Coffee stops and Cream Teas

 It takes a while to settle in to a new routine. This morning's start barely had us on the trail by 10 am. Wet tents, and wet washing all contributing to our delay. Eventually the fog cleared, the sun broke through and we found places to secure the damp items, in the hope that they might dry. 

Off in search of gold... trail riding gold for sure!!



Perfect riding conditions, perfect trail, gentle hills  and little tunnels..



As promised, coffee appeared on cue, in Beaumont, a timely lunch stop.


While Laura had her heart set on this classic piece of New Zealand real estate, 

I was off car shopping...
taking a break and generally fooling around.

Inspite of it 'only' being a 45 km day, we were pretty pleased to be off the bikes at Millar's Flat. Most important was to get to the pub over the bridge in time for scones with jam and cream. The bridge, shared with traffic was scary, but a timely reminder of how lucky we were to be on a purpose built trail! It was about here that the whole trip almost came to an end when Laura's back gave her (and me) a bit of a fright. 
Luckily after resting, rehydrating, tea and scones we were able to recross the bridge to the camp ground and relax for the evening.  Well 'relax' might be going too far, there were tents to erect, showers to have, laundry to do and dinner to cook.

The view over the bridge... not a car in sight, of course, but quite narrow if you did have to share it.

With the long evening hours after dinner we left the rabbits to tidy the grass at the camp ground and took a stroll around Millar's Flat. In the process we found a very nice cafe with attached tourist shop, full of marvelous stuff that would make super Christmas presents... if only we had room on the bikes! Instead we made a plan to head back there for breakfast. 


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