The next morning we moved on in direction of Martinborough. We had to cycle out of Wellington on the big roads but after that we could follow the nice Rimutaka Cycle Trail. After staying close to a river, the cycle trail followed an old rail trail through the hills, including the old tunnels - it was an awesome way. The trail was mostly in the covered by trees and apart from some steeper parts in the beginning and a very steep part in the middle, it was really easy going. We also had a couple of tunnels to cycle through. After the trail there were just a couple of flat kilometers left until we reached Martinborough but we kept going out of the city to look for a place to stay. We found an older Kiwi couple after 113km (never went so far before) who gave us a place for our tent and even invited us in for a really, really good dinner.

Before leaving they even offered us some apples and plums from the garden. This day we wanted to get to Alfredton. We cycled along a nice valley through green rolling hills along Route 52. It reminded us of our cycle trip through Ireland. 10 km before reaching Alfredton we had to stop because of a farmer mustering some sheep across the street. There we got in tough with the farmer Todd and had a really nice chat but kept on cycling. After a couple of meters we remembered the bad weather forecast for the weekend and decided to go back and ask if they had a place for us to stay for the next days. He invited us to stay in an empty cottage on their ground which was just an empty house for ourselves including a kitchen, bed and bathroom. We ended up staying there for four nights altogether and during the days we helped Todd and his wife Jace in the woolshed (Jonas was even shown how to crotch a sheep which means shearing their dirty behinds before their wool is taken off). On one day they took us to a local horse event where their kids and the adults could compete in some races, it was cool to see how Kiwi families spend their weekend. Just before leaving they told us about Todd's sister who lived two days of biking away for us and offered us to stay there, so we already had another place to sleep organized already.

All the best from New Zealand,

Keep cycling and may you always have a tailwind,

Vroni, Droni & Joni