9-16 The Final Schedule

Look, we made it to Dunedin!  I swear!

Our original schedule contained a few errors in planning, as the “6 Lessons Learned” post details. Our first error was assuming we could do 90 k a day and still sightsee. After one day where we missed our goal and had a terrifying run across a bridge, we decided to re-think our plan. At lunch on day 2, we considered options.

The original schedule or as much as we had looked like this:

Tuesday 6th– Pick up the bikes in Christchurch and bike to Ashburton.

It was a long bike ride the first day.

Wednesday 7th – Bike Ashburton to Timaru

Thursday 8th – Bike Timaru to Oamaru
Friday 9th – Bike Oamaru to Waiakouaiti
Saturday 10th – Bike Waiakouwaiti to Dunedin
Sunday 11th – Extra day, just in case.
Here’s what actually happened.
Wine!

Tuesday 6th – Pick up bikes in Christchuch and bike to Rakaia River
Wednesday 7th – Bike from Rakaia River to Ashburton in the morning. Spend the afternoon at a wine tasting and playing on the internet.
Thursday 8th – Catch the bus to Oamaru in the morning. Spend the afternoon biking along the coast road to Hampden.
Friday 9th – Walk to the Moeraki Boulders at dawn, bike to Palmerston by lunch. After lunch bike to Waiakouaiti. Get picked up by friends in Waikouaiti to watch the Rugby World Cup opening ceremonies and match in their living room in Dunedin.
Plenty of time for play

While sitting in a MacDonald’s in Ashburton, we were faced with a choice; haul down the coast doing 90 k or 6-8 hours a day on the bike and sightseeing from the handlebars because we said we’d bike to Dunedin, or do we catch a bus part of the day and scale back to 40-50 k a day and 4-5 hours on the bike to take time for wine tasting, scenic photography and a more relaxing vacation. We chose to slow down and see New Zealand. We could have made it, but it seemed silly. So, we jumped on a bus to Oamaru and biked the hilly part.

This is a beautiful country worth seeing, we made a good choice.

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