Shouldn't do this, it's gay.
But I don't feel like reading my book right now.
So today I went to the South Island. The ferry cross was pretty smooth. Went to dear ol' dads house near Picton, took of most of my bags and rode around Port Underwood Road, with a minor detour (18km round trip) to Ngakuta Bay*.
The tarmac section of Port Underwood Road is heaps of fun, the road is bumpy and quite twisty. It's like an 8 out of 10 for twisty (If the Akatarawa Road is a 10). There is the odd log truck though, but they seem to be driving pretty sensibly, so if you do as well there should be no problem.
The detour to Ngakuta bay was fun. The road is has a lot of up, down and corrugations. The road was very dry and the gravel just slides around on top of the hard dirt. Good fun up hills though. From the road you can see a whole lot of mussel farms. You follow some power pylons out. And the pylons go between the hills in a way best described as 'flamboyant'. The designers had some fun putting these up. I assume these power lines are part of the cook strait cable system. They don't hum at 50hz.
The gravel section of PU Road is quite sensible. Only a few bits are corrugated so badly you have to hum as you go over the bumps. You hum so you sound like a motorboat when you hit a bump. There are several bays as you go around, each with a few houses. Each one seems to have a novelty plaque engraved with a note about the local history and an item of relative antiquity, like a iron pot I presume was for boiling up whale blubber. MMMMmmm blubber.
At Robin Hood Bay there were some surfers enjoying themselves. Once round a few more corners I could see for miles along the Marlbourgh coast.
I then got stuck in some sand, but managed to extract myself. I felt like a pro. Of course a pro wouldn't have got stuck. And would have read the signs saying 'Soft ground'. I felt like a challenge.
Tomorrow, Keneperu Sound and/or French Pass.
I took some photos.
* There are several Ngakuta Bays, it appears
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