A Sublime Studio and Serene Glenmac Kinda Day

Tuesday 31 March

A chilly dawn in the Otiake Valley - but clear around us and very stormy looking over the hills. A strange morning light - lots of low lying cloud injected with bruised pastel colours as the sun rose.

Louis got hold of Steve at Sublime Music Studio, which happened to be about 5km away from us at Glenmac, and got himself an invitation to pop over and chat. I wasn’t so keen on nerding out over music gear so we both cycled over to Grants Road and I cycled on while Louis dropped in to say hello. Had a funny cow encounter on the way over - as soon as we hove into view on the empty road, all the cows rushed over to the fence to stare at us!!!

Louis had a great morning at Sublime Studio swapping muso tales with Steve & Tom (studio engineer), meeting Steve's wife Fenella, an artist with a fabulous flair for design, and touring their place.

Meanwhile I cycled a lovely loop up Grants Road, along Otiake Road (mostly a fabulous cruise downhill) , past a des res in dire need of TLC, alongside some beautiful dry stone walling, through a couple of vineyards, to SH83 then back to Grants Road, across the freezing cold ford again and back to Glenmac.

Another curious cow encounter the other end of Grants Road - the cows were absolutely fascinated by me & my bike - we chatted for ages, observing the 3m rule - if I stepped a 1m closer, they all shuffled 1m back and if I took a big step back then they bravely jostled forward again! One was so shy she could only bear to look at me under her friend's belly! So funny!

More barefoot cycling after wading across the ford... it really was even colder than the day before I reckon.

Back at Banjo we had lunch & a siesta when Louis returned from his studio visit, after being visited by the piwakaka, we took a stroll up the Otiake Valley in the sunshine. As we set off on our walk, the far distant cows on the hill found us very frightening without our bikes and scarpered! The serenity of the valley with its tumbling river was just beautiful.

Lamb chops for dinner & then we wrapped up warm in Banjo as the temperature outside dropped under 5*C by 9pm!