Despite starting later (due to the sun being lazy), I’ve actually missed out on a fair bit of sleep over the last few days so please forgive me for the shorter updates as today will be no different.
The ride today was much better than yesterday. After leaving Christchurch, the traffic largely disappeared and the route also became much more scenic. It’s difficult to say whether I prefer the flat riding or the hills. The former is often far more boring so when I’m not in much of hurry, the hills are actually quite good.
On that basis, I’m sure a few people are wondering why I have stuck to the East coast rather than the West which offers far more in the way of scenery and hills. Well, the reason is that they are mountains rather than hills and what with it being winter, they are currently covered in snow.
The only thing out of the ordinary today was the discovery that I hadn’t actually tightened the face-plate on my stem enough when I put my bike together the other day… meaning that halfway through the ride, I suddenly found my handlebars pointing towards the floor.
We’re now in Kaikoura – a known whale watching spot, and guess how many we saw… absolutely none.
Distance: 111.8 miles / 179.9 km
Riding Time: 8:01:11
Av. Speed: 13.9 mph / 22.4 kph
Tom Davies RTW 
So basically Tom, what your saying is, having your dad around is a bit of a distraction and your not getting your required shut eye.
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The whales are close to the shore – the contintal shelf drops about 1km out, which means you don’t have to go far out to sea to see whales. But yes you do need to get out to sea, so unfortunately you probably will miss this treat too. Another place to go back to. Along with Napier, my favourite town in all of New Zealand
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