When we arrived at springs junction we thought we'd just mosey into the local motel and stay the night. No vacancy!

The cashier did tell us that there was a holiday park just 5 minutes drive. The only thing was is was 5 minutes drive in the opposite direction to where we wanted to go.

And 5 minutes by car is how long by bicycle?

We opted to calling a holiday cottage along the road side. Sleeps 5. I think that will have enough room for us.

Bonus is there was a decent kitchen, bad news was there were no stores to buy anything to cook in said kitchen.

We had take out burger and fries and soft drinks.

Heading Out

Our travel guide for the Tour Aotearoa explained there was a climb for the first 6 km, then the rest the day was all downhill. Music to any cyclists ears.

We reached the summit and stopped for a bit of a refresher and then a little bird flew out the bush and landed on my Pannier!

We recognized it as a New Zealand Robin (toutouwai in Maori). We learned about and experienced these birds on our visit to the Kapiti Island bird reserve near Wellington. The guide there said that they were 'cheeky' (meaning social) and that if you scuffed up some near-by dirt with your foot they would watch and then hop right over to search for newly uncovered bugs and worms. We watched as "he" hopped from Pannier to Pannier. And at one point almost landing on my helmet and onto Bob's outstretched hand! Their behaviour is very much like Grey Jays in Ontario. Bob tried scuffing up some dirt on the shoulder but the bird didn't seem interested. He flew back and forth from our bikes to a nearby bush. Then we noticed that he was flying to the other shoulder of the road and coming back. Bob went over scuffed up a small patch on that side of the road (which was wetter with moss and pine needles). He watched for a bit from a small bush about three feet away and then when Bob moved back from the dirt patch, he got down on the ground and hopped over to the exposed dirt. He immediately found a couple of bugs and then plucked out a worm that only he could see and flitted back to his bush to eat it. Although it seems such a tiny thing it was very special. These are the moments you savour. Those special things that happen. That you take time for. We had five minutes alone with this little wild bird in the middle of a very large forest reserve, no noise, no cars. Very lucky for us.