Day 10: Tekapo

Every day the same little conversation starts the day. For 10 days we have arisen at 6 and been out the door at 730. Every day Dave Mac asks what  time we are leaving, presumably in the hope that one day we will say “Dave, let’s fuck around until 11am today and then go for a lazy café breakfast and then we can start riding at midday and get in at midnight and have an energy bar for dinner”. 
So today, somewhat to Dave’s surprise, we rode off into a lovely still morning at 730. Thompson’s gorge track is a regular for us. It runs from Tarras across the Dunstan range to near St Bathans and the slightly well known haunted Vulcan hotel. Coffee was had out of a thermos at the Blue Lake as the hotel tea room was still closed.  We were kind to Bernie and gave him some. 
Then off up the east Manuherikia river and over the saddle at 1300m. Spectacular views of Omarama and  in the distance Lake Ohau and Pukaki. After lunch we  crossed Black Forest Station with its spectacular views down onto Lake Benmore. From there a quick trip up Haldon road to Tekapo. 
Another pretty stunning day of riding. 
Tekapo does deserve some commentary. Clearly it has been infected by Queenstown. With similar quantities of entitlement and pretentiousness the wholesome stopover of yonder year is gone. The only restaurant we could afford had a clever trick by serving you raw meat on a hot rock which you have to cook yourself. It’s double the price compared to chef cooked food. A triumph of marketing and stupidity over common sense. I had a delicious salmon with a little jus on the side and a basket of fries with aioli. Fish and chips in the old parlance but at a price for which I could have bought the boat. 
Anyway, mustn’t complain as we had a great day and great food and my kids didn’t need higher education anyway. 

. https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1Of3JizF84b54n6_O_MjURghTEAKmAmkLhttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1LsQj3Tet_IIf6lL78Cc7cDYQB2QohVoChttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=14QqRWdKX0Erit1JoZBxft0CmNjZZokiKhttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1q6B9p3_vUCkIZaHNTr8WSodtx5Blb3aphttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1Jj8wPWOpkTlS-9EKVRdtzax2goaTVoXwhttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1UxapRaM3SChSjQ9bQxjNTejtodDU-zlRhttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1dy0kKX_u5n2hLP_lCvrYh2nulnYBV5g-


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