Granny's Got a Bike: Saying Goodbye to the West Coast and heading over the hill to the East Coast

woke up to clear blue skies today - no hint of any rain clouds anywhere - great stuff...
after a great breakfast and chat with the very chatty host John, Maggie and I set off on yet another adventure today...
first down to the beach-front (well am on the West Coast!) and blow me down - there in the south is Mt Cook and Mt Tasman, bathed in morning sunshine - their snowy caps glistening... dang, wrong lens on camera, run back to Maggie, swap and back to the beach! phew that bank of blue clouds were just descending and touching the peaks... some quick shots - even capturing some nice breakers and lets get this show on the road.
Today's plan was to dodge Kumara (been there yesterday) and head inland thru the forests to Lake Brunner, then turn south to Jackson's Retreat on the main road to Christchurch... Ms Google said that was a good plan for bikes... unfortunately, Ms Google didn't realise that forestry land is actually not accessible to the general public and John from B&B did repeat a coupla times that he thought that land was forestry. the last sign at the bottom of a steep and rather gravelly road sold it for me... Locked Gate ahead, No Thru Road!!!!!!! blast! well not riding up that to find that there Is a locked gate, so we retreated back to the coastal road and rode on down to Kumara... stopped for a coffee at the cafe and got chatting with another couple of cyclists on their way up to Cowboy Paradise... sorta locals and they suggested I head down to Mitchells on Lake Brunner... Its mostly sealed roads they said, with a little bit of gravel..... so why not - better than riding on the main road if you don't have to...
and a great decision! beautiful scenery as usual - rivers, lakes & forests... hardly any traffic but a little too much up and down and a little too much gravel - just cos nothing can be totally perfect. But it was close... the actual boring bit was the last bit that was a flat sealed road, in a straight line.... pedaling away and getting nowhere.
so tonight I am holed up at Jackson's Retreat and its a wonderful camping ground... set up on the side of mountain above the highway, its got nice private (sorta) motor home sites & camping ground - but I have a Kiwi caravan.... well, its abso adorable!! its straight out of the sixties and decorated appropriately... I am loving it and don't want to leave.... and the peeps here are lovely! so win win!
enough rambling on - here's the pics for the day!