Today was a pretty short one, and it was awesome. I hid in my tent from the cold this morning and didn't set off until almost 10am and wound up pitching my tent and going hiking by 2:30 after only 28km. Granted it was uphill for most of it until the short descent into Rakaia Gorge itself. Tomorrow unfortunately I have to get back out of the gorge with a pretty steep 10km. After that it is pretty much downhill for 75km to Geraldine, whew.

Something I haven't mentioned yet is the birds. They are everywhere here and surprisingly have no fear of humans. Some are usually hanging out by my tent in the mornings. Magpies, however, have been making dive bomb attacks at my helmet from behind these last few days. A local recommended gluing plastic eyes to my helmet to make them think I'm watching.

The view from my tent tonight