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February 13 - Havelock to Nelson
The motel served us our normal New Zealand buffet-style breakfast. After eating, I mounted my bicycle, turned right from the motel in Havelock and then left into the Trailways Hotel in Nelson . The morning started off with some fog and eventually turned very warm. Before our two hills of the day, I stopped at a café with several others and had a delicious muffin (it had berries and chocolate chips) and a bottled iced coffee.
The second climb was more difficult than the first. I had to brake behind a logging truck on the second descent. I rode solo the whole day.
We have a nice room at our motel with a shower with several shower heads that spray on different parts of the body. Very relaxing.
I took a look at the rear tire on my bicycle and noticed several small slashes. Rather than risk a flat on future rides of the tour, I decided to walk into town to get a new tire. The bike shop that I went to had the exact tire that I was using and offered it to me at half price. I snatched it up. That good price plus some award-wining gelato that I ate on the way to the bike shop sealed the deal.
After our social hour, Ann and I ate in our motel's restaurant. She had a huge Caesar salad while I chose pasta with salmon in a light cream sauce. We are getting saturated with large meals with meat. It felt good to cut back (on the meat).
After dinner we walked through the town. Nelson is fairly large with a downtown area that stretches for several blocks. There were lots of people dining outside in the many restaurants.