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**saralou** · #1 26 Apr 2018

And… suddenly near Duntroon you meet tar seal for the next 23 km on the Hwy 83 to the Hakataramea Valley Road.

FILE2420 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Here at Duntroon we turned west and stopped for a coffee at the kiosk at the junction. We then rode the 23 Km father to Kurow where they had fuel, a 4 Square, and the sun was shining. From here we are headed off road again on the Hakataramea Valley road. It should be 90 km to Twizle. The big black rain clouds are now descending on us and it has started to rain a bit. The first 35 km of the road is paved to cattle Creek and we tried to really book it to stay ahead of the storm.

FILE2425 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #2 26 Apr 2018

We are eventually going to steer out of the rains path, but not until about half way. The gravel on this road is the slightly deeper sharp and annoying to ride on kind at least until after the pass where there is more traffic and a good track to ride in. There are a number of fords before the summit and dozens of cattle stops.

FILE2433 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

FILE2437 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

FILE2442 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

FILE2444 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

FILE2452 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

FILE2460 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

NZ South Isand-210 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

NZ South Isand-211 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

NZ South Isand-212 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

FILE2461 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

NZ South Isand-213 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

FILE2470 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

FILE2474 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

FILE2475 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

NZ South Isand-214 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

FILE2478 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #3 26 Apr 2018

It is again a pretty windy day. We got to a fork in the road and the GPS said go left 44 km to Twizle, but the road sign says No Exit! So we went right and this is 12 km to the main road Hwy 8 and is paved. This then put us 70 km from Twizle on the Highway 8 and the wind was very strong and gusting.

Screen Shot 2018-02-23 at 23.42.40 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

We stopped in Lake Tekapo to call the campground in Twizle to see if they had a cabin for tonight as we could use a night with power. They did and it was only 15 dollars more than camping for 2.

FILE2494 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

IMG_2197 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

IMG_2201 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

NZ South Isand-215 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

NZ South Isand-216 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #4 26 Apr 2018

We stopped at Lake Pukaki for a rare we are told cloudless view of New Zealand’s highest peak Mt. Cook and then rode the last 25 km to the campground.

NZ South Isand-217 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

NZ South Isand-218 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

NZ South Isand-219 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

NZ South Isand-220 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

The wind was Patagonia strong! The cabin is tiny, but comfortable and warm and there are plenty of outlets to charge everything we have at once. We cooked up a nice pasta alfredo and tucked in to get a few episodes of Fargo viewed. It is actually freezing outside and we are glad to have our minus 15 sleeping bags and we even turned the heater on in the morning once we had to get out of said warm cocoons.

IMG_2206 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #5 26 Apr 2018

We woke to another sunny day and the plan is to ride up to Mount Cook village and then on to Geraldine.

Screen Shot 2018-02-23 at 23.43.49 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

FILE2501 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

There are great views of the mountain range almost all the way, but we were fighting very strong winds.

FILE2557 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

FILE2559 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

NZ South Isand-221 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

NZ South Isand-222 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #6 26 Apr 2018

We had lunch in the village and by 1230 it was getting very clouded over.

FILE2589 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

On the way back down the 80 to the Highway 8 we had the wind at our backs, but on the way to lake Tekapo it was blowing us all over the road. It was lucky for Dan the last 5 km where downhill and with the wind as he had “zero km to empty”.

FILE2598 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

FILE2605 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

We planned to head another 89 km to Geraldine and camp for the night. This is the last good weather for the rest of the week as another cyclone is scheduled to hit the north of the island in the next 2 days. The Top 10 in Geraldine is quite nice and in the center of the town. The tent sites are huge and have nice thick grass. We got some groceries and set up camp.

IMG_2208 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #7 26 Apr 2018

We do not have far to go today to Christchurch, but the weather is supposed to turn to another Cyclone this afternoon.

Screen Shot 2018-02-23 at 23.45.40 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Despite this forecast that it would be nice until 3 pm it started to rain as we were packing up this morning. We only went about 15 minutes and we were ahead of the storm and the sun was shining. We then opted for the “Inland Scenic Route”.

FILE2626 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

FILE2636 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

About half way today Dan’s 800 passed 250,000 km!!! This route happily also took us back a few km from Sheffield where they have the best pie shop on the south island!

NZ South Isand-224 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

NZ South Isand-223 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

NZ South Isand-225 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr