Tuatapere to Invercargill, Wednesday 9 February










1) View from lookout towards Fiordland

2) Town of Orepuki

3) On the coast road



Today was cloudy but dry and fairly humid with temperatures reaching 26C in the afternoon.

After 5 miles we reached the coast and a lookout with views back along the coast to the mountains of Fiordland and across the channel to Stewart Island in the far distance.

Cycling along the coast we started to see clumps of trees bent far over by the south west wind which normally roars up the channel of this remote part of Southland. The trees were seared white by salt.

We stopped for elevenses at a pub in the remote town of Orepuki. Some of the centre was long since deserted with the buildings looking straight out of a ghost town from the wild west.

We continued along the Coast alongside the dark and inpenatrable Longwood forest with knarled and stubby trees looking straight out of Middle Earth. We spotted a New Zealand Wood Pigeon twice the size of an ordinary pigeon perched on a branch.

We stopped for lunch at Riverton and then a flat or gently rolling ride to the South Coast city of Invercargill.

Distance for the day was 52.8 miles with 1197 ft of climb. Average speed was 10.4 and riding time 4 hrs 58 mins.