Date: Saturday 9 March 2013
Route: Hokitika to Reefton
Distance: 122km
Weather: hot and sunny
Accommodahtion: Old Nurses Home Backpackers – recommended

Today was the longest ride of the trip. The fact that there were no major hill climbs made it do-able – however I was exhausted at the end of the day.

We stopped at Greymouth outskirts when we saw a church fair. We had scones and bought a date loaf and biscuits. The road followed the Grey River and the main railway line from Greymouth onwards. We passed some historical coal mining works on the river.
We passed through farmland and many small towns.

Our ride was extended by Kris breaking a spoke – this one broke in the spoke nipple, so we had to take the whole tyre off (luckily we had a spare nipple). It took around an hour causing us to be on the road after 3pm – the hottest part of the day.

It became more wooded and hilly just before Reefton. Reefton is a cute little town and our accommodation is in a large, restored nurses home. Shared bathrooms, but with lovely large well equipped lounge and kitchen, leading out to a large garden.

We felt too tired to shop and cook, so we went to the pub in the local hotel that was advertising a “world famous roast” – it was very good. Kris had the large and had to share some with me, as I had a medium roast. We also enjoyed the Speights dark beer. There was a cute bar cat that was so confident he slept stretched out across the bar counter.

We ended up watching the Super 14 rugby again – the Cheetahs (Free State) against Invercargill. The Cheetahs won. We sat beside a party from Wellington who had also been to the Hokitika wild food festival and had a good banter.

We also met Joe from the Chatham Islands and his support part again – they were eating at the same pub.