01/5/08: 52km, Lake Ianthe - Lake Mahinapua DOC
02/5/08: 53km, Lake Mahinapua - Greymouth
We left Franz Josef in bad weather and unfortunately it followed us until lunchtime. It rained a bit on and off for the next few days but luckily we never really got properly caught by it.
We met an english cyclist coming from the other direction on a blue bike with a blue bag with a one armed blue teddy bear he had rescued by the side of the road. The deserted Lake Ianthe campsite was set by a beautiful lake and we even managed to have a swim in the morning before a gang of Japanese bikers and a bus load of Bavarian tourists turned up to peer into our tent. Just as we were packing up a lady came up to us and gave us homemade cookies and her address so we could come and stay with her when we reached the North Island. How strange and nice.
We had a fairly short flat day to Lake Mahinapua which was also very pretty set behind a dense fairytale forest. It was raining slightly the next morning so we took refuge in a cafe in Hokitika (the first largish town we had been to in two weeks, wohoo), where we enjoyed some local bakery delights and endured the local radio station's hits of the 70's and 80's. The weather front passed over us and we cycled to Greymouth in the sunshine, with another front chasing us the whole way. We arrived in time to go to the Montheith brewery for an early liquid dinner.
We spent the next day in Greymouth enjoying many hot bubble baths in our aquaticly themed hostel, cooked a bucket of mussels in white wine and cream sauce and went in search of the nonexistant night life.
arriving at Lake Ianthe
Ross, goldmining wild west town
Lake Mahinapua
Hokitika, a fine balance to stay out of the rain
Greymouth industrial art
Greymouth industrial art
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