We left Lake Ianthe and the day started hard. No real warm up of the legs straight into up. The 18km ride to Harihari was quite difficult. I just couldn’t get my head off the pain and it was all just too much effort. We stopped at the cafe in Harihari and had a sausage roll. There are these natural hot springs near by but no time to stop and use them 😞. Well we really want to make the most of the weather as we have bad weather on the way.

Off we go, it is rather flat but we are coming up to a saddle soon, which will be the worst up of the day. We get near the top and take a break. We are not long there before we get a car pull in near us. It takes me a minute to realise it is my Aunty Sue and Uncle Paul! How cool, I thought we may cross paths but I wasn’t really sure. We had a roadside hug and chat. It was nice having a quick hello with some friendly faces. Once we set off again I realised I lost my earbud so we turned around to look for it. Then it was a last slog up the hill. We must have looked buggered because a lovely lady stopped to check on us and offered us water.

We got a fun down hill and then slogged the rest of the way to Whataroa. We made it there just after 2pm and thankfully got some food before they shut. A quick break there and now only 18km to go. Much like getting to Harihari this morning it is a constant up most of the way going up river until you finally get over a bridge and then it is mostly down hill. Relieved to be at the campsite after 70km of slog, I was quite happy to be off my bike.

A guy came up to us and strated chatting as we were attempting to pitch. It was nice chatting to him but I was also thinking would you just go away. It has been a long day, it is late and I have a hundred things to do before I can relax. We got our very wet tent out and our sleeping bags on a table to dry out. Rowan’s was worse than mine. The dew hit us hard last night and we slept with the doors open. We won’t do that again. We had a quick naked dip in the lake. There was an angler far away enough he shouldn’t see any details and we wouldn’t scare his fish. Lasts nights lake was too exposed to get in naked. Tonight’s lake was nice and private. We convinced a foreigner to hop into the lake. He didn’t last long but he did get in! There are a bunch of juvenile Keas here. They haven’t come down to camp but we will see in the morning.