Flo and Ise (James's kids) prepared a send off Team JIM drawing a beautiful picture of new zealand on the fence.. wishing good luck to Team JIM behind James.
Last supper was pulled lamb, roast potatoes ( of course), roast carrot and salads. Thanks James and Lisa for the neatly meal to see us on our way.
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...
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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