Day 23: The Franz and the Fox

We had planned to go a short 60-ishkm and stay with Iain (DOC guy with the Kiwi-hunting dog) to wait out the rain. But we made such good time to Franz Joseph and the rain was a light intermittent drizzle, so we decided to get the three atrocious climbs to Fox Township over with. 

And yes, I'm going to toot my little horn over here and just say that I kicked some serious class on these hills. Non-stop climbing here. A day like today would have disheartened me on day one. But I was mostly very unmindfully daydreaming about what color I would paint my dream touring bike. 

When I had almost reached the top of the first climb, an exuberant Asian man in a juicy campervan pulled up alongside me and was handing me a banana out of his window. "This for you! You can make it!!!! YOU CAN MAKE IT!!!" I laughed and thanked him for the banana. I got a double jazz hand wave from him on his return down the same road. 

By the top of the third hill, I was feeling the burn. I thought "Ok, just around the next hill.... Damnit! Ok, the next one." And luckily the downhill WAS around the next corner. 

We made it to Fox! We survived the rain!