Vespa Chick goes round the World: Extra daylight hours.

I seem to have been very busy lately. I know, I know....... who hasn't. The short days of winter restrict the use able hours down to between 11am and 4.30pm. Getting things done in these hours are a bit of a rush. When out on a bike ride, you know you have to turn around and head home no later than 2.30 or 3 at the latest, or you get caught in the very cold and dark of early evening

The setting sun a few kms from home.

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I had to make a rushed trip to Christchurch last week to see the surgeon for my post op check up. It was lucky I managed to get there. Both highways out of Nelson were closed due to flooding and mudslides. The powers that be, managed to get the northern then eastern route through Blenheim and Kaikora opened just in time for me. It was very dramatic with paddocks under water and debris stuck in the top rungs of the wire fences. The river was huge and wild. There were still patches of flooding to drive through. There were uprooted trees and forestry logs all over the road and 3 expensive looking cars who had tried to cross the flooding and had floated away into the paddocks and into the edge of the river. All of them were festooned with debris and mud. On the way back home again the other road was open again, so I went that way via Lewis Pass. The paddocks were muddy quagmires with no blades of grass left. There were a great many mudslides. The bizarre thing is how localised it was. Nelson was unaffected by the rain, and the east coast was warm and sunny.

My little rental car and the warm and sunny Kaikora coastline.

The top of Lewis Pass with my walking stick.

The normally placid Maruia falls after the flooding.

My trip was followed by a full week of work, covering a work colleague on holiday. It's been a busy month, no wonder my leg's are more swollen than they should be. Never-the-less, I am cycling well, doing good distances and plenty of hills, I would like to get strong enough to ride off the saddle.

Yesterday Niel and I did a lovely ride of 90 kms in perfect winter weather over 12 hills of various sizes. I'm feeling strong and the important thing is I have no pain what so ever, which means the operations have worked. I can now use the ball of my feet again. I can't wait to see what I will be able to achieve now.