Bill Muneio

Was awakened this morning by massive thunder. A large storm had rolled in during the evening and it is now pissing down rain. A guy in the hostel tells me the TV weather report is calling for “violent thunderstorms” and up to 100mm of rain! Now of course I really have no idea how much 100mm is but it sounds like a lot. The fun is about to begin, but first I have a chain to replace. I made my way over to the mechanic’s after breakfast and both he and the chain were there waiting for me. He assured me that by the time he was done the sun would be out and all would be good. About an hour later the chain was on and the rain was still pouring down, oh well what ya gonna do hard to find a good mechanic and miracle worker. My plan had changed once again as I had little hope of actually being able to see Aoraki / Mt Cook the satellite images on the internet showed the center of the storm basically directly over it. So the new destination was Lake Tekapo just West of Mt Cook. After a couple of hours of riding in the pouring rain I arrived at the Aoraki / Mt Cook turn off but there was no way in hell I was going to be able to see the mountain today I was lucky to see the sign. I choose to keep going about 10 minutes later is when the gale force winds kicked in just to make the riding a little bit more challenging as it gotten so mundane earlier going over Lindis pass in the pouring rain I arrived safely in Lake Tekapo just as the sun broke through, some sort of sign I guess if you believe in that stuff. All the cheap sleeps were booked solid so I’m in a real motel tonight with an awesome lake view. Christchurch tomorrow.