Picton to Nikau Cove

Thursday May 17, 2018, 34 miles (54 km) - Total so far: 4,592 miles

(7,390 km)

The day dawned bright and promising! What a coup in terms of weather avoidance :)

The ride back along Queen Charlotte drive was hillier than we'd remembered! Lovely though. Things took a turn for the even hillier once we turned onto Kenepuru road. I was quite grumpy as I found it all pretty difficult. Somehow it always takes me a while to settle into the extremely slow pace of uphill touring.

We could have stopped at the first campsite (Cowshed Bay) but the tent-able sites weren't too appealling, and it's a 'scenic' site, thus more expensive. It has a good cooking shelter though so would have been preferable in poorer weather. We pressed on and picked Nikau Cove, even though we'd stayed there before. The neighbouring site, Picnic Bay, is very small and there wasn't much choice. Amusingly, we camped at exactly the same spot at Nikau Cove as we had on our previous visit!

The weather was pretty kind to us, and we also managed to pick a very sheltered spot. So no one froze, bonus! And we proved that it is possible to make flatbreads on a camping stove :)