Sunday, March 16

St. Arnaud to Nelson. Well the rain that started last night was here to greet me in the morning. However, it did allow me enough time to pack up the tent and put my things on the bike. The ride ahead was not looking too promising. Down the road the sun started to come out. This had a wonderful effect on all the pine trees in the area. The smell was amazing. As I made the one big climb today through Golden Downs, I heard a strange clinking. From behind came another cyclist. This was a nice diversion as we ended up talking the rest of the way to Nelson. His name is Allen Ford and he's from England. Too bad he's not doing a web site of his travels. Allen started just over a year ago by driving out of London to spend 10 months in Africa, and now he's here riding a bike around stopping here and there... Coming into Nelson felt like some sort of homecoming. First, I had on all of my GT gear, so when I stopped in town all these local kids thought I must be somebody. "Are you one of those GT downhill guys?" That is when I had to explain the whole thing about the web site. They said they have internet access at school! Then I found John sitting at a coffee shop (where else). We caught up on what each other missed or did for the past few days, then it was off to unpack my gear. Finally we hooked up with Brian (a scottish guy that we cycled with back around Queenstown) for dinner. Nelson is quite the happening little town -- You can see someone on in-line skates, a skateboard, or mountain bike. Right on Nelson! Pictured with Mike (far right) are Nathan, Cory, Corrie, and Hayden from Nelson. See the map for this day