October 11th Hokitika – Harihari 77km
Forecast was bad and we woke to heavy rain. We only decided we were going at 9am and by
9.30 we were off to town to get some gloves.
I thought latex gloves under the cycling gloves would keep our hands
warm and dry. They worked but got a bit
sweaty. The wind was strong and directly behind us and even the rain had eased
off. The road, mainly flat, passed
through pastures full of just weaned calves not bigger than a great danes. Every time they saw us coming they would run
to the fence I guess expecting food. We
stopped at Ross in an interesting café/bar.
It was done out in western style with lots of wood, saddles and cowboy
hats for decoration. In one of the rooms
sat a lovely old triumph, I had to take a couple of pictures!
Back out in the rain we continued to Harihari passing a gold
mine just out of Ross, the biggest nugget in New Zealand came from here and
weighed over 2kg. We were soon into the rain forest that lived up to its name,
not heavy rain but fine and constant. We
planned to stop at the Bushman’s Centre for lunch , as we entered nobody
greeted us just looked down their noses, then eventually came over and said we
were too wet to sit down as the seats were covered in possum fur which would take
a long time to dry out. We could try
putting newspaper down or we could sit outside.
Hmm sit outside after 2 hours of riding in the rain, they could kiss my
A***. We found a gateway to stop and
drink our flask of soup and rode on. By
the time we hit Harihari we were soaked! Although we both decided that rain and a
tailwind is better than a strong headwind any day, it had been any easy ride.
There were 3 options to stay, the backpackers said no
vacancies but looked closed, and the pub had rooms but no kitchen and then the
Flaxbush Motel which was perfect. The
most expensive stay at $65 but our own bathroom was a treat and also made a
great drying room.
October 12th Harihari – Franz Josef 66km
A dry morning and a climb to start the day. Not too long or steep but no tailwind today
either so a bit slower. After the
descent we came to Whataroa. A little
village with a café and a park with a covered seating area so our food first in
the park then a look in the Greenstone Gallery next to it (I bought a nice
piece and managed to get a deal by looking broke and wet I guess). Next came a hot chocolate in the café before
continuing to Franz.
Franz is a full on tourist town due to the glacier 5km
south. Backpackers, hotels and campsites
make up most of the buildings along with a couple of bars and booking offices
for quad bikes, sky diving, glacier guides, heli rides etc etc etc. We stayed in the YHA taking advantage of the
cycling discount, had dinner and watched a couple of dvds.
October 13th Franz Josef
We had planned to stay here 2 nights so we could go to the
glacier. We cycled the 5km to the car
park then walked the 1.5hr round trip.
Very impressive, I would say the best example I have seen but a shame
you can’t hike on it without a guide.
After lunch we soaked in the hot pools, a little
disappointed as just 3 pools with no bubbles, jets or anything much. Being set in the rain forest made for a
relaxing couple of hours though. Tomorrow
we have just over 20km to Fox glacier but 3 reasonable climbs then the next day
70ish km to Paringa Lake. Neither place
has much in the way of shops so we shopped for 3 days food to be on the safe
side.
October 14th Franz Josef – Fox Glacier 26km
Left at 10am after chatting to 3 guys are cycling supported,
no bags on road bikes must be nice but they are doing 140km a day. Our easy day had three steep climbs, the last
had a sign warning cars of the gradient! The three guys drove past waving
encouragement. We arrived in Fox at 12pm. Accommodation is expensive here $60 for a cabin
(Fox Glacier Holiday Park and Motel) but it is large and the kitchen and
showers are all new. Took the cycle
track through the rain forest to the glacier, nice ride. I thought Franz glacier more impressive. The lady working at the campsite had just come
back from walking some of the peaks trail in the US and had been to many of the
same spots as us.
Back to a normal length day tomorrow 75km and then Wales
France, come on the Welsh!
October 15th Fox Glacier – Paringa Lake 72km
Great days ride, a mixture of gentle downhill and tailwind
meant 3 hours 20 ride time which must be close to our fastest average speed so
far. Rainforest lined the road most of
the way however we hit the coast at Bruce Bay so we stopped for a snack. While we drank tea and coffee the guys we met
in Franz arrived and stopped for a chat.
They had tiny stem bags carrying snacks and a phone on their carbon
fibre road bikes. They said they ride
4.5 hours a day which is similar to a lot of our days but they cover a much
greater distance. We stopped for lunch
at a salmon farm but no fish for us purely cake!
