Christchurch/Rakaia Gorge/Geraldine/Fairlie/Lake Tekapo/Omarama/Kurow/Oamaru (2/1/10 to 8/1/10)

Arrived in Oamaru after 7 days of cycling without a day off and with loads of strong winds. Last night we saw about 30 tiny blue penguins crossing the road to go to bed - very cute.

On the way to Oamaru we stopped at Elephant Rocks - loads of big weird and wonderful shaped limestone rocks.

We've been doing lots of camping but we've also stayed on a couple of farms. Thank you to our hosts Tony, and Kay and Kit. Here's Nick saying hello to a couple of hand-reared merino lambs.

We had a fun day cycling to the stunning Lake Pukaki, some of it along a ridiculously windy canal with spectacular mountain views. You can just see Mount Cook in the distance with some snow on it.

Here's a better pic of Mt Cook before the clouds came.

Here's a pic of the canal we cycled along doing 6km/hr before we changed direction and thankfully had a tailwind.

Pic of crazy clouds - We'd never seen so many different types of cloud until I came to NZ

This is the stunning Lake Tekapo, which is over 700m above sea level. The colour is due to the rock flour suspended in it.

Here's me cycling to Lake Tekapo with amazing views of the Southern Alps.

Here's me in the museum in Christchurch. My feet did not reach the pedals!

This is the most hilarious thing we've seen for ages. The lounge of an eccentric NZ couple who loved Paua shells is now in a museum. They had over 1 million visitors to their house.