We've finally made it away from the western side of the Apple Isle and into the centre. We are still trying to take the roads less travelled but hit two more road closures and had to back track – 20km yesterday when the road to Mole Creek Karst from Gowrie Park was closed and 6km today when one of the roads between Westbury and Poatina was closed, this back road also scored us another flat tyre, we had a huge piece of glass in one of the van tyres, luckily it wasn't the one we just bought. We are getting lots of comments on our shredded tyre hanging off the back of the van – "Nice tyre", "Wow, which road did you go on so I can take another?"
The road from Poatina to Great Lakes has a stretch that resembles a heart beat monitor, quite a few hairpin turns going steeply up hill. We had to stop part way up to let an echidna cross and then try and get our momentum up again. Fantastic views from the top and finally a clear day to enjoy them.
We camped last night at Deloraine and enjoyed a walk through town yesterday and their many op shops. We were good though, Geoff and I bought a book each and Erin found a small leather backpack that she had to have.
We are still managing to free camp everywhere and haven't been charged since Riana. We haven't hit a bad spot yet, though Deloraine was a little noisy being next to the train tracks.
