Dunedin to Christchurch

Dunedin to Christchurch

29 January 2020

A poor nights sleep for both of us, combined with waking up early to steady rain, was not the best start to the day.

The weather forecast for the day had predicted an overcast day, but not rain. Another check showed that the rain was to stop by 7am.

Jennifer was not convinced, adamantly readying her waterproofs for the ride.

The rain stopped just after 7am, but Jennifer still wasn't convinced determinedly donning her foul weather gear.

We were clear of Dunedin by 8am, and riding North we stopped at Moeraki Boulders, a formation of (un)naturally smooth boulders on a beach at Hampden.

The boulders are a protected site and are part of the Maori oral tradition.

We rode North for over an hour and saw signposts to the town of Waimate. We both agreed the first European settlers in the town must have been Geordies.

At the next junction we stopped at the brilliantly entitled Nosh Stop. Calm down....it was a cafe!!.

On walking in we were both dumbfounded by the selection of food on display in this small roadside eatery.

I chose the bacon and rosemary pie. Jennifer chose the extremely well presented bacon and sweet chilli baked potato. Both were extremely tasty, and were washed down with well made coffee.

After perusing the sweet counter we both had to admit that we were already too full, so we continued on our ride North.

As we rode through the blustery Canterbury plains the temperature rose, buffeting us both with warm,dry and dusty winds.

We decided we needed refreshment, so after refuelling the bikes we made an obligatory milk shake stop.

We continued onwards into into the suburban outskirts of Christchurch, our ever decreasing speeds exposing the heat emanating from the engines of our bikes.

We were both tired, and my left knee was begging for a day off, as we arrived at our accommodation for the next 4 nights.

Dunedin to Christchurch outline of route travelled

Trip statistics to date

Days in New Zealand. 24

Todays distance KM. 363

Total distance KM. 3659