Otago Rail Trail

We left Queenstown on Saturday morning, via a nice gravel pathway along a river - I felt like a a 10 year old out riding bikes with a pack of pals!  We did get a little confused as to where the route was while we were still in Queenstown, and had to ask a couple of real 10 year olds out scootering for directions.  They were alarmed that we intended to go all the way to Clyde (96km away) and asked in all seriousness if we had tents!  We managed to find our way to Clyde, and my only regret is Wayne and I had already ordered our dinner when we saw the chalkboard with specials - "Bluff oysters"!  We missed out, but plan to enjoy lots of them at the next opportunity, whenever that may be.  We are only 3 riding days away from Bluff and the end of the road!

Yesterday we started along the Otago Central Rail Trail - a perfect example of what a rail trail can be.  Directional signs wherever they are needed, loads of informational signs, refurbished buildings, a few tunnels, and a nice unpaved but hard surface to ride on.  Plus, little boxes every 10 km or so with a stamp to add to your rail trail passport.  Or, you can cheap out and use your daily route instructions sheet, like we did.  Despite the many bike tourists the rail trail brings in, we are definitely getting off the beaten track now, and the hotels are getting more and more interesting.  Last night we were in Ranfurly, at the Ranfurly Lion hotel, whose claim to fame is its Art Deco design.  Tonight we are in Middlemarch (fittingly, as Wayne pointed out today, as it is the middle of March).  With bathrooms down the hall, and it is not a big enough hotel for all 25 of us to be in, so some are down the road at the motor camp cabins, and some are out back behind the hotel itself, in what looks like a container, divided up into three windowless rooms.  So I am quite content to have a room with a window that opens a little bit!

A Most Perfect Day

We are so fortunate!  If you've been to Milford Sound, you know how rare a cloudless, sunny, warm day is there (13 metres of rain over 200+ days of rain) ...yesterday we made a last minute booking to go - and we got a flawless day.  Okay, almost flawless; Wayne may be in some trouble for sullying the pristine waters of Milford Sound when his hat flew off into the water on the boat ride, and in a World Heritage Site, but don't tell anyone it was his, okay?

This was an all-day trip.  The bus picked us up just after 7:00 am and we got home about 12 hours later. I was a little hesitant, considering the long bus ride, but it was a pleasure to enjoy the amazing scenery, and the driver had a great, informative spiel going as we flew along, educating us about a lot of things we didn't even know we should be wondering about!  Such as, humans have been in New Zealand for only about a thousand years, the difference between a fjord and a sound - we should all be calling it Milford Fjord - and telling us some Maori legends.  Plus, it is easier to snooze in a bus seat than on a bicycle seat!  Amazing restful rest day, now we begin a 6 day stretch to the finish in Bluff!

Dry Shoes!

Yes, my cycling shoes are finally dry, but they may not be coming back to Canada - they are um, fragrant, and not in a good way.  I think they may have to be retired after we reach Bluff.  The ride into Franz Josef was beautiful, despite the rain, so we didn't see the alleged mountains but still had a good ride.  The next morning, we rode on to Haast, starting out with momentary glimpses of the gorgeous peaks, so there really ARE mountains there!  At dinner that evening, we were, of course, talking about the rain we had ridden through, at which point Lindsay said he and Vince had been discussing it too, and they had agreed that it was not actual rain, merely low cloud, a touch heavier than light mist.  We were looking out the window at the time, and John said if we couldn't see the green shed (about 10 metres from the window) that would be called raining. But somehow, we were all soaked right through after an afternoon of riding in whatever you want to call it.  I call it rain!

Miraculously, the next morning it was dry, after we fell asleep listening to rain bucketing down, so off we went down the road, and what a ride that was!  All that mist had made the dozens of waterfalls even more spectacular and the greenery even more green, if that is even possible.  We followed the Haast River up and up and up, ending with a crazy climb at 13%, then another one of those scary downhills luge runs into lunch.  Then the sun was out and we were into Lake country, riding past Lake Wanaka over The Neck and along Lake Hawea and into Wanaka.  It is so much like Kelowna!

