Day 1, Milford to Henrys Creek, 84 km

Bike all packed and ready to go. This is just below the Homer Tunnel.

We departed Te Anau in the car with my bike on the back at exactly 6.30am. This was pleasing because it was the precise time we intended to leave. Exactitude is nice sometimes.

Robbie and Michael dropped me on the Milford side of the Homer Tunnel and I packed the bike surrounded by dense clouds of sandflies. Farewell to Robbie and Michael, they are going tramping for a few days.

Then on up through the tunnel. It's about a kilometre and a half steeply uphill in the tunnel, so i ground up in lowest gear, being passed in both directions by cars and trucks and buses.

When there were buses passing it was deafeningly noisy, but when the tunnel was empty there was just the sound of rushing water, like in an active cave. Lovely.

Then back out into the sunlight and a wonderful downhill for several kilometres, through stunning mountains. Lots of Keas calling, way up high.

A steep climb to the divide, then 50 kilometres of beautiful bush and easy riding down the Eglinton valley, with hardly any traffic. The buses and cars don't start heading out from Milford until early afternoon.

There were lots of Kaka all the way down the Eglinton valley, which was surprising. I guess I've been in cars previously when driving through there so I haven't heard them. So many!

I met two DOC rangers who were holding an antenna and electronics. They were pointing the antenna around looking for the transmission of a tiny radio attached to a short-tailed bat they were trying to find. The radio on the bat weighs 0.6g, which I found amazing. So tiny.

I stopped for lunch beside the river which was full of didymo slime unfortunately. Is it safe to drink didymo?

Then I cycled on to a nice stealth campsite beside Henrys Creek, near lake Te Anau. I wanted to camp beside the lake but it is really windy tonight, with waves crashing into the shore, and the tent would have been noisy and flapping. So instead I'm hidden in the bush beside the creek.