New Zealand- Nov 15

Westport to Greymouth

Today was predicted to be torrential rains with brutal winds as a low front was coming in off the Pacific.  So we set our expectations to be tortured by Mother Nature.  And low and behold she withheld her fury and treated us to a cloudy misty day.  Seems strange when you say a cloudy misty day is a treat but it actually was.  There was a low fog most of the day.  But it was a fantasmigorical day (ok, so I made that word up but it fit).

It really was a great day.  We headed out of Westport with no rain and a ....  TAILWIND!!!  Yes, that's right, a tailwind!  At one point we even saw a patch of blue through the clouds, imagine that.

We cycled along through the countryside until we came down over a hill and there was the coast again.

The waves were huge and powerful.  It reminded me of the north coast of Hawaii.  It looked like it would be a surfers paradise.

We cycled along the coast and came to a national park.  It was the Pancake Rocks park.  As you can see the rocks are layered like a stack of pancakes.  

They were beautiful in a surreal kind of way.  Also, the ocean had weathered away parts of the lower layers of the rock and formed a unique set of hollows that created blow holes as the waves crashed in.

After the park we cycled on through lush tropical vegetation.  There were some steep climbs which led to great downhills.  

At one point there was a good long steady climb that my legs said...  Go for it.  So I attacked the climb which led to a fantastic downhill.  I reached 69 kph!  Once I got to the bottom I had found the "zone" and continued at a pretty good clip.  It felt really good to just let the legs do their thing and ride as fast as they were capable.  We only had about 15k left so I rode them until there was nothing left.  It was a great feeling to just fly along the road under your own power propelled by nothing more than your will...  😊