After a super refreshing 11 hour sleep, I was voluntold to make tea and breakfast.

It was freeeeeeezing again, and clear blue skies once more.

After a slow start, we got back on the long straight road again. The plan for today was 85km including a huge climb.

We passed a food truck 11km in, so of course had to stop for a second breakfast.

Whilst we were waiting for the food to be cooked, James disappeared, only to return 10 minutes later with a huge grin, showing me his phone and announcing ‘look what you missed’

So off we trotted to go and pet the cows. I accidentally knocked my hand into a thistle trotting over, I squeezed out one thorn there, but more on this later.

We demolished a bacon roll and cuppa and head back onto the road.

Before too long we started to climb, and sweat, because the layers of merino, thick shirt and jacket weren’t needed anymore.

The climb wasn’t bad at all, yay for living on a huge hill and having to ride it every day!

We rolled into St Arnaud, and popped into the gas station / cafe / shop to pick up supplies of pasta and tuna for dinner. Then head across the road to the faaaaancy place for lunch.

We decided to share a pizza and wedges for lunch, and as we were waiting for the food, I decided to try and remove the thorn still in my finger. After trying to squeeze out the thorn, it wasn’t budging. So out comes the pen knife for a bit of DIY medical care. Just as James is welding the penknife poised to slice open my finger, the pizza arrives and the waitress looked horrified!

A quick pit stop down to the lake, for the obligatory photo (we couldn’t get ‘the’ photo at the end of the jetty with our bikes as a kiwi explorer bus had just stopped off, so a bus load of ‘youths’ were off getting the same picture)

Back on the road, the sun came out to play again and it was HOT! The rest of the afternoon was mostly downhill, with a few little ups and downs.

We found some of our cousins, just four legged cousins. Of course we had to stop so James could pat them

We carry on, with only a quick stop to collect the brand new, much-needed bug spray that fell off my bike into the road, and of course split open.

A nice evening stroll down to the river, it was quite tempting to jump into the Buller river. However the thought of soggy clothes to dry over night was enough to stop us!

Another evening of badly microwaved pasta, a couple of cups of tea and it was time for an early night again.

Day 3, completed.

It’s good to be adventuring again!