Picton -Raglan(or somewhere there about) 4th February

Sixty five miles today. Set off from Picton on a beautiful sunny morning heading south. First stop Blenheim, then turning west into a very strong headwind, which continued for the next forty five miles, exhausting! Cycled alongside miles of vineyards set against the mountains, very picturesque.

Just to give an idea of how few people there are here, a fifty five mile stretch of road and only one shop that was also a bar. Met a group of bikers there, who call themselves 'native sons'. They all looked a bit scary, but were really friendly and interested in what I was doing ( photo below with two of them).

There were very few accomodation opportunuities either. Ended up in a DOC camp site, which is basically a patch of grass with a toilet and sometimes a tap, but in this case not even a tap. Thank goodness for wet wipes. Initially I was alone in this camping area. Which was a little scary, so far from anywhere.  Then low and behold another cyclist turned up, a young man from London called Charlie.