A cold day. We set off late, around 11 am, in an attempt to miss the rain – but it still lingered for another hour before it finally petered out. The sun never really came out, though, and it stayed chilly.
We did 29 kms today, with two tunnels and two bridges. So much work, and the railway lasted less than 100 years. There were men camped beside the railway for years, building it. There are still remnants of the camps these navvies lived in near the tunnels. I wonder what they would think of us cycling leisurely through their big proud tunnels that were designed for huge manly engines. I expect they’d sneer at us in our lycra.
We didn’t get lunch until around three, when we got to Oturehua. I was so cold by then I had to buy a hat and gloves at the famous Gilchrist general store.
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Too many Pinot Gris after a hard day to post this last night, and too busy packing a sad about my lack of breakfast to do it this morning.