As the others were going to take a 100-something kilometres bicycle route, with a pretty high ascent, I slept a bit longer in my tent and woke up just to say goodbye. It’s always so much fun camping with random people!

I continued, not aiming to do many kilometres. My plan was to arrive in Wanaka tomorrow, and I though that it would be too many kilometres, as there was a high pass on the way, and I was tired. An asian guy on what looked like a foldable bike passed  by, biking the other way, but he didn’t want to stay and chat.

Without stress, I filled my day with other stuff, instead. One of the things I wanted to do was to get a good bicycle selfie, as I don’t get too many pictures of myself. While biking, I looked for a decent spot, and started trying out. All this “setting the timer to 20 seconds, run to your bike and try to bike by really slow while the camera takes a series of pictures, oh, and remember to look nice still” can be hard sometimes. But, it’s something!

There were a good spot to take a look over the lake and see, what I suppose at least, Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. I asked some other people who answered “that’s what we will tell people anyway, they won’t know the difference”. The clouds made it hard to be sure, but the location and everything tells me that should be it!

I saw two girls wandering on the road, and hoped they would be people walking the Te Araroa. They weren’t, as they were hitchhiking, but still had a nice chat.

More selfies, and also some pictures to admire the bicycle! This is also what my front stuff looks like nowadays, as I added my red light from the night tour to it. Hopefully it recharges itself enough from the sun hanging there, and you never know when you need a quick light!

As the lake ended I decided to try a bike trail. I had biked parts of it during the morning, and they kind off sucked, but for some reason I always think a bike trail will get better. It didn’t.

Bad roads with sharp turns, ascending and descending. Sometimes the gravel was of the type that just makes everything much harder. At least I gave it a try! (But I never learn…)

Arriving in Twizel, I went and bought food, before finding a library with some free wifi to write my blog. They closed ten minutes before I was done, though, so I had to move ahead, and found a Spark box , when my computer died. I asked at a nearby cafe, and they let me use their power so that I could finish and upload the blog post. After this I had no real plan, but I found out about a free camping just 29 kilometres south of Twizel. That couldn’t be too much, I thought, even though it was already late afternoon. With some headwind it was kind of a push, but I arrived after another too hard trip.

Upon arriving, I choose a place kind off close to the bathroom, and away from other people, to keep it quiet. Just five minutes later two people biked into the camping, as Nils and Tom was done with their day trip! Nice coincidence.

I also started to plan for the next day, as I felt biking the last 110 kilometres shouldn’t be as tough as I thought earlier. The ascent was supposed to be within reasonable limits, and I could always give up and just hitchhike when I got tired or bored. As of Nils and Tom, they were going to visit the hot tubs in the morning, so we would split again!