Day 32 - Winton

 Only 63 km to Bluff and the end of the cycling!!!!  

All of the sudden it’s almost over, and I haven’t had much time to wrap my head around it!  Today was fantastic.  An early start from Ian’s home, where he drove about an hour skirting the edge of Queenstown, to drop us off at the start of the trail at Garston.  We knew we had about 100km to ride and that the wind would be increasing throughout the day….but all this escaped my mind.  We had a nice coffee/tea before departing as well as second breakfast.  

I must have stopped every few minutes to take photos today, including setting up for selfies.  I just took my time and really enjoyed the day.  The track to Lumsden was gravel, but well maintained.  It went through a working farm, so every km or so I had to get off the bike…open the gate after figuring it out….roll my bike through, put out the kickstand, then shut the gate.  All this took a fair bit of time.  So when I stopped in Lumsden for lunch at 2pm, I decided to stay on the highway.  Not the best decision….it was busy with narrow shoulders, and had three fairly good hills, while the path that I was supposed to take was sealed, no gates and no hills!  Oh well.  The wind picked up just as I headed out of Lumsden….started as a cross wind which was blowing me around a fair bit, then ended up as a head wind.  So strong and gusty and increased as the afternoon went on.  The gusts were up to 65km/hr by the time I arrived!  But we made it!  The views were magnificent today….especially at the beginning of the day when we were surrounded by the hills.  

I’m so excited for tomorrow!!!!