This was a very pleasant ride on highway 8. Light traffic and very gradual grade, although we were climbing the whole way. Jelle was having bike issues this day. His fairly new Schwalbe Marathon was bulging and also had a big gash in the tread. Then when we removed it to put in a boot, which I cut from my Tyvex ground cloth, the hub came a bit loose and started making noise. After many stops he finally decided to swap the bad tire to the front where he had much less weight. This allowed us to continue on to Fairly without incident. In town we found a mechanic who took care of the hub problem very easily.

It was a cloudy day so we couldn't see the mountains that are visible from Fairlie. It was starting to drizzle when we setup out tents, but we were under a big tree which offered some protection. We met a bunch of riders who were doing a supported tour all of the way from Cape Reinga at the northern tip of the North Island, to Bluff on the southern tip of the South Island. They were doing about 100k a day and had several support vehicles, which their wives were driving, and had accommodations booked the whole way. They were staying in the motel rooms which are an integral part of any New Zealand Holiday Park. Latter we meet a bunch of them at the restaurant and had beer and pizza.