It’s been a big day so I’ll try to deal with the important bits before this turns into a drooling ramble.
I’d like to thank Hayley, Jeremy and Harry for the most wonderful hospitality. Having let us loose on the station they then provided us with lovely food, delightful company, high end shelter and to top it off, petrol, presumably to make sure we did move on. Good memories.
From Mt Gladstone Station we headed South along the Awatere for maybe 10km before entering Upcot Station for a diversion up onto a ridge line. Bernie, who cannot be trusted to assess difficulty, had advised it was not too bad. Just a slightly tricky downhill on a scree slope. Within about 5 minutes of starting up the hill I had divested myself of 
about 6 litres of sweat. It was a massive climb on loose shale. Dave, who is carrying his entire workshop, pantry and wardrobe around had some minor difficulties on a particularly steep section. Understandable as this was really 500 terrain, not 790 territory at all. We decided to take his luggage off and carry it up. It worked but omg, carrying 60kg of god knows what up a mountain in full biking gear was honest payback for all the gates he opened yesterday. The climb was challenging, the descent was bottom puckering. Rocky scree, steep narrow trail and death drop on one side. My tail feathers are still cramping. Exhilarating once we got to the bottom. The pictures will not do it justice but thanks Bernie, you always make my life a more exciting place.
So after this challenge section we manufacture some more interest as the day had clearly been too straight forward. Names are withheld to protect the innocent. Rider A was not where we expected. Rider A and rider B had had a discussion where clearly neither understood what the other was saying and possibly they didn’t even speak the same language. The result gave us the opportunity to ride half the challenge section twice and then cruise up and down the Molesworth road trying to find rider A. I was looking forward to riding this iconic New Zealand road but the experience was slightly blemished by the fact that I was constructing explanations in my head on how I had lost a loved family member. Eventually we found rider A who I have to say appeared quite unperturbed by his own disappearance. I’m seriously running out of nicknames here.
So from there it was a long stretch down the beautiful Acheron valley (sorry if I got that wrong, I am an immigrant after all). By the time we got to Hanmer Springs i was autodigesting. Coffee, juice, food.
Sadly we had to say goodbye to Bernie. He had to head home. I miss him already.
We rode transport to Methven. It was less painful than I expected on the dirt bike.
We crossed the Raikaia Gorge which looked sublime today with the Mt Hutt range bathed in late afternoon light and ethereal mist. I had a little pang as I wish I could have shown it to Jennie. Obviously I didn’t take any photos because I am a dick.
I was tired ok!
The pictures are of our accomodation, the Shearer’s hutt on Mt Gladstone Station, the Upcot ridge and beyond that a total failure to capture anything. 
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