The first day was filled with getting out of Christchurch and we wanted to get some kilometres on the road. We wanted to reach Ashburton but with Vroni's front break being stuck at the end of the day without us realizing, we stopped 15km North of Ashburton where we asked a farmer whether we could pitch our tent somewhere on his ground. The owners Brian and Vicky ended up offering us their shower, WIFI and use of mostly all their facilities in addition to giving us space to put up our tent. We had some really nice conversations, could pet their cats and dog and where even given two huge onions which they grow on their farm.

The next day took us through Ashburton and onto a lovely side road on which we made our way towards the mountains that we planned to start climbing the next day. By staying off the big road, we ended up on some gravel roads, had to walk through a river but were rewarded with some lovely scenery along the way. At some point we used Droni again and just before landing, some vicious territorial birds started circling the drone before attacking it once or twice. Luckily we were about to land anyway and no damage was done but since then we keep our eyes open for bully-birds in the sky. In the evening we found a nice farmer who allowed us to put up our tent on one of his meadows which we shared with his sheep. We could put up our tent close to the river and were able to wash ourselves which was refreshing but cooooold.

After waking up with the sheep we got on our bikes and wanted to get to Lake Tekapo with a short stop in the small town Fairlie. The only problem was: We did not expect the wind. The wind was up to 80km/h strong which meant we even had to pedal when going downhill!! In the end we just made 28km that day and went to the campsite in Fairlie to wait for better weather on the next day to make our way over Burkes Pass (709m) into the mountains and to Lake Tekapo. We met some other bikers who could give us great suggestions and a warm shower was very nice again. Even though we both started getting a little sick, we were motivated to conquer the pass next day.

In order to be on the road before the wind could become stronger, we were up early and managed to be on the road by 8:30am. The first 20km leading up to the pass were a steady slope up and when we arrived at the last steep climb we pushed through it, even though we had to get into the lowest gear we had. After the pass we reached a beautiful plateau from which we could already see snow-covered mountains and a wild tundra landscape around us. At about 1pm we arrived at Lake Tekapo where we got some groceries, put up our tent at the Youth Hostel and got ready for a nice 3h walk along the lake. The interesting thing about this lake is its colour which is a crazy light blue that looks unnatural and which is caused by stone flour from the glacier river that feeds the lake. We had a great walk with some awesome scenic view and we rewarded ourselves with a visit of the Hot Pools afterwards. There we could relax our strained legs in some increasingly hot pools and it was very enjoyable after that long day.

Tomorrow we are planning to head to the foot of Mt Cook, the highest mountain of New Zealand. We will keep you posted in some days.

Keep cycling,

Vroni, Droni & Joni