Days 26 & 27: Murchison to Belgrove, Belgrove to Nelson

After a nice day relaxing in Murchison, we hit the road again headed towards Belgrove.  It was a 90km ride to get there.  It started off a nice day again, and the road wasn't so hilly, and my bike was holding up well enough... When we got about half way, we stopped for lunch at a "bike-packers" which is just what it sounds like... a backpackers for bikers!  But we were only halfway so we got back on the bikes after lunch. 

Fixing the Puncture!

About 30 seconds later, we had our second bike mishap of the trip...a puncture!  Sheree's back wheel had gotten a hole in it, so we got out or tools and tried to attempt a puncture repair, the first one for both of us!  Well, it took us about a half hour to do, but we did it!  And we were pretty pleased with ourselves too :)  We don't need men!  At least for this job ;)  Then we got back at it, had a few huge hills to climb, and with my bike still not able to get into the smaller gears, we had to walk quite a few of them. 

Family Dinner Time :)

Eventually we made it to Belgrove, where we were greeted by an amazing Couch Surfing family, who welcomed us into their home, fed us until our bellies were bursting, and the kids even entertained us by playing twister and cards with us!  It was really great to have some family time with them.  In the morning, it was back on the road for us...

We headed off to Nelson, but stopped off in Richmond to get my bike fixed.  That's where I found out that not only my derailleur hanger was broken, but also my derailleur, and so that meant it was a $150 fix, not just a $30 one...not the greatest news, but I just pulled out the visa card and forgot about it :)  Then we only had about 10 more kilometers to go to get to Nelson. 


We're staying in Nelson with a friend of the Volunteer Coordinator for World Vision here in Nelson, and she is absolutely wonderful!  We felt at home right away, had a coffee, then got straight to work planning the Nelson fundraiser.  We finished off the night with a Quiz night at one of the local bars... Got last place again, but had a lot of fun!