Date: Wednesday 6 March 2013
Route: Haast to Jacobs River
Distance: 89km
Weather: overcast with showers, no wind
Accommodation: Pine Grove Motel, 2km from Jacobs River

Our first wet day after two and half weeks of travelling. We waited a bit, and eventually left in a light shower, but it only lasted about half an hour. We dried off, only to drive through a soaking drizzle again at around 11am.

We had some steep hills after the first 20km. It felt like we did the climb around three times. The highest viewpoint was Knights Point Viewpoint, where a few tour buses had stopped.
After this the road was a bit up and down, not too steep.

We rode through impenetrable West Coast forest, full of ferns and vines. We could hear many birds. Mist and clouds shrouded the mountains and the two lakes we passed.

The last 20km of the ride were flat and easy. Part of this was along the very quiet beach at Bruce Bay. The beach has white sand, covered in driftwood. There is nothing much at Jacobs River – just a few buildings and a cute school which was deserted (we found out it closed this year as there were only four children last year).
Our motel was hard to find on the internet – it sits on its own on the motorway about 2 km from Jacobs River. Kris volunteered to set up a Google maps entry. We had to clean the bikes – they were filthy again from riding in the rain. All the while we were battling with aggressive sandflies. We retreated into the motel room which we are maintaining as a sandfly free zone.