Tapawera to Nelson

Today we rode along the railway cutting a short distance to the Flat Rock Cafe at Kohatu for coffee. Then along cycle ways to the Spooner Tunnel. This is 1.3 km long it is the fifth longest cycle tunnel in the world. 

We cycled past the birthplace of Earnest Rutherford and then rode madly on cycleways to ‘Pic’s peanut butter world’. We discovered Bruce Picot (Pic) had known John and they collaborated on making flower presses in Auckland back in the 70s at the old Nestle Factory in Parnell. I remember meeting him there but had forgotten the name  

Pic went on to set up businesses in charter sailing and other things until he started making superior peanut butter and selling it in Nelson. We did a factory tour which was interesting. We then cycled to the airport to return the bikes and pick up our luggage. This was our longest cycling day of the trip  

Cathy had hired a car and we drove back the way we had ridden down earlier and further on to Murchison. We checked into the Murchison Lodge which is very comfortable. We walked to the Cowshed restaurant, which was very busy, for pizza. Murchison has a population of around 500, it seems a lot of them were there!  They have a hospital with an aged care facility.