We had a great brekie at a cute cafe before getting on the road this morning. I had the Chiefs Special, way too much food, but awesome! Baked beans, sausage, great bacon, 2 poached eggs, hash browns, a grilled tomato and 2 pieces of toast…wowzer! Kev had the Smoked Salmon Benedict which was tastey, but rich. We lucked out with the weather, no rain for Christchurch this morning…Score! It kinda puts a damper on things when you are trying to load up your bikes in the rain, as opposed to riding through the rain?
The riding today was pretty ordinary?!!…Are you kidding me…Do you think I'm lying???…Yeah, you caught me…It was spectacular, probably the best day yet! If I had to describe to you how I felt, well…it was like a hot knife through butter!! The air was warm, sweet and still, the curves were gentle and flowing and our communications worked perfectly for the first time!…"Sweet As", as they say! On the way towards Lewis Pass we pulled off at a small town to mess with the volume levels on the radios. I have to veer off a tad and tell you about this totally curious 11 year old. He was the best! As soon as he saw us riding down the road he was right on us. He rode over, threw down his scooter and started asking a ton of questions about the bikes. Where are you going? How fast do the bikes go? Why do you have so much stuff on your bikes? Why do you camp? Do you not have a lot of money? Do you have good riding skills? Can you ride with one hand? Is that an iPhone on your bike? Who's bike is faster? Your bike is leaking petrol!…Wow, can you talk to each other? Why don't you wash your hands in the toilets??…(Kev?? sorry inside joke) Maybe we have planted a seed? What a kick I really enjoyed this surprise encounter
Watch out for grass trimming tractors! We came across 3 sets today and it can be a total surprise. They busily trim the grass by the sides of the road and maneuver in, out and around those post things that run alongside the road…you do not expect this type of attention to the landscape especially when you are in the boonies… it totally keeps us on our toes!
The forests passes were amazing today, so many big black trunked trees sporting vivid green leaves. With the sunlight streaming through the trees, it was totally spectacular…I have talked about the vividness of the colors before it just simply blows me away! So here we are in Westport and we are almost done with the South Island of New Zealand :( We did a little grocery shopping and I'm cooking chicken with mushroom risotto in our room tonight and enjoying a nice New Zealand red… Nite!