First rule of cycling:

The wind is always in your face!  It took us a while to get going today as we had to extricate the bikes from the car and get the wheels on, pack the panniers and then sort out where we were leaving the car and the rest of the luggage (on a piece of scrub land behind the motel, hidden from the road and part of the motel property. It wasn't supposed to be a long ride today (more of that later) so we didn't rush around and it was probably 9.45am before we left. I have been doing some rearranging of our plans since we got here and what was originally a 200 mile 3 day bike tour has become a 200 mile 4 day trip. This was when we realised that consecutive 75 mile days taking in the highest sealed road in NZ was somewhat optimistic, especially given the erratic weather.

Anyway the day started sunny and warm, but with a vicious wind from the north / north west - the exact direction we were to be cycling all day.  We had expected a really easy day as the route was essentially flat with only minor undulations.  The problem with this is that there is no respite from the wind howling across the wide valleys!  We made slower progress than expected, but were still only about 8 miles from Wanaka at lunchtime. Perhaps foolishly I suggested an additional loop, which turned out to be extremely difficult to navigate and was still straight into the wind until the last few miles, when we finally got a tailwind (having gone past our destination and turned back). It was only 50 miles in total, but I was blown off the road once when we went round a bend and hit a crosswind, while Chris was virtually blown to a complete standstill. Arriving in Wanaka we realised several things:

It has grown enormously since we were last here on Christmas Eve 2006 and has lost much of its charm - heaving with people and incredibly expensive. We only found one shop selling ice cream and we both refused, on principle, to pay 6 NZD for the smallest cone they sold. For less than 5 NZD we bought 6 chocolate muffins instead to enjoy with a cup of tea at the motel.  The motel itself is fine, much further out of town than I thought it was - but therefore very quiet. We trekked back in to get food for tonight at the supermarket and had to fight our way back uphill into the wind, which is already strengthening to no doubt reach gale force as promised for overnight and tomorrow (headwind forecast again😡).

So what is happening in Wanaka I hear you ask.  Well the main headline in the Wanaka Sun is about the increase in 'Boozy Bike Thefts'.  Apparently bikes are being taken late at night from the bike racks on the lake front, but are then recovered the following day from elsewhere in town. Most owners get their bikes back with the help of Facebook!  The police are rarely informed and over the busy holiday period only had a child's bike and a wheelchair handed in (hard to imagine you wouldn't notice the theft of a wheelchair).

Any croquet experts out there? The Wanaka Croquet Club plays both Golf Croquet and Association Croquet (although presumably not at the same time) - any explanations??  Or how about signing up for a 'Wild Child Adventure Session'?  These are for boys 7-12 and consist of a Parent and Child led 'adventure' no agenda...........????!!!

It clouded up quite early today and as I haven't yet mastered taking pictures of the wind, today's selection is rather restricted. The one below set me thinking - do they have a cow on standby permanently waiting for someone to roll up and milk it or is the fresh milk put in a machine for people to bring their own containers - if the latter how long can it stay in the machine before it is no longer 'Udderly Fresh'.  So many questions.........