Tag 33 - Tailwind

During the night, there was a strong storm, which woke me up frequently and made me a little worried about the upcoming day on the bike. There's nothing more unpleasant than riding against wind force 5 all day long. As Bryan pointed out at breakfast, he would rather exchange every mountain for riding against the wind on a bicycle, because the mountain eventually ends, but the wind often doesn't stop during the day. But it turned out differently than feared. By midday, the wind turned in our direction and we were able to make good progress. Although we only rode along the highway, it was the 'quieter alternative', as a young lady explained to me at the visitor center in Wanaka. We reached the Clutha River by midday, which is dammed up from Cromwell. We continued along the dammed lake. During a break, we googled the amount of rain that falls in Alexandra each year, as Bryan and Paula said that it looked a lot like the landscape in the desert in Colorado. In fact, only 34 cm of rain falls here per square meter per year. That is the lowest value in all of New Zealand. Accordingly, the landscape in Central Otago looks the same. I haven't ridden through such a desert-like landscape before. And actually, that's about 15 cm less than in Colorado. By early afternoon, we reached the designated campsite in Cromwell, but first we steered to a small pub in the medieval reconstructed 'old Cromwell' from the time of the gold rush. The style and architecture of the buildings quickly indicate that it was built by English gold seekers who were looking for the precious metal in this area around 1880. Today was special: it was the easiest 70 kilometers I have sailed on the bike so far in New Zealand!