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Day Fifteen - Te anau to Milford sound

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After a bad night's sleep I got up grumpy and tired. I don't know if it was apprehension for the last big climb or sadness for the last day of this epic adventure or jealousy after seeing Amanda snuggled up in lovely big comfy bed last night which led to the bad night. We gor out on the road for 6am, lights on and headed fornthe highway. Amanda sped off with James close behind and I struggled at the back to get the legs going and keep my eyes open. It took me a while to waken up and snap out of my grumpiness, around 9am, we already ridden for 3 hrs clocking up 45kms. The skies were clearing and we started to climb up the valley following the Ellington river. Reaching a plateau with Lake Gunn reflecting the mountain vistas. Before a short downhill and the last 14km climb up to the tunnel and down into milford. It was a long slog the last green section being the Homer Tunnel. As we reached the tunnel they announced on loud speaker that they...
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Day Fourteen - Lumsden to Te Anau

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It wad still raining as we emerged from our tents and packed up our we gear ready to continue on the round the mountain track towards te anau for our last night.  It was a gray start to the day as we headed for some breakfast at mossburn, quickly clockingnup the first 16km of the day. A solid breakfast for myself and Amanda, but limited gluten free options for james. We needed to get some lunch supplies too as there where limited options on route. It turned out the sheep farm turned food truck was a welcome break to refuel and try on some classic knitwear. Onward to te anau in the hope of arriving at a reasonable hour to eat well for the final day and climb into milford sound. As we neared the 20km to go mark we all stopped and needed a nap. Within seconds we were all snoring at the side of the road. Enough to see up onto the final cycle track into te anau. Great calzone at the Italian restaurant in te anau to carb load for day fift...
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Day Thirteen - Cromwell to Lumsden

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The route from Cromwell, passed bannockburn and followed the Nevis Road (pronounced Nee-vis apparently) over Duffers Saddle and then down and back up and over the Nevis saddle before a steep decent on the other side of the remarkable range from queenstown.  We were all worried about this as it was the longest climb of the whole route. All 12.2km of up, up and some more up. HC is I believe stands for Horrible Climb, and is too hard to categorize. As we headed out of bannockburn there was a live scare crow standing by the side of the road. He called out 'are you heading to the nee-vis road' I replied 'yeah, but I believe it's pronounced Nevis' He responded in a broad Scottish accent, 'you're in a completely different country ITS NEE-VIS' Never seen an irate scare crow before. So chuckling to myself I continued on to the Nee-vis road and started the slow to the top. Fortunately it was in reasonable good condition and rideable. There were plenty of 4WDs co...
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