Day thirteen (a Monday, so not unlucky) was set to be a bit of an adventure.  I was riding through to Richmond to stay with my sister but the route involved taking the Rainbow Road from Hamner Springs to St Arnaud.

I was a little nervous of the Rainbow, having heard that there were "river" crossings and the odd other dodgy patch.  Prior to heading South I was able to talk to a couple of guys (one having ridden the road just a few days before I left home) about the road and they both were certain that I'd be fine.  However, I was still a little concerned - I did not want to drop what probably was around 300kg of Tenere and luggage in a creek or something and get into trouble on my lonesome.

Enter Al and his trusty DR.  With Al now based in Picton, I floated the idea of meeting up and riding the Rainbow together.  We did this all over facebook chat so there was no arm-twisting and he was pretty quick to jump at the chance.  He ended up riding down to Hamner on the Sunday (via the Molesworth of course) and camping the night there.
Al hating the MolesworthI actually got away earlier than planned from Rangiora and had hoped that this meant that Al and I would hit the Rainbow around 10ish.  Unfortunately, at Waikari there was a police roadblock due to a car accident on the Hurunui bridge.  This meant a huge detour back to SH1 and then some very busy (due to the accident), narrow back roads before finally getting back on the Lew...