We arrived a Paringa Lake Lodge just before it rained but
decided to camp as a cabin cost $85 and $24 to camp. This site seemed more aimed at fishing and
hunting parties than tourists but everybody as usual was friendly although
there were swarms of sand flies. There
were 2 groups of men, both fishing and hunting on or around the lake next to
the site. Seems cruising around the lake
looking for deer at the waters edge then shooting them is the stalking they did
but nobody had shot one whilst we were there.
In fact I got the idea that they weren’t 100% up to speed on the hunting
side as they didn’t know what distance their rifles were zeroed at but they
were nice guys and I guess the way they relaxed. The host Kevin was a good old boy as well and
lit a fire in an old barrel which we all stood round and drank beer.
We watched the rugby that night, enough said about that but
I was made a whitebait patte which was really good, the highlight of the night.
October 16th Paringa Lake – Haast 55km
A nice sunny day for a change, the ride had several short
steep climbs which slowed the speed down. It took 3 hours 11 to cover
55km. We stopped at Knights Point
viewing spot for a snack and had lunch in Haast, fish and chips for me! Haast Motor Park charge $32 to camp or $55
for a double room so we went for the room.
This was mainly down to the fact there is a severe weather warning for
tomorrow and we have a long day uphill right in the middle of it! We are aiming to be on the road at 8am so we
will see if everything goes as planned.
The place is really nice and seems new, it looks like it is a converted
industrial building. We dried the tent
on the washing line and repacked it, loaded the trailer so in the morning it’s
just panniers on and go. The only
downside about Haast is the price of the groceries, 2 carrier bags of shopping
cost $69! That’s only 1.5 days food but with only one shop for at least 100km
in any direction I guess you can charge what you want.
I bought a sneaky 6 pack for the game tonight, come on the
All Blacks!! J
October 17th Haast – Makarora 82km
Well a decent match last night for a change, surely they can
beat the French. We were on the road at
7.47am which must be a record! It was
bright and sunny although we rode into a cold headwind for an hour. At 50km the road went up so steep it is all
I could do to push the pedals round, I had to get out of the saddle and stopped
3 times in 2km! I thought if it carries
on like this I won’t make it, then I saw a sign warning of extreme gradient for
cars going down what we had just cycled up so I hoped it would get easier. I kept expecting the road to climb steeper as
we were cruising along with only a gradual uphill trend but by surprise we
reached a sign letting us know we had reached the top. A result for sure, 6km sooner than the sign
at Haast had predicted and nothing like the climb described in the guide book.
The downhill had the occasional up but only for short sections,
as the valley widened 40kph was possible reaching Makarora in a total ride time
of 5 hours. We had lunch in the unmanned
visitors center (a flask of soup) then hot chocolate and cake in the café. The café here is also the shop, petrol
station and motel! The cabin for the
night cost $70 but with the severe weather warning still in place there was no
way we were camping.
As we only had pasta and sauce, no veg or anything else, we ate
that then went to the café for chicken and chips for me and veggies for Maria
followed by more cake and hot chocolate!
It is now peeing down, 65km tomorrow doesn’t fill me with
joy but there is nothing to do here so we will go regardless of the weather.
October 18th Makarora – Wanaka 66km
Well the forecast was bang on, we woke to rain and it
continued all day. We had on all of our
wet weather gear yet we were cold and damp within an hour. The headwind slowed the speed down around
Lake Wanaka, making the climbs on the constantly undulating road harder than
normal. The views, although partially
obscured by cloud were spectacular, I wish I could share them with you but
stopping to take a photo was never on the cards.
We trudged on until we reached The Neck, the highest point
at 405m and where you leave Lake Wanaka for Lake Hawea. Now we felt the full force of the south
westerly gale force wind. The rain stung
our faces and pedaling hard to make progress even downhill was required.
Luckily we came to a small shelter on the side of the
road. It looked like an old bus shelter
but offered great protection from the wind and rain. A flask of soup soon warmed us up whilst we
read the graffiti left by travelers from years gone by, the earliest was 1981
and none had anything positive to say about this isolated shelter.
Once back out on the road the warmth soon disappeared, our
hands feeling the coldest. I struggled
into the headwind along this beautiful lake, each climb seemed worse than the
last. At 50km we were saved by a café,
we gorged ourselves on cake and an all day breakfast fro me, quiche for
Maria. !.5 hours we stayed before we
ventured back into the rain no leaving the lake for an easier cross country
ride.
16km later we rolled into Wanaka, cold and wet we headed
straight for the YHA got a great double room which shared a kitchen and
bathroom with only 1 other room which by chance was empty. Showered and changed we went for food at a
Japanese restaurant then a DVD and bed.
The hardest day so far and only 66km.
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