Day 10 Sounds to Sounds Geraldine to Lake Tekapo

My accomodation in Geraldine was fantastic and despite best efforts to be pedalling by 7.30am it was 8am before I hit the road. We had a diversion as the Hanging Rock Bridge was under repair and closed. The diversion was via Pleasant Point – Taking me over Seven Sisters Road and the end of Talbot Road where I lived when I was 5-6 years old. Seven Sisters Road is now sealed so I was pleasantly surprised.

I nabbed egg sandwiches and a ham roll from the dairy at Pleasant Point – sadly the cafe was closed as it was Sunday. I had a nice pedal up Totara Valley Road – which we had ridden in reverse on the carrot cake chase last year.

A bit of low cloud to begin with but it soon burned off.

After descending off Rockwood Road it was more gravel heading out to Mackenzie Pass. The wind had started to pick up and I stopped for a bar about a km before the turnoff to McKenzie Pass. I followed a caterpillar tractor all the way up the pass. He had to go through creeks and gates to bypass the cattle stops. I started to wonder what would happen if he had tried a cattle stop? Would it disintegrate? Get stuck in the metal treads? The tractor was being driven by a boy who would have been late teens. We had a quick chat at the top of the pass. He was heading further up – looked like quite the adventure up a distant 4wd track.