After the exertions of the ride into St. Arnaud, we were delighted to hear that the next two days were going to be essentially downhill along the Buller River, through the Buller Gorge.
We started the day with a van trip down to Lake Rotoiti which is part of a national forest and has a number of bush walks with informational signs about endangered plants and animals in the area. The lake is quite large and, because it was windy, quite rough. We were happy that the bush walk was sheltered by vegetation.
Both on the north and south islands, we've been occasionally seeing what appear to be black swans. When we asked at the Mt. Bruce Bird Sanctuary, they denied knowing about any swans in New Zealand, but here's proof. Along with the swan (who was uncooperatively burying her beak in her back to stay out of the wind), there were two plovers, which we've also been seeing frequently. Our WhatBirdNZ app says spur winged plovers, but it is far from comprehensive, and that is the only plover choice, so don't count on it.
As we got out on the road, the clouds cleared up, the drizzle stopped, and it became a gloriously sunny day of cycling through alpine scenery. One of the interesting trees is this white blossomed one, called, I think, a kanuka.
And there were several sightings of pukekos, with their funny flicking white-undersided tails. They have a raucous screechy call.
The gorge provided wonderful scenery, and of course, the downhill we were enjoying so much.
Because it's been raining on and off (but usually while we're not riding!), the roadside waterfalls are full and beautiful. If it were hotter, they appear to provide a cooling respite.
At one point, as we were passing through a heavily forested area, the sound of the wetas, the New Zealand equivalent of a cicada, was practically deafening. Finally, one presented itself walking across the road. It's hard to provide a useful scale, but the road surface consists of a somewhat coarser gravel macadem than we are used to. This thing was probably about 3/4 as long as my thumb.
From time to time, there is a one-lane bridge with arrows indicating which traffic has the right of way. These aren't too scary because you can see the other side. But here, where the road had to be cut into the face of the cliff and the overhang continues around the corner, would have been a lot scarier if we hadn't had a car to follow. There were lights at either end, and I think in this case even a button for cyclists to push, but it was nice to have a car running interference for us.
We had been asked to make our coffee stop short and have a rolling regroup for lunch because they wanted to take us down to Cape Foulwind at the end of thw day to see the seals and wekas (flightless birds). There was only one place to stop for lunch, Berlins Cafe & Bar, and they would open a tab there for us to use, with the sweep (Alex was the sweep of the day) paying up at the end. Well, we knew we were in trouble when we saw Owen driving the van back along the route as we cycled between the coffee and lunch spots. Sure enough, when we got to Berlins, it was closed, permanently. Keith and Mary had talked to Owen, who had said to continue riding and he would arrange something.
So we did, and he did. A filling, if somewhat below their normal standards, picnic of meat (or vegetarian) pies, sandwiches, chips (what we call french fries), and desserts appeared at a very scenic spot marred only by an abundance of black flies.
The trip to Cape Foulwind was great. Wekas abound, and they're not too shy. one walked up to my outstretched hand very cooperatively.
The seals were a bit far away and very well camouflaged on the rocks, but fun to watch. There were a number of quite young ones hopping from rock to rock (no good pictures of them).
The coastline is also pretty spectacular along there. Captain Cook named it Cape Foulwind for obvious reasons.
Dinner at The Town House, supposedly the best restaurant on the west coast. Excellent, but extremely s l o o o w. There was a second group there, all women from the same family, and there were no soft surfaces anywhere, so the noise was deafening.
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