So this was the most incredible day that I have yet experienced. Whether it was the fact that I couldn't wait to get out of the sandfly city that I had found myself in at Lake Paringa but I was non the road by 8:40am and feeling in great form which made a big change to how I felt the day before. This feeling was to stay with me for the whole day to such an extent that even by the end of it when I had managed to clock up a whopping amount of km I still felt I could carry on cycling - would have gone all the way to Wanaka had the time been with me but decided that 6:30pm was not a good time to decide to continue on to Wanaka form Makarora where I had decided to make my stop having passed by two of the DOC campsites.
The cycling from Lake Paringa was with a few notable hills on the way - the first being a steep climb to Knights Point where I stopped and took some more shots before coasting downhill and then doing the old up and down until I reached Haast where I pulled around midday. Walked into the DOC office and had a good chat to the woman in the centre about how far I should travel that day and if the weather was going to kick in which it was predicted to tdo the following day then getting over the Hasst would be a good idea.
I had originally settled on just getting to Pleasant Point but when I arrived there at 4:30pm after having stopped for lunch at the cafe in Hasst also gettinga few supplies and meeting a lovely Australian family who chatted with me and took piccie of my website on my bike to follow my journey, I aksed this bus driver about the distance and he wasn't sure but then finding myself getting attacked by sandflies once again I felt that this was not a place I wanted to stay and as the weather was good it was better to move on.
So the big climb through the pass started and I found myself having to once again push the bike up a fair bit of it but I didn't mind the workout giving my bum some time out and showing me some amazing views. It was a definite steep continuous climb though but not the horrendous experience I had thought it might be which I was really pleased about.
I stopped a number of times just to get some more water and to give my heart time to calm down again. No one offered to give me a lift but hey I didn't care I was really enjoying it. By the time I realised I had reached the pass itself and was on top pretty much on the flat top I was loving it and made it to the end of the pass before it all started turning into a massive downhill road of ecstacy by 5:30pm.
At this point I felt great and a huge sense of achievement and soo pleaesd that I had carried on and not stopped where I had originally planned for. I continued passed Cameron Flat the other DOC campsite that I had thought about staying in and onto the wee township of Makaroa where there was a great lodge. By this time it was 6:30pm and although I felt so fit and very able to continue down to Wanaka it was the time that put me off goint any further and I must have clocked up loads of kms anyway.
Walked into the lodge to be greeted by the bus driver I had met at Pleasant Point and he was surprised to see me there already. Booked into the dorm for the night as felt I had definitely worked hard for a night on a real bed - the first since leaving Christchurch a few days back now. Turned out my dorm was actually a chalet that I shared with a dutch woman called Petra - lovely person whom I got on really well with.
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