Ginger Dynamite

This little container-turned coffee shop serves up award-winning coffee and pies and was recommended to us when we were in Takaka. We rode 50km by 1pm...now it's time to sit and enjoy some food and the cafe's comfy couch before continuing onward. Neil is sitting in the corner of the container on the left but it's hard to see him in the photo.

Tapawera

Tapawera is just a blip on the map. We drove through it three days ago in the way to Motueka and it barely registered. But the local proprietors of the campsite filled us with interesting local information and history - there is a symbol on the hill made of white rock that depicts a stag with the lettering "12XIII", which commemorates the 12th and 13th army battalions that were stationed here. There is a carved gate in the town centre that symbolises European and Maori cooperation, and what can be accomplished by working together. We will have to find it tomorrow; we were too focused on finding food when we passed through earlier!

Tapawera is essentially surrounded by mountains on 3 sides and the sunset and clouds are absolutely gorgeous. Also the campground is spacious and quiet with beautiful fan-tailed birds, yummy plum trees and something mysterious in the woods that scurries away whenever we approach. Everything you could ever ask for after a solid day of biking!
Also, we rode through a 1.35km long tunnel today, built between 1891-1893 and then retired in 1955. It is the longest disused rail tunnel in New Zealand.

Rest stop in Brightwater

23km down, 37 or so to go. Time to refuel with a flat white and a berry smoothie!

Golden Bay

We logged a lot of distance in our rental car over 48 hours!

After arriving in Motueka on Sunday night, we spent Monday exploring Golden Bay. We drove the stomach-churning switchbacks out to Takaka, then continued to the northern tip of the South Island.

Along the way we stopped at:
- some lookouts on Takaka Hill

- Pupu Hydro Powerhouse, which is a hydro station that fell into disrepair in the 70s but was restored by the community
- Te Waikoropupu Springs

- Wharariki Beach, which involved walking through some farmland before arriving at the stunning beach (with seal pups!)

- Farewell Spit, though the beach was closed due to a recent mass whale stranding

We tried to fill up on gas in Collingwood on the way back, but the credit card machine at their single gas station wouldn't read any of our cards and the station was no longer staffed, so we had to continue onwards. We made it to Takaka with the fuel light on and the dashboard showing 24km to empty, which is a little closer than we wanted to cut it! Thankfully their gas station was able to read Neil's chip-and-pin card (it was ~8pm so none of the stations were staffed). We ate a delicious dinner at the ominously named Dangerous Kitchen (but it was great! no danger at all!) and decided we didn't want to drive another hour back to Motueka. At the recommendation of our waitress, we checked in at the bar of the local hotel - which was hosting pool night for the locals - and were surprised to discover that a) they had availability for the night and b) it was very reasonably priced. The hotel dates back to the early 1900s and looks like it hasn't been updated in the last 30 or so years, but it did the trick and we were very pleased. And the cafe served up a mean coffee in the morning!!

Today we checked in early to our campsite and dropped off all of our stuff, returned the rental car and spent the day casually roaming around Nelson and planning the next few days on the Great Taste Trail

Greymouth -> Motueka

Yesterday we finished the last 29km of the west coast wilderness trail, returning to Greymouth. We spent the night in a place called Noah's Ark (formerly a rectory) where all of the rooms our animal themed. Our room was the cat room.

Today we picked our rental car back up, and drove the 300 or so km to Motueka. We are no longer on the west coast and are now in the Tasman region at the northern end of the South Island. After a day or two of touring around in the car we will ride the Great Tastes Trail, and sample the wineries and orchards that we pass!

I don't have any good photos from today on my phone, so here's a photo from Sunset Point in Hokitika that I meant to post on Wednesday.