March 13: Gone into the wind

Yes, a final, forever farewell to our puppy friends, Pearl and Quake, who seem to have grown overnight, and to Jim and Denise, our wonderful farmstay hosts, and to their 1000 sheep, and to their 300 deer, etc. before accepting the climbs of the day that will deliver us back to the Awatere Valley and all those prosperous vineyards up north.

A sweaty effort gets us atop Weld Pass, then to Seddon for a BIG lunch and a look at the Sunday paper with page after gruesome page of ghastly photos of the recent earthquake/tsunami in Japan. Ugh! What a mess!

The wind builds this afternoon, making the last climbs a drag. We pedal hard, even on flats, to make headway. As far as I can see, the ONLY benefit of a wind in the face is that you don't need to inhale, cuz air blows right into the bottom of your lungs. A tough finish, and by the time we skirt the flat vineyards of Blenheim, we are pretty flagged. A Coke in town helps a little and we turn west and reach the tiny town of Renwick, also nestled amidst a dozen mega-vineyards and hemmoraging new-found wealth.

We found the Cork n' Keg and all became AOK.