After a relaxing Boxing Day in Futalefu we head down river. The Futalefu river takes it`s own route thru steep gorges and we wind our way on varying grades of gravel travel. Some good, some not so. Spectacular country and little traffic. When we meet the river we are impressed with how large volume it is. Must be an amazing raft trip. Coming into our first town of the day we hit newly laid large grade gravel which I can’t even ride – pushing my bike on a flat road is not much fun but it is not long before I manage to ride in one of the wheel ruts. The first tea house is a welcome break and we stop for a couple of tazas de te and some Xmas cake we are carrying.

Like NZ didymo is a big issue over here and has only been in the waters for a year. No doubt brought down by the fishermen from the far north. One pamphlet we look at in a visitors centre has an NZ photo in it.

It is a very hot afternoon so we look forward to our lakeside camp. We climb over a fence and scramble down to the first obvious beach to later find a road we could have taken. It is a lovely spot to chill out in the afteroon heat. Some locals turn up for the afternoon swimming and sunning.