26th Feb Oamaru

26th Feb
Today I left Palmerston at about 9.30.  It was a grey old Sunday with rain threatening pretty much the whole day. The first objective was to get to Oamaru and see what condition my condition was in.  The country  was  rolling hills  which lots of slow progress going up short passages coming down. I reso lved to eat lots of the food I'd been lugging that Tom wasn't so keen on.   Iwas riding through Herbert which is a few kms south of Oamaru when noticed a grand old church.  So I crossed the road to take a look .The servicewas just finishing  but a couple of the ladies allowed me to admire the inside as well as the outside. I even for sign the visitor's book.

Once I finally crawled up the last hill to Oamaru I didn't have the energy to go on.   The cabin prices were exhorbitant so it was back to the tent.  I finally found some grass the tent pegs would into without the use of dynamite.
A German cyclist rode in at about 6 and set up a tent very like mine.  We got talking.  His English was better than my German so we're able to communicate quite well.  He told me I was the first Kiwi cyclist he'd seen.