Today I spent the better part of the morning trying to force my tired legs up to “Hilltop”. Which was about 430 meters of climb in 8km. Spectacular views from the top and coming down the other side was incredible (though a little terrifying on a fully loaded touring bike).

After that I took a 25km ride on the rail trail back towards Christchurch since my route on this peninsula is over. Was camping at a domain which had horse races going on so I watched those for a bit before getting dinner and chatting with some local cyclists there.