It never got particularly warm, but the sun was shining all day, so I was happy.
Made a stop at the Amisfield Winery at Lake Hayes on my way out of town. It's hosting an exhibition of kinetic sculpture by a guy named Phil Price. His sculptures are all wind-powered, and they're made of steel and hand-laid carbon fiber. He employs some good engineering to make everything run smoothly, and he does tons and tons of balancing and sanding and whatnot by hand to get exactly the motion he wants.
Unfortunately for the sculptures, there wasn't a breath of wind. This was, however, good for biking, so I wasn't about to wait around for a gale to storm through. Here are some stationary shots of a few cool pieces:
Phil Price kinetic sculpture
Phil Price kinetic sculpture
Phil Price kinetic sculpture
Our days are getting really short really fast lately, so I didn't dawdle too long and headed towards Cromwell. I made a quick pit-stop at the Kawarau Bridge and watched a couple bungy jumps. Here are two young brothers, one eager, one not so much, doing a tandem jump just after they got a taste of the river:
Very wet
It was nearly 1pm by now and I had a long way to go in the remaining 6 hours before dark, so I made steady progress through our wine country directly to the bakery in Cromwell for a snack, then directly to the ice cream shop in Wanaka for a hokey pokey waffle cone. These little rewards make it all worthwhile!
Gorgeous day in Wanaka
Had to keep going; only about 3 hours until it'd be pitch black. I stopped in Cardrona for a Red Bull and started my climb of the Crown Range 90 miles into the day...
Made it over the top just fine, had a blast coming down the Queenstown side, and rolled in at 6:40, 20 minutes before dark. 115 glorious miles of sightseeing on a warm fall day; can't be much wrong with that!
