Rolling good...Greymouth to Wanaka

I left Global Village in Greymouth last Sunday and started making my way down the West Coast on my bike. The West Coast is a beautiful area and hardly anyone lives there. I looked at a map and I realised that there wasn't a single cash machine between Hokitika and Wanaka - that's over 400km of road in between! Clearly this was an area that was worth exploring. I found this sign in a cafe on the way down to the glacier region.



Three days later I arrived at Fox Glacier where I first met a number of people who I have kept bumping in to ever since. I had a rest day here and spent it wisely by spending all day in the hostel cinema room watching films! I felt I deserved it. Two days of riding later I arrived in Haast, the point on the West Coast where the road turns inland and begins climbing up over the Southern Alps. Haast is a tiny place and the hostel in which I was staying would have been a terribly depressing place had I not met a nice group of people there. I met up with Sven, a Dutch guy who I met at Fox and with him Felix, a German. The next day we all set of for Wanaka, me hoping to reach it in two days on my bike and Sven and Felix planning on getting there in one day in their car. The scenery between Haast and Wanaka is spectacular, and mostly looks like this:





I made it into Wanaka yesterday afternoon and guess who I found at my hostel? Sven, Felix, and an Irish guy called Mike who I'd met in Fox. It's nice to meet up with these people continually. Last night we ate pancakes for dinner, and then for a bit of variety, did some pancakes for breakfast this morning.





My bike odometer is now reading 850km from Christchurch. Rock! Tomorrow I'm going to do some mountain biking in this beautiful area and then I'm going to leave my bike in Wanaka for a couple of weeks while I spend some time with my family who have just arrived into Christchurch. After that perhaps I'll head to Queenstown and bide my time till Emma* and Matt arrive here on the 24th.

*Great news: she aced her viva so now she's officially Doctor Emma Joseph Bowles Esquire. (At least that's what I'm calling her).