West coast and tired
Trip Start
Oct 12, 2011
1
45
74
Trip End
Aug 07, 2012
Where I stayed
What I did
lake hawea
loads of stuffed animals and road kill
west coast scenic tour bike ride our own
Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand
Sunday, April 1, 2012
The Wet Coast as it’s described in the book is a badge of honour for those in the know, well we didn’t know! We are to be challenged mentally and physically mmmm my favourite type of challenge. The wind the rain the climbs are insane, then the wet bed (because of rain), wet tent (rain), and my best friends sand flies, and camp craft food for 10 days yummy. So here is our experience enjoy.
Greymounth – past Hokitika, Lake Mahinapua Doc camp site. 52km
A great day sunshine nice clear roads hardly a hill to climb seeing as we are by the coast, sun on our backs and wind in our sails, our first stop today is the traditional start for the coast to coast taking in Arthurs pass a chance to dip our hands in the a Tasman sea an end to our coast to coast but a true start to our west coast ride. So Hokitika the next stop is known for the wild food festival 8th mar where they eat anything they can get their hands on grubs worms chilli’s and some nice things like normal and not so normal burgers. This stop for us was a place to buy 2 more tubes (last bike shop for 250km or so) and some food before going to the camp site a further 10k from town.
Lake Mahinapua DOC Camp site – before Hari Hari Lake Ianthe Doc 50km
First stop this morning is a small mega gold town called ROSS Town. This is the town that found the largest golden nugget in NZ it was bought for $400 back in the day. It now sits on the table in Buckingham Palace given to King George as a present it was named by the Lads at the mine as Honourable Roddy not after the man who found it but after the mine master. The town itself was only recently suggested to be sitting on over $700 million dollars’ worth of gold I think the township of 300 might have to move. We set off with only 1 gas bomb to cook luckily Ross town had the facilities so we now have 2 yippee. Scenic delights views of Mt Cook and later of the lake side camp site we arrive at 4.30 so sun bathe the afternoon away its so hot in the sun kit dry we go to sleep. Great day.
Lake Ianthe doc – Whataroa 50km
First thing different to yesterday is that it’s super raining not Cumbrian rain I might add but Forrest Gump wet rain no less. So we decided to get to HARI HARI 15km morning warm up ride to decide what the weather was going to do. There is super coffee and cake at the local shop so definitely stop if you can. After the cake the rain had slowed down enough, in front of us lays the 'Hill Hercules’ the name itself scared us enough but we went for it, what a climb we pushed the first step. But there after our legs spun all the way up a real pleasant climb as for the decent it was poncho on and blast, it was possibly the best decent I have ever had maybe not the fastest because it was wet and the corners suggested cars should drive at 25km an hour we were nearly breaking that speed round them!! The decent was never ending 2km climb 4.5km decent how nice, not far now 20k in the rain to Whataroa and when we arrive there is nothing there. I mean we are 31km from Franz Josef glacier where everyone stops so do we carry on? well we ponder for a while the pub hotel is fully booked with contractors for a month the only other option is a private unit or shed as I call it. $60 for a night we head into the wind out of town its 4.30 evening we’ve done a nice 50k were planning on doing 30 more to get to FJ we are met in the first km by a sheet of rain ooops this has totally soaked us in no time. Just on the edge of town is a house offering self-contained accomo we go up to the house everything is open I mean all the doors wide open every possible shoe trainer Gum boot (wellies) 8 kids bikes outside, milk left out on the top but no one’s home it’s raining real bad. We stay for 10 or more mins under the varandah just waiting for someone to turn up, no one does, Flat screen Telly anyone?? Literally deserted we can’t wait were wet now back to town for the unit nights sleep, we boil water all night use the showers for 45mins put everything on to keep us warm I mean $60 and use your own bedding in a shed, there’s no camping in Whataroa so be prepared to do the mileage get to Franz Joseph or pay for a shed to sleep in.
Whataroa to Franz Joseph Glacier Township – 31km
Perfect weather today nice ride quite roads, these are old roads! (maybe resurfaced 3 yrs ago) and this means that there worn smooth better for cycling. All the other roads in NZ have been meticulously resurfaced last week or sometime this year (I mean all of them) and the gravely surface shakes you about like nothing else. I havnt seen a badly surfaced road in NZ I wish theyd stop and focus on Earthquake damage. Anyway this section was a blast and a nice days ride to FJ we arrived in civilisation thank god the only ATM in the next 150km. We looked at camping options but the price of camping is so close to being in a dorm room we opted to be inside with the first free internet in a while!! It was a good afternoon weather wise and evening but….
