A day spent cycling from Marble Hill DOC campsite about 3kms outside of Springs Junction, through to Murchison - 85kms or 53 miles. Most of today was spent on the scenic but surprisingly busy Highway 65. We started early since we needed to get breakfast and hanging around at the DOC campsite was not advisable given the hordes of black flies waiting to suck our blood (as said before, it is part of the female black fly's way of having little black flies - the males don't bite). An omelette and a small lake of tea at the cafe at Springs Junction helped us on our way, and the garage shop provided muesli bars for lunch. Then off along the 65 and uphill until the Shenandoah Saddle (col) at 502m. A little before the saddle we had lunch though the lunch was brief because of the sheer numbers of white tailed bumble bees. They were alarmingly fascinated with us. Then mostly downhill to the junction with the main road along the Buller Gorge. Then a brief 11kms to Murchison. The Mariua River Falls, about 10kms or so before the 65 reaches the Buller Gorge road are impressive and the scenic highlight of the day.Today was sunny and warm but the NW wind was a headwind for us most of the day until we reached the Buller Gorge road and the wind was behind us for the last 11kms.We rolled into Murchison a bit before 5pm, shopped at the 4square, browsed the secondhand books in the local secondhand store, then went to the Kiwi Camper Holiday Park - where we were a bit over a month ago. We will have done a figure of eight route on the South Island by the time we finish.The picture is of sooty fungus on a silver beech (not birch) - scale insects produce a sweet goo that the fungus, as well as wasps (sadly) and bees (happily) feed on. You've probably seen NZ organic beech originated honey in Sainsbury's or M and S...
A day spent cycling from Marble Hill DOC campsite about 3kms outside of Springs Junction, through to Murchison - 85kms or 53 miles. Most of today was spent on the scenic but surprisingly busy Highway 65. We started early since we needed to get breakfast and hanging around at the DOC campsite was not advisable given the hordes of black flies waiting to suck our blood (as said before, it is part of the female black fly's way of having little black flies - the males don't bite). An omelette and a small lake of tea at the cafe at Springs Junction helped us on our way, and the garage shop provided muesli bars for lunch. Then off along the 65 and uphill until the Shenandoah Saddle (col) at 502m. A little before the saddle we had lunch though the lunch was brief because of the sheer numbers of white tailed bumble bees. They were alarmingly fascinated with us. Then mostly downhill to the junction with the main road along the Buller Gorge. Then a brief 11kms to Murchison. The Mariua River Falls, about 10kms or so before the 65 reaches the Buller Gorge road are impressive and the scenic highlight of the day.Today was sunny and warm but the NW wind was a headwind for us most of the day until we reached the Buller Gorge road and the wind was behind us for the last 11kms.We rolled into Murchison a bit before 5pm, shopped at the 4square, browsed the secondhand books in the local secondhand store, then went to the Kiwi Camper Holiday Park - where we were a bit over a month ago. We will have done a figure of eight route on the South Island by the time we finish.The picture is of sooty fungus on a silver beech (not birch) - scale insects produce a sweet goo that the fungus, as well as wasps (sadly) and bees (happily) feed on. You've probably seen NZ organic beech originated honey in Sainsbury's or M and S...