Day 6

Frosty again this morning but a calm day and a flat lake. We were pleased not to be paddling for 4 or 5 hours today. Lynelle was away early in order to get around to Haldon Motor Camp with our mountain bikes. We had a quick 2 km paddle across the end of the lake while Lynelle had close to 170 km by road to get to the same place!

Bob and Lena towed the caravan for us and were our support crew for the morning .

Funny story about the paddle! We met up with Sal, Birdy and Tilly at the start point to get directions on exactly where to paddle. These guys had boated here lots... so knew all the short cuts?! Our directions were to head straight for the ‘fluffy trees’ – new code for willow trees – this seemed slightly different to the map but as there was agreement between Sal and Bird we figured they must be right. Anyway it became obvious when we reached the 'fluffy trees’ that we were in the wrong place. Our 2 km paddle turned into 6! I think they realised their mistake as we were heading out but we thought their cries were continued ‘whoop whoops’ in support. We should mention however that they were the instigators of our new route that saved us about 30 km of paddling so what’s 4 extra between mates.

The road out to Dog Kennel corner near Burkes Pass was about 50 Km (33km on recently graded gravel) and was a bit of a slog. Once at the top of Burkes Pass however we made great time through to Fairlie and on to Geraldine on our road bikes.

We were joined by Alan Kelly on the bike with about 20 km to go and he was a welcome relief as a wind break into the Nor Easter. Alan is a friend of Alex and Anne Wilson, our neighbours from Oreti, who now live in Geraldine.

Alex and Anne were at the finish to see us come in. This was the second day they turned up to meet us after driving all the way to Haldon Camp yesterday expecting to see us then. Some confusion in communication (oops)!

We had dinner with ‘The Scullys’ (Millars) in Temuka along with the Stewarts, Birdy and Matt. We negotiated a truce over the ‘Fluffy Trees’ incident!

Signing off Denis & Nick