“ Lets go away and stay somewhere nice”

So K was persuaded we should go away for a couple of days. “ Let’s go away and stay somewhere nice” she says.
I then have a sleepless night because not only can I not find my bike helmet I can’t find the whole “bike box”. This causes me
some distress as we think we may have taken it up to Nelson when we returned the car in July 2018 but me leaving myself without bike gear is like people leaving themselves without a phone charger.
Anyway the errant box was found in the bottom shed and all was well in the world.
We left Moeraki at 11.30am headed for somewhere in Central Otago so we could stay somewhere nice and then hopefully cycle the new Roxburgh Gorge trail out of Alexandra.
During a v nice coffee in Kurow we were dismayed to discover not only the price of the NZ accommodation, the shit quality of a lot of it but sadly most we had previously glanced at were now booked out! Seriously who wants to pay $140 for a room with a shared bathroom these days... that’s what hostels r for!
Not to worry we carried on south over the stunning Lindis Pass, past Cromwell and then stopping in Clyde ( no affordable Accomm there) before heading onto Alexandra.
We pulled into Mirabel chalets but they were fully booked so K had a great idea ... Alex Top 10 holiday park!!! Let’s stay somewhere nice she said!!
The ladies at the front desk were scary enough but allowed us to look at their “deluxe cabins”..... and we were then too scared to do anything other than pay to stay!!
We unpacked the truck, changed into our cycling gear, tightened up the bikes and then drove down to the side of the lake where the Roxburgh Gorge trail starts.
Sadly it was already 5.30pm but the goal of tonight was just to test ride the bikes and make sure they were safe and the tyres weren’t going to explode etc after 4yrs in their boxes having travelled to PNG and back!!
The trail was beautiful as we just cycled alongside the river for an hour . It was a perfect temperature at this time of evening as the day had been boiling.
We were so hungry walking around New World getting our dinner we had to partake in 2 hot cross buns out of the packet of 6 before we reached the check out.
Back in our “deluxe Accomm” we cracked open the wine, microwaved our fish pies and watched the news +1! Luckily we happened to see the town signs about needing to boil the water after we had each consumed more than 1litre, because the scary ladies at reception had failed to mention this to us.... luckily the security man at the supermarket confirmed current tap water wasn’t safe to drink... brilliant!!
Anyway after a night of total luxury tmrw we r off to Roxburgh to cycle the bottom half of the trail before heading to Dunedin to catch up with my friend Mascha.Read more