Day 10 Dave Langley - Blenheim to Kaikoura

Firstly I should finalise yesterdays (Day 9) Cook Strait crossing. My fears were unfounded as one of the calmest ferry crossings in weeks presented itself to us. I had taken all the sea sick tablets I could and I even had our resident Emergency Doc Big Eric lined up to give me some anti nausea medication that he carries for some reason? He told me they give it to Cancer patients to help during chemo, a bit of overkill I thought but for anyone who gets chronic sea sickness you know as well as I do that you would take just about anything! After the ferry we had a short 30km ride into Blenheim and the rest of the day was totally neutralised so every one took advantage of the lay day. Laying off the caffeine products for a day also helps you sleep strangely enough as well!

At the start of day 10 we were all ready early to get underway. Early 6am swim before we all headed out on the bikes and after about 15km it was on everyone was at maximum to get to the start of the KOM. This would come back to haunt a few people later in the day, me included. Lactic acid in the legs just didn’t go away. I wondered how I was going to get the 10k run in with legs of jelly.

Today was also our first proper day of southerly head winds with that cold nip that made your sweaty jersey just plain uncomfortable. At the first chance I was into the day bag for fresh clothes. Tomorrow is hug again with approx 190km into Christchurch. If we have southerly winds again it will be a long long day!