The safety of all our riders was paramount, so the decision was made to cancel today’s ride and arrangements were hastily made to transfer the peloton by coach to Wanaka. The reaction was equal parts disappointment and relief. The morning was then spent celebrating the birthday of our young turk Tom Hayne and attempting to navigate the challenges of local wifi to catch up on work, save for the members of the Slattery/ City Circle team who had the luxury of playing poker for the next three hours.
Happily, the weather cleared and at 1 o’clock a decision was made to bus the peloton to Makarora, 60km from Wanaka to commence our ride. We then enjoyed the stunning bus trip through the World Heritage listed rain forest of the Haast district and enjoyed stunning views, gushing waterfalls, amazing glacial rivers and the very witty repartee of our local bus driver John, who had us in fits of laughter with his self-deprecating humour and local insights, delivered with a heavy kiwi accent.
We then set off from Makarora for a stunning lakeside, wind assisted ride into Wanaka enjoying stunning views, beautiful undulating road and not perturbed in the slightest by some coastal skiffs. As we drew closer to Wanaka, the temperature and the mood of the peloton rose steadily as the skies cleared beautifully to enable us to take full advantage of the amazing vistas across Lake Wanaka.
Six days down, one to go and the peloton is on a massive high in anticipation of conquering another Chain Reaction Challenge.
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