Finally - payback time!!!!

After heavy rain yesterday evening and overnight, we woke to leaden skies, wind and spots of rain. Luckily it was a short day (40 miles) and the overall route was downhill (only 2,500ft of ascent), with the added bonus of the wind being at our backs and the clouds clearing by late morning. We were riding a main road, but it had a good cycling shoulder and after about 12 miles much of the traffic turned off to go up over the Crown Ranges, the way we descended into Queenstown.  Our first stop was at a bungee jump site, 50 metre drop, with the option of a water touch. Not for us, although I did offer to give C a go as his birthday present - strangely enough he refused in a rather impolite manner!

We watched for a while, the headed on through the Kawaru Gorge, which would have been a long drag going the other way, but a pleasant descent for us. We stopped for lunch at the Roaring Meg lookout - I was expecting a spectacular waterfall, but in fact 'Roaring Meg' referred to a dancer who was carried across the stream by a group of miners in the gold rush, but made a terrible fuss about it. The second dancer had a creek named 'Gentle Annie' in her memory, so you can figure out she didn't make a fuss.  The weather just got better and better as we approached Cromwell - where we set out from 4 days ago. We thought the artwork (pictured below) was a giant chicken at first, but closer observation shows it is a bunch of fruit - which the area is famous for (allegedly).

Reunited with the car and our non-cycling luggage we did a massive washing run which we were able to hang out in the grounds of the motel. With the strong wind and bright sun it dried in no time and has now been repacked. The photo below is the initial chaos of our arrival! 

So today's puzzle concerns waste bins: 'Two new state of the art Big Belly bins are being trialled in Queenstown.  The solar-powered waste bins are connected to a cloud based asset management system that reports on how full they are and sends alerts when they need to be collected. The Council hope that they will offer the ability to better understand waste levels in real time...........'

Do we really need electronically monitored rubbish bins......????