All that took 5 days of riding, so we were ready for our day off today, lolling around in Wanaka.  We drove up to Cardrona Hotel for lunch - what a beautiful place, but now we know what we're in for tomorrow - 24 km of uphill to the hotel, then the REAL climb begins, before we descend into Queenstown.  Wayne found a cool little cinema here, so we had date night at the movies.  All theatres should be like this one - homemade ice cream, beer and wine available, couches and big leather seats to sit on, and an intermission; so you can stretch your legs, get more popcorn or homemade cookies fresh out of the oven!

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Squish, squish, squish

That is the sound my shoes make as I pedalled along through the rain this afternoon.  We began the day, fortified with a Kiwi version of the full Scottish breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon, sausages, baked beans and a potato pattie, with high hopes that the light high cloud would lift and reveal the apparently stunning mountains around us, but despite a blue sky teaser, this was not to be.  We went through a long enough bit of rain to actually put our raincoats on in the morning, but soon took them off and rolled into lunch at Hari Hari with genuine hope for a dry afternoon.  Hari Hari was a nice stop, at the town rugby field, which also had a mosaic-tiled labyrinth beside it.  I multi-tasked and walked the labyrinth while I ate my sandwich. - I know, not really in the reflective spirit of labyrinth - walking, but we never stop long for lunch, it is just too hard to get going again if we do!

All through Africa, I remember Vince saying how it would be so nice if we could have a nice cup of tea at lunch, so as an organizer, he made this so for this trip.  So every lunch stop includes a cup of tea or an instant mocha - a very nice touch, along with biscuits (cookies in Kiwi).

We didn't get far into the afternoon before we had to put the rain jackets on again, and could have used a wetsuit by the time we finished the ride.  I really can't imagine doing this and camping, but we cycled for a while with a couple of guys doing just that today.  Obviously, we are doing the luxury version!  It would be nice to see the mountains here, along with the glacier; maybe we will get a glimpse tomorrow.

On to Haast!

Hokitika

Lovely two days of riding - lots of climbing yesterday, but long sweet downhills after lunch, through an enchanted forest of huge green trees, and giant ferns.  Last night we were in Reefton, what a quiet peaceful town.  Yesterday, I was thinking about all you people who told us New Zealand was just like Canada, but compact, it is true!  In fact, someone on our tour talked to a Kiwi who's said "yeah, I've been to Canada, it's just like New Zealand, only bigger!"

Way back in Paihaia, we went to a kind of Friday night Food Festival and one of the things I sampled was whitebait, which was mixed with a little bit of beaten egg and cooked on a grill, then served on a slice of white bread - delicious, and Hokitika is where whitebait comes from!  We arrived here at our "interesting" hotel accommodations, (owner was being carted off in an ambulance as we arrived) and went for a walk on the beach because the truck had not arrived with our bags.  There were a lot of driftwood sculptures on the beach, remnants of the Sand and Driftwood Festival back in January.  I contributed a very nice flat beach stone inukshuk to the local beach art.

Tomorrow we are riding to Franz Josef, where there's a big glacier (pronounced glassy - R,  as in, "the morning after the party, his eyes were glassier than hers"), and in the bar here at our hotel, there's a big panorama photo of the mountains above us. - I sure hope we get to see them tomorrow!

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Check them out there beacause I can't remember nor figure out how to post photos on the blog🙄

Fat Tires are My Friends

Those big tires made all the difference yesterday - I would have been a snivelling mess without them - they gave me enough confidence to forge ahead through gravel, corrugation and streams.  The ascent was fun, but on the last steep bit, I was going along so slowly (5 km/HR) and starting to wobble beacause of how slowly I was moving so I decided to walk and push my bike.  Which felt pretty good, actually!  Gorgeous views at the top of the pass, but then the REALLY scary part began - descending, down very steep terrain, with the same gravel and corrugation.  Yeesh, I think my brakes were red hot and my hands and forearms were aching from the death grip I had on my handlebars and the constant braking.  Once we were back down to river level, we somehow thought we were just about home free, but there was another 30 km! of gravel and corrugation; it got a bit tedious.  I was so happy to see the 8 km to Hanmer Springs sign, then we went around the corner and it was uphill.  I told myself it couldn't ALL be uphill, I was right, then another crazy steep descent, still on gravel, into the town.  The motel looked pretty good when we rolled into the parking lot, filthy with dust, sweaty and tired.  Today is a rest day, and there's hot pools here but first we are going to walk up Conical Hill, which must be an old volcano, and eat, of course, before we soak in the hot water and fall into bed.  What a life!