Daybreak brought an overcast day but thankfully no rain. Rolling along the road to Greymouth it was discovered that two of our number had forgotten to pay and so had to turn back. Paul and I waited at the top of one of the bluffs for them eventually to appear in the Van. The rest had gone on so I paced them back to the group which was a lot of fun. On the outskirts of Greymouth we suffered our first puncture (my wheel) but were thankfully stopping for a short break anyway. We stopped for lunch at a garage before turning towards Lake Brunner. Warrick had to get in the car soon after as he was not feeling very well. As we got closer
to the Jacksons we could see the rain clouds around the pass. We stopped briefly at Jacksons (mainly for me to use the facilities) before carrying on up the valley. As we got to Otira it started to rain and got colder. Ross had managed to get ahead at the lights at some road works. I could see him ahead as we started to climb. Grant and I soon closed in on him and then went past. At 16% the road up the pass is in the very steep category and after riding about 130km before the climb it was not going to be easy. I struggled with the 39x25 combination on the cyclecross bike but managed to edge ahead of Grant finishing about 20sec ahead. There was no way I was going to stop at the summit so I waited for Grant and then we rode to the village - stopping for a cup of tea. The others were not that far behind although Glen was now in the car and Guy had been seen walking more than once. Feeling slightly warmer Grant and I rode to the Bealey Hotel with a howling tailwind that enabled us to cruise along at 47kph. At the Bealey there was no sign of the rain at all. The accommodation was a bit more basic (more like I'm used to) and the pub did quite a nice range of meals so I had nachos for tea (I hadn't had a meal with the group at all so thought I had better at least be a bit social). For my effort
up the hill I was awarded the HC award.
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