I got hit by a car today.

So the day's route is Gisbourne to Wairoa. The wind had died down by the time I woke up so I plowed ahead. The ride is no biggie... a couple of big hills but nothing major. Should go pretty smoothly right? Well it does. Until I get to about a kilometer outside of Wairoa. I crest a hill, stop at the top to catch my breath, and start to move over to the other side of the road where the shoulder is widened into a rest area/pull-off. I don't see any cars coming, but as soon as I start to cross a car comes round the hill and blam! I'm down. The lady driving the car stops, pulls over, meanwhile I'm bleeding profusely from my chin. Luckily not too badly hurt other than that- the panniers on my bike provided a lot of padding for the fall. The bleeding stops shortly and the lady gives me her contact information, then I end up biking to the hospital, because wouldn't you know it, the cut is deep. Really deep. Deep enough to warrant stitches.

But there is a good ending to the day. It turns out that today was the busiest day the hospital has seen in years. No one can give any logical reason for it, that's just the way the day turned out. So I show up, needing stitches but not in any near-fatal condition, and after finding out that I'm biking through the country and have not yet booked a place to stay that night (by this time it's about 5 o'clock, and in New Zealand, in a pretty small town like Wairoa, this means that everything- the grocery stores, the information center, even some of the take-aways, have closed) the nurses set me up in a spare room with a mattress, linens, and access to a shower and tell me that I'm more than welcome to stay the night. In addition, for one reason or another, the stitches are not going to cost anything. Plus they're giving me dinner and breakfast tomorrow morning- hospital food, so nothing to crown about, but hey, I've been biking all day. I can pretty much eat anything. Personally, I think half the reason they set me up with a room was so that they wouldn't have to deal with me until they had helped the other patients who were coming up. Still, all in all the free room plus dinner means that today's expenses have been remarkably low.

Ended up being four stitches all together. Have to keep them in for a week. Can't shave my chin until they're out. Heck of a way to end the cycling portion of the North Island- tomorrow I'm catching a bus to Napier, then from there going on to Wellington in a couple of days.

Don't I look lovely?