Woke up this morning and it is STILL raining.
Has been raining continuously now for 4 days.
Rode to Balclutha.
At Balclutha Subway I got a couple of subway plastic bags and put my feet in these so that the bags were between my socks and my boots.
Rode along Catlin coast to Kahuika.
Turned right into Mouats Saddle Rd and on to Tahakopa Valley Rd via Dewe Rd.
At Mokoreta I turned onto Slopedown road. This was quite scenic and the weather had cleared now. I rode on to Clinton, Waipahi and Tapanui.
At Tapanui I saw Mark drive by in a truck while I was fuelling up.
I chased after him on the bike and we ended up pulling into his work yard in Tapanui. He was just out taking the truck for a test drive. We chatted for a while, mostly about Stewart Island fishing.
Then I rode on to Gore and Bluff.
At Bluff I was just in time to store my bike and catch the 5:00pm ferry to Stewart Island. ($60)
It was very rough seas for the first 15 minutes of the trip. I was loving it. The skipper was having to alter course dramatically to take the waves head on. About a 4 metre swell in a medium sized alloy Catamaran. The bow was diving under the sea and large washes of water were coming up the front window and over the boat.
The stewardess was talking to scared people assuring them it was quite safe.
I had 2 cans of Speights during this first part of the journey. I was quite parched after a longish ride.
About 25 minutes into the trip I became queasy and had to waste my Speights over the side of the boat. Watching about 10 other other passengers throw up into sick bags didn't help. It was a fun trip overall.
Arrived at Stewart Island and had a good walk around and bought some fish and chips.
The bird life on Stewart Island was the stand-out thing for me. Lots of Wood pigeons and Tui's in the trees throughout the Half Moon Bay town of Oban. The Wood pigeons were very large compared to the ones I had seen on the Mainland. I asked the lady at the fish and chip shop if they were a different species. She said that they were the same species, it's just that they get a lot more food on Stewart Island. I can understand now why the Moari ate them. The larger size ones would give a good sized feed and apparently taste very similar to chicken.
Stayed overnight in the pub. ($62)
Map of the road travelled today:
http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Dunedin&daddr=Balclutha+to:Kaimataitai+to:Mouats+Saddle+Rd+to:Mokoreta+to:Clinton+to:Tapanui+to:Invercargill+to:Ward+Pde+to:Foreshore+Rd&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=-46.464349,169.3927&sspn=2.221138,3.098145&ie=UTF8&ll=-45.977878,169.140015&spn=2.2409,3.098145&z=8
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