13th January 2022 (cloudy and cold) 55km

Alarm off at 5.30am. Apart from putting last minute stuff away we had a bit of fruit and cleaned our teeth and we were out of camp and rolling on State Highway 8. We decided that this was our best bet as the other way was longer, hillier and pretty desolate from what we'd heard. However, the down side on this road was the traffic.                            

I'd checked the forecast the previous night, which suggested cloudy with a high of seventeen degrees. No wind.  We'll take that, so off we set. 

A gradual climb to begin, but we were fired up to make as much distance as possible, before peak traffic. A steady pace saw us making great time and with only a few cars and no big trucks, we were humming along. 

After climbing without really noticing, it was great to get a brilliant downhill through the Manuka gorge. By 7.50am, we had arrived in the metropolis, that is Milton. One street, most of the businesses are for sale, the wind was now up and the temperature was a balmy ten degrees. That's right.. a whole ten degrees. 

Everywhere was closed so we rode down the main street, because we could, looking aimlessly for anything to take our interest. Nothing did, because Milton has nothing. I am sorry to any readers who come from Milton... so, so sorry.     

On our second run through of the town, we found Cafe Forum, it opened at 8am. Perfect, it was now one minute after. The way we all bundled through the door, was similar to a Black Friday sale. They did cooked breakfasts, they had tea and coffee. Sorted. 

Managed to drag our eating and drinking out until 10am, before deciding to risk it on State Highway 1 to Waihola, rather than be found frozen, hunched over our handlebars, in this town that man forgot.                                                             

The most interesting thing we saw on our ride from Milton to Waihola, so you get two photos.

I remember now why I don't cycle the main highways of New Zealand. Aside from your normal idiots in cars, you also have huge truck and trailers bearing down on you at the allocated speed limit, 100kph. When you've spent a month on back roads and gravel, it's unnerving to have this huge tonnage bearing down on you, with less than a metre between you and the ditch.           

We obviously made it to the lakeside settlement of Waihola and checked into a cabin as it was freezing cold. We are now here for two days as tomorrow we move across the road to a motel we booked, so that we could ride to the airport, without having to think about packing up the tent. 

These sunflowers struggle to remember it's Summer.

Waihola, after looking around today, consists of a petrol station, a dairy, a fish n chip shop, a nice cafe, restaurant and bar (very nice meals there tonight) and a motel. There are some nice homes scattered around the streets and a lawn bowls club. Oh, and of course, the lake. Today, it was so cold, the only water you would have wanted would have come from a hot shower. 

The lake looks nicer in this photo than it did in real life.

It's certainly not the place we would have chosen to spend the last couple of days, but it's too far into Dunedin to go for the day, even on a bus, as by the time you got there, you'd only have an hour, before you caught the last bus back to Waihola. 

After all the great cycling and beautiful scenery we've seen this past month, it's extremely disheartening to finish up treading water in the back of beyond.. I have enjoyed being on the road again and it makes me pine for the overseas adventures we've had.

We have a beautiful country and the more they can link up the trails, the more people will use them. But you definitely need the infrastructure to support the cyclists.  Campgrounds,  stores or cafes are necessary but judging by all the For Sale signs in some of these places, many people do not wish to live in the back of beyond to provide these services.....and who can blame them.