Day 13 - Wellington/Picton tp Canvastown - 54 k, 700 m



We left the Hostel at about 6:45 AM for a nice ride along the waterfront to the Bluebridge wharf to catch the 8:15 AM ferry to Picton. As happens on these rides you get to meet other cyclists along the way and  your paths cross time and again and so it was with Reggie a Brazillian fellow cycling around NZ and John an English fellow out  here riding as well - both were on the ferry with us. Reggie shared some good GoPro editing software with me and I had been sharing with him the joys of riding with cycle.travel as the go to navigation tool. A teast 1.5 hours of the Cook Strait crossing was taken up with educating each other on software.

We arived in Picton ahead of John and Ian wo are meeting us for the South Island leg of our ride - Ian once again volunteered to be our driver which means we now no longer have to carry all our gear with us as that can travel in the car. For me it also meant I can now hop on my new MTB for the rest of the ride (full suspension and light - yay).

We had lunch on Picton and then sorted out what we needed to take before heading off alongside Queen Charlotte Drive for most of the trail throough to Havelock. After the first big hill out of Picton on the track at Ngakuta Bay Peter and Stephen opted to ride the road while Johna and myself carried on. The road alongside the sounds is nice however the bike path is even nicer with lovely views of the Sounda through the forest canopy.

John and I went and looked t our friend's of land at Ngakuta Bay so now when they are talking about it we have an idea of what it is they are talking about.

The track was great to ride and also allowed for hopefully some good video footage as I had the GoPro capturing quite a bit of it. We arrived at the Perlorous Hotel about 6:00 PM and in contrast to som other acccommodation providers they went out of their way to welcome us - much apprciated.

Finished the day off with a good Scotch Fillet steak.

There was no riding to speak of yesterday as we caught the train in to WGN from Masterton, we got Peter's bike fixed and I showed the Boys around WGN. A Courtenany Place Cafe for breakfast thn on to Te Papa, a walk to the Cable car and then a walk back down to Parliament grounds before a bis ride back to the EVO shop' I Saw that the YHA had a good kitchen and so we ate in. I cooked, we started with Prawn Cocktail then had a simple meal of bangers and mash followed by  strawberry cheesecake for desert.

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