I awake at sunrise to this awesome view just south of Kaiteriteri
Luckily no complaints from the house behind me about that nasty freedom camper
Raumanuka and Motueka Sandspit Scenic Reserve, not even 08:00 in the morning and I’m already cycling!
Motueka Golf Club
Such a beautiful morning, what a fantastic trail
An arty table
And if you turn to your right from where the previous photo was taken you see the Janie Seddon Shipwreck
Motueka is amazing, very hospitable!
Must be good fun sailing here
This is cool too! The Motueka Saltwater Baths
A swimming pool – unsupervised, so without those pesky life guards that ruin a visit to any regular pool – right on the beach! What an awesome idea
This is the hardest part of the trail today, it just keeps going up, sometimes quite steep
They even warn you that it’s Grade 3 here
And me
Luckily at the highest point there’s a shaded rest area
Blistering Bollocks and Bouncy Bits, LOL
Funny letterbox
Art along the Aporo Rd
And the Jester House, I’ve been here before
It’s quite quiet on the trail so far
Ruby Bay
People enjoying the water
Shouldn’t be too long to Māpua now, I can’t wait as I haven’t had any breakfast yet but have covered 39 km already
This reminded me of some album cover but I forgot which one. Something with Bob Dylan?
First a very unflattering photo of me eating an ice cream
Yes! Māpua, a chance to get some food. What a lovely place this is!
Mains! Fries and burger, of course with a healthy dose of aoli
After I finished my burger I checked my watch and noticed I had exactly 1 minute to make it to the ferry, luckily I made it in the nick of time
The ferry pretty much turns 180 degrees and there’s the destination already: Rabbit Island
The entire crossing took maybe 3 minutes?
Lovely smell of pines here
The (only) road out of Rabbit Island (it’s closed off at night)
Birds near Rabbit Island Bridge
This is all part of the Waimea Inlet
And the trail meanders through it
Back in Nelson
“Enjoy the Ride”, thanks, I definitely did
Kinetic sculpture by Phil Price, I’m normally not a fan of art but this thing (that is constantly moving) I like
And I’m back at the start/finish! I’ve made it. Woohoo! I did 77 km today, making it a total of 224 km that I cycled in 3 days!
Map of today
Congratulations on your stellar effort!
Nice. Would you say someone like me (who only did the little river trails) can do this in 3 days with the help of a city e-bike? Which means I need to stay at somewhere with power…ugh
(my blog is broken, so ignore it for now)
Hi Leah, not sure if I replied to your comment before or not. I would recommend a mountain (e)bike, especially if you are bringing along quite a few things in panier bags, a lot of the trail is paved, a lot isn’t and would likely be a struggle with a city bike with its narrow tires.