New Zealand-A Quick Look AT The South Island Part 2

Days 3 and 4

Westport To Hanmer Springs To Fox Glacier- 830km(518mi)

Waking to grey skies and rain, I jumped on the Trumpy and ducked down to New World and picked up some bacon and eggs, plus some bread rolls. Having spied a bbq in the garden of the motel I thought that cooking our own breakfast using the utensils in the well stocked motel room would be a far cheaper alternative to buying four bacon and egg rolls at a cafe. New Zealand is actually quite expensive! As it turned out we had enough for two each with some bacon left over. We were soon as full as a public school !

I haven't mentioned my riding gear yet. I had purchased an RST all season 2 piece suit for the trip and had only taken the tags off of it as we were loading our bikes in Christchurch. This was supposed to guarantee no rain....Anyway, you could say that it was untried. Today, it would get a baptism of fire..er..water.

Sorry for the crappy

photos, but the suit is awesome!

The other unknown was how would the bikes handle in the wet? Wayne from Paradise had mentioned to me that the tyres on the Trumpy were just as good in the wet as in the dry. Now I wasn't sure if he meant they were rubbish in the dry and hence no worse in the wet or if he was just planting a seed in my head. Riding in the rain is all about confidence. Either way, I would be taking it pretty easy until I got a feel for them.

We made our way out to Cape Foulwind to check out the seal colony but finding it quite a walk from the bike park, we decided to simply press on in case it rained all day. We had accommodation booked in Hanmer Springs for the night and there was a bit of riding in between. This didn't stop some horsing around at the Cape though.

Courtesey The Road To Nowhere

On a positive note, my gear seemed to be be watertight and warm.....unlike my boot which had trickled water in from somewhere.

We beetled along for a while, before seeing an amazing photo opportunity that was worth risking wet cameras. The weather really was pretty crap but being warm and (mostly) dry I was quite enjoying the ride with the wet coast's spectacular vistas.

Not long after we stopped at Punakaiki to see the Pancake Rocks, an unusual geological phenomena. Basically the rocks look like stacks of pancakes. There are a few blow holes that were pumping but there was so much water flying around the place anyway that I wasn't overly impressed. It was late morning and we were STILL looking for good coffee though.

The road straightened out a bit now and began to dry so that we had a pleasant ride into Greymouth. Here we stopped for a bite to eat and to get a decent coffee. This done we were back out the road headed toward Reefton and eventually Lewis Pass. It looked to be dairying and livestock farming along here with views off to rain capped hills in the distance. Very nice.

Stopping to take a photo while on a group ride can be frustrating for the non-photographers. As I saw some opportunities and pulled over, a few minutes later Wayne would come riding back to see if I was ok. "Yep, just taking a photo" was my slightly embarrased response. They soon came to ignore me when I disappeared off the back, which was fine with me.

We stopped for fuel in Reefton, which looked like a pleasant town that could do with an explore. That wasn't to happen as this was a tear-arsed tour of the South Island with no time to look at anything. I had a slight moment at the service station when moving my bike from the bowsers. As I moved the bike, my helmet was on the mirror. Just as I stopped it decided to jump ship! I managed to get my foot under it to break it's fall but then it rolled about 5 metres across the forecourt. Of course this scratched nothing but the visor! D'oh!!

As we rode out of Reefton, the heavens began to open again making for a cool, wet ride. As we climbed the mountain the temperature began to drop. It got down to about 10C (50F) at its lowest but I simply activated the heated grips and was toasty. My tyres really did seem to be quite good in the wet as we were motoring along and this was a very heavy bike, what with my kitchen sink in the panniers! The only real issue was with visor fogging, making for some exciting corners! Have a laugh at me a I go from visor closed, to open, to closed, to open, to.....you get the idea, in this montage.

To be honest, I was concentrating so hard on being smooth I didn't even notice the "Pass" bit of this road. It just felt like we were riding through a winding forest road, with no discernable climbing or descending. However, the scenery very quickly changed to open vistas across azure rivers to distant mountains. BAM! We were back in Middle Earth!

The rain had eased somewhere around here and the road was now dry. Combine this with jaw dropping views and that last 50km(32mi) into Hanmer Springs took a few hours to complete!

Bye Bye Rain!

Geoff and Steve

 Chillertek motoring by.

Looking back up the Walau River valley.

