31st December 2021 (cool, cloudy and windy at times) 66 km

Up at 5.36am and straight into packing up ready for our ride, firstly to Ranfurly, where we could get some breakfast and then on to our final destination of the day Omakau.               

It was pretty cool packing everything up this morning, but at least no condensation on the tent, so an easy pack up. Crept quietly out of camp, with gloves and cycling tights on as well as our jackets. Cycled the 9kms to Ranfurly and our fingers were freezing, even having the gloves on. 

The Maniototo Cafe was open, but not for a big breakfast, only for cabinet food.       

At first I was afraid, I was petrified.  Couldn't get my eggs scrambled or even fried.                                              Then I spent so many minutes feeling sorry for myself.                      Then I'd decide.... a cheese scone it would be tried.                                 But Ranfurly, I will survive.         With this cheese scone I'll get to Wedderburn or maybe Clyde.             And when I get back to New Plymouth, I will breakfast at the Fed.                                                Where eggs are fried.                                 Hollandaise is on the side.                        Hey Hey.                                                                                                       

Feeling somewhat sated by sharing a cheese scone and a date scone fresh from the oven, Ju and I rode on toward Wedderburn. The wind came up for a while, but nothing too strong. We were travelling through a huge expanse of farmland and when that Nor Wester blows down here, you'd be working hard for your money, but that's a whole other song. 

Stopped at Wedderburn for a breather and to read about  the old station, which has been kept for the trail. On to Oturehua, where we paid a visit to Gilchrists General Store. 

This place was straight out of the 1930s or 40s, with sweets in the old styjars, old biscuit tins on display, old credit books etc. Lovely older lady served us two very nice coffees, which we complimented her on, before buying two Jimmy's pies (very nice too Dad) and heading off down the trail again.           

We were enjoying the riding today as it was like a walk in the park after climbing over Danseys yesterday. The scenery was beginning to change and the sky was filled with different cloud formations and the surrounding hills were various shades of green or gold while the more distant mountains were deep blues or purples. Of course we were stopping regularly for photos. 

As the day wore on, scenes were changing constantly.

We had two tunnels to go through.  The first one we managed with no torch as before we lost the light from the front, we had rounded a slight bend and could see the light at the end.  The second one was longer and we needed our headtorches.  

Amazing to see the rough pickaxe work inside the tunnel thrown into sharp relief from the weak light of the headtorches. Very disorienting though as the torches weren't strong enough to pierce the total darkness in the middle and you felt like suddenly there were no walls around you and in the next second that you might ride into a wall.  We scooted through that bit, keeping our eyes on the light at the end to try and keep a straight line.

Bridges were now appearing and reading about some of the experiences of these engineers was really interesting.                                  

Pulled into Omakau at 2.30pm and was advised to book a table at the local pub considering it was new year's eve. So cycled there only to find they didn't open until 3pm so went into the cafe across the road for coffee and cake.

After that we tried to book a table at the hotel only to be told they weren't serving food tonight. So cycled along to the campground and set the tent up on the leeward side of a big shed as we noticed all the other tents were getting blown around by the ever present strong wind.

Gratefully got showers after that and then did a load of washing and drying while we blogged as we had a bit of catching up to do.

Then we walked back to the cafe we'd been to earlier as they doubled up as the local takeaway joint. Had burgers and chips outside in the wind before crossing the road to the pub, where we found out that they were, in fact, serving food... bugger.       

Had a wine and a beer and caught up with the blog, which has been difficult to put together over the last few days without any cellphone coverage or wifi.

Walked back to camp, hopeful that it would be a campground of boring bastards, like us and not noisy, rowdy partygoers. We live in hope.                     

As the sun sets on the year 2021, we wonder "will we be able to sleep tonight?"