We were picked up at our hotel this morning by our guides Rachel and Vicki from Adventure South. Joined by 7 other cyclists from Austria, Australia, NZ and the United States, it was to be a long day today in our minibus with trailer in tow.
We started the drive in thick fog and drove for about an hour to the small town of Waikari where we adjusted our bikes and headed for a 25 km ride along a quiet country road to Greta Valley to check the bikes were ok. It was much hotter than we expected and we worked up quite a sweat going up the hills.
We then got back on the bus for a short drive to Cheviot for lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent getting to our motel in Blenheim. Unfortunately this part of the country suffered a severe earthquake in 2016 which closed Highway 1 for 13 months. The road is now open but there is still a lot of roadworks so the going was slow.
We had a short stop at Kaikoura to stretch the legs and check out the beach.
On the next section of road we saw where the seabed had risen 2m due to the earthquake and exposed new rocks. Seals basked on rocks while workmen stopped us regularly.
We arrived at Blenheim at 1730, looking forward to a hot shower and dinner at the pub across the road.
