Distance cycled: 123.3km from Wakefield to Bob's place near Murchison, South Island, NZ
Average speed: 18.2km/h
Moving Time: 6h45m
Elevation Ascended: 1846m
Total Distance on Current trip: 2,507km
Distance until I have cycled the circumference of Earth: 5,900km
Money spent: $20
Mid afternoon whilst having lunch a bastard bee crawled between my toes and stung the bottom of my foot. Man was it painful and as much as I would have liked to nurse it I knew I had to continue on this beautiful road towards the coast to the place we will be spending the night at Bob's place beside the Buller river.
It was a tough day of cycling having to not only cycle steep gradients to the top of two passes but also 123km in a single day exerts much energy.
Despite getting stung, having drenched my shirt in sweat, fixed two punctures (now 11 punctures in total), had some stupidly close calls with a couple of vehicles and pushed myself as far as we had today it still was an awesome day with incredible backdrops that resembled oil paintings, occasionally empty roads with little traffic, clear rivers and many nice people including our host for the evening, Bob.
Bob lived 15km west of Murchison in what he called the shed, a small home he and a friend had built beside The Buller river with camping for cycle tourists who pasted by.
As there wasn't any cell reception he preferred people to show up and pitch there tent rather than go though the process to request a place to stay for the night. So this is what we did, Spencer and I showed up and as he was there, you could stay even if he wasn't home, and pitched our tent before having a shower and cook dinner.
Bob had spent many years traveling the world and has now cycled a huge chunk of it, an intelligent, friendly and open minded guy who would no doubt get along with anyone who spent a night or two at his place. And because he had used warm showers on his previous bike trips he set up his place to return the favor of offering touring cyclists a place to stay.
We all chatted to close to midnight and the only problem I had with Bob's amazing 6 acres of land were the Sandflies that swarmed us when we arrived but the mornings are suppose to be worse so tomorrow will be interesting.
Climbing up Hope Saddle Summit
Camping at Bobs Place
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