One island done

 Last night was our first night in the South Island, Yay one island done. Yesterday we caught the Bluebridge ferry into Picton after staying in backpackers directly across the road from the Ferry Terminal. We had a great run up and down the Remutuka’s through tunnels and down hill forestry tracks the track to Wellington was scenic to start with along the river but by Upper Hutt we weee welcomed by a Wellington headwind and it was still 50kms to get to the city centre. We rearranged our small backpackers room to fit both the bikes in I could see the Bluebridge ferry terminal from our room so we didn’t have to go far.

The ferry sailing was pretty calm bikes were just tied along a rail on the vehicle deck. We rode off the ferry and straight into a hill for a chamois stop over looking the Ferry. It was good to be riding along the coast through the bush something we hadn’t done in the north.

We rode through to Havelock and to Pelorious bridge all along the main road. We turned off the main road here to tackle the Maungatapu Saddle which is a 650m+ climb all up and down within 15km. It was a challenge with some real brutal sections, large loose rocks, we got to the top just before the sunset and quickly through on another layer ate some mango slices and headed down. The decent was steep, quick, loose and fun. We needed our lights on before the bottom and rode in the dark to find a campground.

Turns out the camp ground was closed, we headed towards Nelson but decided to set up camp in a random park like a couple of protesters on the way, it was time to stop…. Despite illegally camping cHros and I both agreed this was one of the best nights sleep we had got.