a huge, firm futon) really early without an alarm set as tommorrow was our proper, no exercise rest day. Yippee!