Cycling Day Three

We had debated getting the bus for this next stage but decided to not be idle and cycle it. We had studied our Pedallars Paradise book and had decided to go for the quieter route to Fairlie, this meant the distance today would be 71km instead of 48 but it was worth it. The whole morning was spent on nice, not too hilly, back roads, no wind, sun out, lovely. We got to a place called Pleasant Point in time for dinner and sat down in the Legends Cafe for what turned out to be quite a time. The food was tasty (they do good cafes here) but what made it nice was chatting to a couple from Timaru down the road, the chap was into his cycling and gave us loads of advice on good routes and stuff that we were to use in the coming days. About 2.30pm we left with an open invite to stay in Timaru if we were passing. It was a long road to Fairlie after that, the clouds were lowering and it had got much colder with the wind off the mountains that now had a dusting of snow that hadn't been there two days before. Fairlie itself is a small alpine town, geared up really for skiing in the winter. We met an elderly Japanese gentleman there who proper put our efforts to shame. He'd cycled from the very top of the North Island, he'd done about 110km that day. He was very nice and we shared a lamb chop tea with him!