Getting to Twizel and the Start of the Ride

Thursday 1st February Bairnsdale to Melbourne Chris Egan, Sandie Evans, Kerry Knights, Rick Sinclair and Wendy Batey took the lunchtime train to Melbourne where they met up with Denise Lamble. A drink in a pub followed by a delicious Vietnamese meal got us in the spirit of the upcoming adventure Friday 2nd February Melbourne to Southbridge Our overnight stay at the Atlantis Hotel was great, our Maxi-Uber arrived early, there were no dramas on check-in and we met Sue Peirce at the gate.

Even the half hour delay didn't dampen the spirits. The flight was incredibly smooth. We're just waiting for a drama...but none emerged! We picked up our hire van..trusty rather battered Toyota. Is this it?

Thankfully no!! Here we are

In the CBD we picked up Catherine and Tim Shepperd who'd arrived a couple of days earlier. We headed south for 50km to a tiny village, Southbridge. We'd booked out the local hotel - "school camp" type accommodation!

The best bit of the hotel:

Run by young Indian men, the curries were yummy. It was some time later that we had others comment with incredulousness and some wonder that we had chosen to stay at Southbridge. If there’s ever an urge to embrace a retro experience, staying at Southbridge offers that in excess. The original carpets bring in to sharp contrast the deep pink hand basin (hot water on the right hand side) and matching bath. For those not pleased with the design of the carpet, they had not far to walk before the carpet changed to something different. Walls in the rooms are adorned with wallpaper and prints of uncertain origin. Rooms have a basin along with an electrical power point from last century which had the potential to not pass current Standards. The mattresses are resting upon matching bases, featuring aquamarine textured fabric. There is a consensus amongst the group that bed linen is not often changed, regardless of new guest bookings. However, fresh towels and new soap was available. The request for tea and coffee making facilities from the host had us directed to a small area off the hallway. This was a mix of storage room (pie warmer, excess glasses) and previous financial epicentre of the business. The original safe was nestled in to the wall. All slept well and were pleased to find that their stay had resulted in iconic memories.

Saturday 3rd February. First important event was Kerry making Denise a cup of tea in bed...correct that...2. Wendy managed to crash the electrics by putting the kettle and microwave on at the same time!! So it was off to a proper cafe for breakfast. Kerry and Wendy had gone off for a walk...Found a church and cemetery

Kerry was a rather dramatic in hailing down our bus!

The cafe and it food were fabulous.

Journeying on, we had a few stops along the way. In Ashburton we had a break and found a marimba to play.

Then a lookout towards Mt Cook

Another lookouts over Lake Tekapo

The sort of bridge the bikies want over the Mitchell River at Eagle Point

In Twizel we settled into our AirBnb house, had a quick bakery lunch and went off to pick up our bikes. We got part way through the ebike training when a huge storm cell descended on us. We ran for cover and went "home".

Rick and Sue did a huge supermarket shop to get supplies in, then we returned to finish our training and pay our money. We're all organised now for a pick up tomorrow.