Another huge day. 60 miles, over 3000 ft of elevation and some big hills.

We spent the morning cycling through the mountains. It was absolutely beautiful. On this side of the pass, we noticed that the vegetation was much greener.

The mountains ended and we cycled into Haast, a small town with a convenience store. Clearly a popular stopping point for tourers. We picked up what we could for dinner, had lunch, and headed up the coast. The road went along the water, but was in the forests, which protected us from the wind. We cycled up along the coast for a time and ran into some quite steep hills, all in a row. The road then turned away from the coast back into the mountains, following a river.

We ended our day at Paringa Lake. I immediately jumped into the water…and it wasn’t frigid! I had a good swim and cleaned my bike clothes. Then we made dinner. The sandflies were awful, so we went to bed very early. I think I was asleep by 8.