We were staying at a backpackers tonight in Hanmer Springs. It turned out to be a normal house in a residential street and I was a bit dubious. Jack In The Green was actually a very clean, well run backpackers. We had our own separate unit and hey, what was that on the lawn? Another BBQ! Once we had offended the locals and tourists alike by exposing our lilly white skin at the hot springs we shopped up a storm then cooked ourselves a decent meat and one veg meal, all washed down by some DB Lager, all for bugger all $. Well, 3 of us did. Steve apparently doesn't eat peas.......the little girl.

Jack in the Green's....green. BBQ at far right.

Bringing the past into the Blogsphere, Part II

My first mountain biking holiday, the story continued :-

April 5th,2009. Two Passes Ride.
"Okay. Up early today and jump into the car and drive my steed and myself up to Hanmer Springs(about 1.5 hours north). There was a 12 hour race on last night so I am passed by dozens of cars mounted with numerous mountain bikes. I wonder, slightly nervously, how alert they are and edge the little rental car toward the left of the road each time one passes! I pick up a trail map at the Info centre in Hanmer Springs. I then drive half a km out of town to gear up and attack some of the trails. The plan is to ride some of the singletrack around Hanmer then ride the two passes loop. I decided to go up Jack's Pass, around the back of MT Isobel, then back over Jollies Pass. A total of about 30km or so depending on how much singletrack I add in.The singletrack here is picture perfect. I decided to nip along Dog Stream Track, then up the Jollifee Saddle track and onto the dirt road up to Jacks Pass.
All good until I look up the road while climbing Jacks Pass. It just keeps climbing and climbing! The headwind is about 20 knots too! Once I reach the top, after a 'photographic' stop(nothing to do with the legs being tired) I see that it was a 500m climb. My heart rate during the climb is an indication of how much the previous day took out of me. My max heartrate on the climb is 20 bpm less than my normal range. I just can't push hard. That said I just grind away at a steady rate and get to the top with two stops(one to check a phone message. Thanks to my wife for the call!).
It has become quite cool at the top and I am glad I have donned my undershirt and armwarmers at the start of the climb, despite the heat I knew I would generate during the climb. So, on to the intersection at the Clarence river. A quick photo and I turn right for the 10km ride to the Jollies pass turn. At the next turn I meet a guy and girl on MTBs wearing just shorts and t-shirts. I decide they are either locals or europeans. The english accent gives them away on this balmy 13 degree day!
The grind up Jollies pass is an easy one. We seem to be on a plateau this side of Mt Isobel. All the climbing is on the Hanmer Springs side of the hill, which means there will be a high pucker factor on the descent! At the top of Jollies pass I veer off to the right as suggested in the Kennett Brothers book to enjoy a brake searing descent, as advertised. Around here I think I took a trail less travelled and found myself at the bottom of a very steep track with an electric fence blocking my progress! No probs. I saw a road on the other side of the paddock and after carrying my bike across the boggy mess to a gate, I am underway again.
A gentle cruise into Hanmer via some more singletrack. Gentle, but not peaceful, as my chain is squealing in pain after 90km of dusty trails and no lube. I am too tight to buy some lube for the one or two times I will need it, just to leave it behind.(flammable and not compatible with travelling in an aircraft hold) So I cruise into Hamner to the bike shop in the main street, which is open at 2pm on a sunday! Here I meet Neil, who owns Krank cycle clothing and said bike shop. He very kindly lubed my chain and we had a chat about how good the trails are around here. He also comments on my bike as he is keen to upgrade from his Cannondale and this is the First Trek Fuel EX he has seen in the flesh. He has some pretty cool and practical looking MTB clothing which may be worth a look at. Huge thanks for the chain lube and the chat. A true gentleman. I pedal serenely back to the car for the drive back to Christchurch, slightly miffed that I forgot some appropriate clothing to try out the hot springs. I briefly flirt with the idea of wearing a set of bib nix, then decide that I do want to be able to travel to NZ again at some stage in the future! 
Totals for the day are 36km travelled and 990m of climbing. Woo Hoo, I am living the dream now! Just don't go to sleep on the drive into Christchurch!"


I hope I haven't bored you with "blog filler". Looking back on these rides reminds me how green I was to mountain biking and all things cycling really. I have learnt so much since and without a shadow of a doubt I have volumes more to learn about this sport/lifestyle. I look forward to it!

Thank you for indulging my reminiscences.