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

Anzac Park

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

Since I really loved the previous cycling trip I decided to go on another one: the Great Taste Trail. It’s supposed to start at the i-SITE in Nelson, which I couldn’t find because they have renamed it the Nelson Visitor Information Centre, which I did manage to find

I will use this very spot as the start of the track though, I hope the rest of the track is just as clearly marked

Looking up from the previous photo, and I’m on my way!

Some information about the trail, here a link to a complete map of the trail

Nelson Art, it looks like it will be a nice sunny day

Not for very long as a few minutes later this is the weather

As long as I’m in Nelson the trail is on this kind of surface

They did a good job keeping the trail separate from the main traffic, mostly the trail is on dedicated cycles lanes

The weather is improving again

Photo taken from ‘Monaco‘

The Waimea Inlet

On final approach for Nelson Airport

Not much traffic, great!

Many, many grapevines

Cows seeking shelter from the blistering sun

Must be good living here

If I’m not mistaken these bridges (there’s more of them) were built especially for this trail

Me on the other side, I’ve done about 20 km or so now

Bike and pannier carriers are holding up fine

Such stunning views today

Brightwater, the birthplace of Sir Ernest Rutherford, the only Kiwi worthy of being revered worldwide

Me with a statue depicting a young Ernest

And what a great physicist he was!

Anyway, the trail continues, I think this is what you could call a rustique farm

St. John’s Anglican Church in Wakefield

More Wakefield

Pretty mural

Kids who like mountain biking will have a good time here

Another one of those bridges

I’ve cycled about 30 km now and I have a stop at Fairfield Berries where I get myself a $10 punnet of amaaaaazing strawberries

Om nom nom

I also got myself a super fresh ice cream with Boysenberry, so good. Fairfield Berries, I’ll be back!

The trail continues just south of the Wai-iti River through some lovely pine forest

These kind of houses are so much nicer than what they are currently building all over Christchurch

I’m now on a loooong climb, the road is only going up and up and up

And then they have these metal barriers in the ground, I guess to keep non-cyclists out

But guess what! It’s another typical case of ‘Kiwi Ingenuity’ where they (almost, I lifted the rear of my bike) prevent access to the very means of transportation this trail was designed for : the bicycle, I guess a whole team of managers signed off on this awesome idea…

After a long and tiring climb I make it to the Spooners Tunnel

Proof: me, and the tunnel

This tunnel is 1325 m long

About halfway in, without my head torch it’s of course absolutely pitch black in here

Past the tunnel and continuing towards Kohātu

Sometimes the trail dives under little bridges and continues on the other side of the road

Soon I’ll be in Tapawera

Yes!

Tapawera

I must have done over 70 km by now and I still have energy to continue so I cross the Motueka River and start looking for a place to camp

Luckily I’m at a safe distance from the Alpaca, I don’t trust them (with their spitting)

After 81 km and 7.5 hours I found a place to camp, next to a flowing river, all’s good!

Map of today’s trip: from Nelson on the right to not far from the Wangapeka River Bridge on the left