The show weekend (again a weekend extended by a holiday) was supposed to give us a tour to Kaikoura.
On Wednesday afternoon we started northwards after school and grocery shopping. With a strong tail wind we made good progress, sometimes we drove more than 30km/h and reached Woodend Beach in the evening, where we spent the night in a tent for the first time in New Zealand.
We had a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon. But the bacon was strangely sweet! On the ingredient list of the bacon package was then also sugar, somehow strange!?! Thursday was less good due to the weather. Already in the morning we had to fight with headwind, this wind and the slope from Waipara to Greta Valley led to the fact that we were in the evening over 100km strength-wise pretty much at the end. On the campground in Gore Bay we could still move into the last free place.
The following Friday started with sunny weather. After shopping, an extremely strong wind started blowing from the south, followed by rain. This and the effort of the previous day made us turn around and not drive to Kaikoura. Thus we made our way back to Greta Valley. Once there, we made ourselves omlettes with apples (they were not so wonderful for eating raw. The four portions according to the Bernese cookbook (what you don't carry around...) were rather scarce for the two of us.
On Saturday we had a wonderful descent from Greta Valey to Waipara (despite a bit of headwind). We reached Leightfield Beach in the early afternoon where we spent part of the afternoon on the beach after setting up our tent and having lunch.
Finally we drove back to Christchurch, again with some headwind. On the way we cooked our remaining food.
In conclusion, the tour was very good despite the route adjustment. We now know our current limits and have also gained new experience regarding food shopping. We have to pay more attention to the ingredients, so we don't fry sweet bacon anymore. Further we will have to look at the assortment of dried food even better, because the weight and volume of the food plays a role when you transport it for several days by bike.