Rain, rain, and some more rain

We left Greymouth on Monday afternoon and the roads took us away from the ocean a bit and the skies started turning an ominous grey... quite fitting since we were in the grey district. As we winded our way through lush rain forest, the rains began to fall (It wouldn't be a proper west coast experience if we didn't get some rain in the rain forest). I hear it rains over 300 days out of the year on the west coast so we've been lucky to have quite a bit of sun. The rain actually felt like a nice change from the heat we had been having. After we resigned ourselves to getting wet, it wasn't bad at all.

We made the mistake of stopping in Hokitika for a bit of a break. Just as we stopped, the rains stopped and we held out hopes for a dry finish to the day. However, after eating some pancakes, printing some photos, and sending off some mail (photos are on the way mom) it began to pour! We decided to just get going and get wet. We got into a groove and had a bit of flat road and a tail wind to help us along so the ride went fairly quickly. After over 110 km., we arrived in the small gold mining town of Ross where we enjoyed a wonderful warm shower (ahhh!). Then we cooked a dinner of fresh eggs, fruit, and homemade kiwi jam on toast that we picked up along the way. Afterwards, we relaxed a bit and hit the sacks for a goodnight sleep (in a cabin... protected from the rain).

The next morning, the skies were dry and the sun was starting to peak through the clouds. Our beautiful weather was back. We cycled through some more rainforest... it was gorgeous in the sunlight... and with it came wonderful smells and air that was a joy to breathe. The days ride continued through rainforest most of the way and was quite flat. We had one short 4km climb up mount Hercules later in the afternoon and then coasted in to Whataroa for an ice cream break. As we pulled up to the store, I noticed another broken rear spoke. Luckily I had gotten some spare spokes... it was a good time to learn how to use them.. but first, I needed some ice cream. After enjoying my double scooped cone, I began dismantaling my bike and trying to fix the spoke. As I was putting my wheel back together, a busload of elderly people pulled in for their afternoon ice cream break as well. They all passed by my little work shop trying to figure out what went wrong with my bike and offering bits of advice (oh... "your wheel is flat", "did you try going to the garage down the street", "you should get a new bike"). My situation was quite the sight to see outside the convenient store. Unfortunately I could not get my bike back together again... the spare spoke I bought at the shop was too long and did not provide enough tension to align the wheel back to normal.

Luckily, Mally struck up a conversation with a kind girl (Ef from Israel) who piled our bikes in her car and took us to the nearby town of Fox Glacier. While there are no bike shops for 100's of kilometers in Wanaka, we figured we better stop and see the glaciers before heading there.

That evening, we went to Lake Matheson with Ef to walk around and look at the refelction of the southern alps in the Lake... we did not hit the lake on a calm day, but the reflection was still quite clear. We also had beautiful views of the Alps and our first glimpse of snow for the year. Afterwards, Ef dropped us and our stuff at a nearby campsite and headed on. Mally and I went on the hunt for dinner. After biking over 75km. and walking for an hour, we were quite hungry. We found a place to split a large and delicious pizza and then headed off to bed.