Day 3 Ashburton to Temuka

We get comfortable at a place then pack up and move. I better get used to this, it will be our life for the next month.

We did not do Ashburton justice, yesterday we were inside all day, working. the town looks tidy and interesting town as we ride through and leave it.

Soon we cross the Ashburton river, not nearly as impressive or as full as the Rakaia river, but still a decent river. We are riding though farmland. It's a beautiful day again, the southern Alps are in the distance to our right and the breeze is at our backs. What more could we ask :-)

It looks like the winter has been mild allowing grass to keep growing, or last year the hay crop was very good, or both. Whatever the reason there is a lot of hay and haylage around and I'm pretty sure it's from last season. What do they do with it all? Can you keep it for next year? Some of the continuous bales are impressively long. This one must be several hundred metres!

Another river crossing warning! "Abutment washout" Sau Keng is gun shy, "Can we ride around it?" But if it's just the approaches to a bridge surely bikes can get across.

No problem! Someone has done a great job with a bulldozer.

We veer inland, another long straight road disappearing into the distance. An irrigation canal runs parallel to the road, full to the brim with milky brown water. The road feels level but we can see from the water we are steadily climbing. But so slowly it's easy.

Eventually we reach the Rangitata river, where this water is coming from. It is quite a big river, with plenty of water though not as high as the Rakaia was. I think the milkiness is because the riverbed keeps moving around and the water picks up silt it previously deposited.

Another irrigation scheme on the southern side of the Rangitata river

Now we are riding on the inland scenic route, which carries on to Geraldine. Too many cars for our liking - we want the road to ourselves!

This road is better :-) The farmland here looks good - but it surely rocky - the agricultural machinery must have a hard life. The rocks, obviously rounded river stones also remind me this was once a river bed... the entirety of the Canterbury plains is an old riverbed... all from rocks eroded from the mountains. We are closer to the mountains now. They look good. In a few more days we will be among them.

We have passed a few of these, I'm at a loss. I can't work out what they are for.

We are getting close to Temuka now, starting to see houses. Wow! what a garden! The house looks pretty good too. :-)

Home :-) Another motel, again very good with friendly owners. We ask for suggestions for dinner and get a very positive response "Austin 92 restaurant".

Grand old building in Temuka

Austin 92. Very good and almost full.

The left rear tyre on the trike. I noticed an irregularity when I was following Sau Keng and had a closer look after dinner. I have never seen a tyre with a kink in it like this before, and the casing is showing through too. There are no bike shops here. Our plan is to ride to Twizel, arriving Friday, bus back to Christchurch on Saturday for another week's work, and return to Twizel the following Saturday. I could get new tyres in Christchurch... No I cant' trust this to last another 150 km. Tomorrow I will ride to Timaru to buy new tyres. Only 22km each way. About an hour.

Statistics

Distance 79.2

Climbed 152 m

Time 4:27