Overnight there was a lot of rain. Each time I woke it had not eased up.

When we finally rose, we had no power. We fumbled around with my little torch packing and having breakfast that had been provided, sans coffee. Sacrilege!

We headed off about 7.30 am keen to start riding before it got too busy.

The first 35 km was a super scenic ride from Picton to Havelock on Queen Charlotte Drive. There were some fantastic vistas.

Ngakuta Bay, is small settlement and bay in the Marlborough Sounds.

A few more vistas from Queen Charlotte Drive before arriving in Havelock. This section of our ride was excellent. Wonderful views and no wind! Whilst it was overcast and we started off with our rain jackets, we quite enjoyed the cooler conditions as more like home. Traffic was not too bad, mainly camper vans.

Havelock calls itself the “Greenshell Mussel capital of the world” and is located at the meeting point of the Pelorus and Kaituna Rivers.

We had a decent break in Havelock, grabbing a much needed coffee and tasty morsels! Some cyclists from Wellington wanted to chat enquiring about our bike radars that were beeping and flashing. They suggested some great dirt tracks. My response? “You’d need a chopper on standby as I would surely break a bone!”

Leaving Havelock our ride quiet road sojourn ended and we were on a state highway. The trucks were back plus caravans, campers, 4WD with trailers, heaps of cars.

It was very windy with a strong headwind challenging us in places.

Canvastown is a small village where the Wakamarina River joins the Pelorus River. Once home to gold miners in the 1860’s. We stopped to look at the local historical memories.

Pelorus Bridge featured in The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug. Not having watched the movie, apparently there were dwarves filmed floating in barrels down the river! Surely that should be outlawed? Tyrion Lannister would surely say 🤷‍♀️. ( for non GOT readers, Tyrion is THE best character ever seen on tv, and he is also very height challenged. He was whip and wit smart and one of the ultimate survivors).

Pelorus Bridge crosses the Pelorus River, and is surrounded by a super nice reserve. There are tracks leading to waterfalls and rock pools, or you can walk along a ride to a viewing peak and walk across a small suspension bridge.

Today was a solid ride of 112 km and 1165 metres climbing. The climb at around 60 km was hard due to an incredibly strong headwind, reminding me of HellFire Pass in Wales where we had awful headwinds.

Descending we then had the longer 5.5 km climb, with section of just over 13%…where I am wondering do I jump off and push? I got through it though. Fortunately we were fairly sheltered wind wise on this climb but it did start raining about 1 km in requiring a stop to throw on our rain jackets.

Glasses were off as they fogged up. About 500 m short of the top the rain stopped .

The descent was slow and considered as the roads were wet and therefore potentially slippery particularly if any oil on the road.

Nice tailwind into Nelson along the flats and a shared pathway through parklands.

Our accomodation was at the top of a seriously steep driveway that I had trouble pushing my loaded bike up! The views are nice.

We wandered down the street in search of food and quickly found Monteith Brewery where we had a nice meal. I did enjoy my lamb shank and vegetables.

Strava now has artificial intelligence summarising rides. This is what it said about today’s ride. It did make me laugh…big brother is watching!

So there we have it folks, first full daytime and dusted, and what a start! Usually I map a few easier days before hills but not possible this trip.

Thanks for reading, smile on 😊❣️