Thursday 10th May.

A pretty relaxed start to the day. Lots of roadworks south of Kaikoura. Took ages to get to Cheviot. Waited on bike at Cheviot while Jane hit the local public conveniences and added a few layers of warmness.

Almost an hour to Amberly, where we stopped at the Topp Stop Cafe. They had a lot of cutsy sayings all over the wall. as well as boasting of NO wifi. Just put your phone down and talk to each other, they admonished. It made me too self-concious to grab my laptop to check my emails.

“Happiness does not depend on what you have or who you are, but on what you think” – Buddha

“Working hard for something you don’t care about is called stress. Working hard for something you care about is called passion”

We’ve stopped at this spot a few times now. Remember stopping there on way back from one southern XC and half the (NI) field were having breakfast there. Shared a fritatta and bagel before filling up bikes (13.81 L @ 218.9 = $30.24, 10.02 L = $21.93) and carrying on.

Jane used the power of the Yamaha to pull away. I found her waiting by the side of the road, just south of the Claus dealershp in Islington. She wasn’t sure if I’d turned off to go to Christchurch or not… so thought she’d better wait and see if I turned up.

She was also waiting on the side of the road at the start of Ashburton. Her bum was feeling the strain and she was reluctant to hop back on the bike but decided that, although getting chilly, it wasn’t wet… and we should get some more miles under our belts.

By the time I turned up at the Timaru BP she was struggling trying to connect to the wifi on her phone. There was a serious lack of guru skills detected and, in the end, she gave up.