Decided to finish this particular adventure off in Queenstown , with an epic last day ride from Mossburn to Walter Peak , over the Mavora Lakes Road , then the Earnslaw ferry back to bustling Queenstown before heading to Arrowtown for one final night in the tent .A distance of about 125 km

Had improved weather from Invercargill, but at the price of a frosty start to the ride , 5 layers and the fingers again suffering for the first hour or so until the sun finally started to make its mark felt. Had a decent break at Winton , an interesting very old town with a bunch of heritage buildings .

The destination for the night was a cabin about 3 km out of Mossburn . Was rolling into town by about 1 pm which after an 8:15 start with 107 km to cover a good day .

Intent on an early start , I arose before 6 am and prepared things for a crack of dawn start . Had a big feed of eggs and a packet of bacon as this trip had no enroute cafes for extra food or drinks. Was on the bike on half light , about 7:15 . Again it was frosty cool .

Had received advice that the first 20 + km of the gravel road might be bad due to recent grading which had left lots of loose soft metal . Fortunately the situation was not as bad as feared , maybe traffic had partially fixed it . The scenery was pretty special

The last section starts to descend to Lake Wakatipu with a lovely distant view of Mt Earnslaw.

Arrived at Walter Peak by 1 pm in plenty of time to catch the 1:45 pm ferry back . It seems that post covid tourism has returned with a vengeance with crowds of fairly noisey Asians of indeterminate origins .I’m sounding grumpy maybe , but I guess the seething crowds almost seem to degrade our beautiful unique iconic spots . Guess it is tourism and they are pumping them through and counting the dollars accruing.

Was a brilliant fine day and an amazing ride that I enjoyed immensely.