an adventure (in grace).: Alps 2 Ocean - Day 5: Duntroon to Oamaru

Monday, 24 November

Peanut butter and honey toast with yogurt for breakfast and then on the road for the last leg of the trail. My last day on the road after 7 weeks of riding. Kind of a surreal thought.

We biked past (and through) the "Elephant Rocks" - on the main road and also through private property. A significant amount of today's trail passes through trails made on farming land.

Tired... but he made it!

When we rode into Oamaru - which I will lovingly describe as a historic, quirky, eclectic city on the east coast of the south island - we first passed through the Oamaru Gardens - pretty green space in the city.

Dad "riding" a penny-farthing at the i-Site. These seem to be a hot commodity in Oamaru.

From the i-Site we rode through the old city - a small street with all the old brick buildings from the days when Oamaru was a much-used sea port exporting frozen meats.

And then we ended up at the sea. We did it - all 301km from Mt. Cook to the South Pacific Ocean. It was kind of an emotional ending - I mean, for my dad it was an incredible five days of doing something more physically challenging than he has done since, well, high school... and for me, it was the END of my tour of NZ. For both of us, it was incredibly special to ride and finish this journey together.

From here we walked about town for an hour before the shops closed.

One shop was harboring a little blue penguin who had wondered onto the street in front of their shop. Turns out these guys come onto the shore at night (we had several walking around our campsite - it was right by the water) and they make a terrible noise together. Not quite as bad as dad's snoring, but still quite loud. ;)

We did some whisky tasting - NZ's only whisky maker which stopped making new whiskey several years ago. They still sell the existing stock, but it sounds like that's not going to last more than 2 or 3 years more. Three or four sips of this is enough for me!

We also did some beer tasting at a local brewery across the street. Gotta make sure you try a little bit of everything!!

After we set up our tent and showered and "dressed up" (note: one of the things I'm most looking forward to in PP is wearing real clothes!!!), we walked down the road along the sea to a restaurant for dinner. On our way there we stopped in a little wood-makers shop... upon entering my dad was in antique wood-working tool heaven. This guy was, well, an Oamaru resident consistent with my above description of Oamaru, and was also a bit of a Luddite. He makes wooden baskets with non-powered tools, and also cycles the Alps 2 Ocean trail on his penny farthing in his free time (no joke, he's cycled a good portion of it with some other crazies!).