When we woke up in Reefton, our main objective was to get the bike fixed and keep moving. But we had to wait until 9:00 for the shop to open, so there wasn't much point in getting up early. We had a nice little sleep in, and then headed downtown for some breakfast and then went to the bike shop, and found out that the guy who could fix it wouldn't be in until noon! This was alright, because we had no choice but to relax and enjoy the cute little town of Reefton. We had a nice chat with the people at the pub where we ate, and also with Murray and Helen at the Old Nurses' Home, where they were kind enough to put us up for the night. A huge THANK YOU to them!
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| The Awesome Bike Shop Guy!!! |
When we got to the bike shop in the afternoon, we found out that they didn't have the hanger, which was the part that was broken, and after them calling just about every bike shop in the vicinity, our chances of getting it fixed seemed pretty slim. Just when I thought I was going to have to ride for another 2 days with only one gear, the guy at the shop (shoot, I don't think I got his name!) went hunting in the back of his shop and found a piece from an old bike that he could jimmy up and make a new hanger for me...at least a temp one that could get me to Nelson! So he took the saw and the grinder to it, and eventually came up with a piece that was good enough to get me 3 out of 7 gears on one side, and all 3 gears on the other! I was more than happy with that! I wish I could give the name of this shop to recommend to people, but I don't know what it's called! But if you're ever going through Reefton, you have to go to the Fishing/biking shop, because the people there are amazing! So I told them how great they were and we headed off to get to Murchison at 3:00.
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| We made it to 1000kms! |
We had to go about 80kms before the sun went down, so we didn't stop much the entire way...just for a few minutes for some chocolate, and then got back on the bikes. We made it just about 10 minutes after it turned pitch black. Let's hope we don't have to bike in the dark anymore!
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| Couch Surfing with Lian and Dave! |
When we got to Murchison, we were greeted by our wonderful Couch Surfing hosts, Lian and Dave from Scotland. They were so good to us, gave us a nice hot soup and delicious dessert, and even wanted to go to bed early which is exactly what we wanted to do as well! The next day we just had a lazy day. We had planned to go white water rafting, but the company wouldn't do it for just 2 people, so we waited for some more, and no one came, so we didn't get to go. It was nice to just have a day to relax and recharge our batteries though, especially after the last 2 days, we definitely needed it! When Lian came home that evening, we had a nice meal and chat, and even found another cyclist to come for dinner, where we all exchanged stories and laughs and a couple of bottles of wine :)
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