The next day after a bad night’s sleep in a smelly room perhaps it was the occupants! We thought it would have been better to have camped oh but we were so wrong the heavens opened at 9.30 as if on request! The rain was epic and didn’t stop all day I only went outside for fresh air and to test gens rain jacket I walked around the block to find it really didn’t work there was no hope for the pac a mac why had we brought it all this way?? Well to include with last night’s TV viewing we were about to sit through another viewing of ‘Lord of the Rings’ this is the 3rd time I have watched the 3rd one and second time for each of the others and that’s just while being in NZ that’s enough for me! No more!
Met a lady today who was also cycling cut this story quick, but she had been hit by a farm truck the wing mirror 100km into the back of her head (helmet) on a straight piece of road elbow cut to the bone sore back and head obviously. The guy thought he’d clipped a road sign not a person, scary.
Franz Josef to Fox Glacier Township 23km with extra 10km side trip to FJ glacier on the way!
Today our last real chance to keep on track with our riding plan and go see the glacier at FJ while also riding to Fox in the afternoon, so morning rainy cold ride to the glacier where the rain stopped and hopefully from the photos you can get an idea of how lucky we really were to see the glacier so clear. We walked to peters pond then the glacier view point, then hurried back to collect our bags from town. We set up at 1pm from our hostel left town got about 3km out of town and well I thought it had rained yesterday but this was something else in the space of 100m the water had penetrated all our defences to the skin wet through it was a strange feeling to feel the wet cold just get through everything in 10 seconds. It was snowing higher up I expect but I couldn’t look up. It was just the brain freeze on my forehead that ached so badly I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it 20km to go up 3 of the most major climbs on our whole trip we had already lost feeing in our hands and feet we arrived at the foot of the first climb 5km into our trip to fox. Well suck it up and get to the other side of the first hill…. magically (as if you can imagine it) by the end of this ride we were actually dry and well warm not only was the sun shining but because we were met on the last climb (the biggest climb by far) by 6 men from Australia riding aided so without pannier bags to carry. I had someone to race to the top I had shy of 100m head start, I still had to bossh it out the whole way up 6km climb relentless at least 250m or more vertical and not one of them was anywhere near me till the last corner…. Oh oh I thought I was going to like so many times before, be over taken at the last minute but nah id pushed so hard this far dig deep spin to win, dropped a few gears not quite out of the saddle but flew up the last section, he wasn’t anywhere to be seen I waited mega happy. At the top the guy asked how much weight I was carrying how much air in my tires whether the bike was mine. The bike I can’t lift the back end without using two arms the back tyre after getting a flat 2 days previous had about only 35psi because my hand pump couldn’t get the higher pressure required I wanted 65psi plus. Well after leaving the group behind more guys arrived telling me I was in trouble for leaving gen behind!! however gen was right there with them hadn’t left their side and she even said some had got off to push!! Well done Gen!! she had rode up the whole lot and even had time to absorb the rainforest to snow capped mountains her best ride so far she said!! either way I was riding on the rim going down the hill to town, thankfully the aided team of Australians had a floor pump so I had air in my tire now back to racing!!! Great day out, hard weather, glacier watching, big climbs and good old fox town to end the day.
Mon 26th Mar. Fox town glacier rest day. 24km and some hours of walking
Today we visited Lake Matherson, on the way we met a guy who gave us come good advice of where to get the photo of the whole gloacier pretty much, and wow it was worth the extra distance.the views were spectacular. After soaking up the atmosphere we headed to Lake Matherson, this is where you can get an almost perfect reflection of the mountains in the water. But the clouds had very slowly crept over the tops, but it was still a great little walk and we still got some good photos. Here we found the most beautifull mushrooms, they were blue, bright blue. We spent ages trying to get some good photos of them. After some lunch we headed up to fox glacier, it was a gorgeous ride through jungle away from the road, and it really is jungle, wet and louchious. Ferns and lichen attach to every living thing making the trees look fury. This is defiantly where they got the inspiration for ‘fern gully’. I felt like I was in the film exploring the trees. This is a magical forest. We arrived at the car park for the glacier and wondered our way up. This glacier is much more rewarding to get to and feels slightly more out there as you have to cross a couple of streams etc. bt when we got to the end of the track we could see a blue cave where the river is flowing out, and you can see all the blue cravases etc really close. We headed back for a chilled evening in the hostle.
Tuesday 27th march fox to lake paringa 70k
Today the roads were hard, long straights, no real climbs, Dan got a flat towards the end of the day and the sand flys interrupted our lunch by the sea. We felt pretty strong still at 50km but the last 20km were hard – fast pase due to flat, flat tyre for dan and the rain set in, but luckly didn’t down pour until we got to our campsite and under some shelter. The DOC camp site was very picturesk, and the camp ground was by the lake. Funny thing was there was a sign past our camp area away from the lake, saying that during periods of heavy rain the lake can flood to this point, so that would mean our tent would be under 2m of water!!! I hope its not so waterproof we don’t know about It until 2m under!! It was raining prety hard, cooked in the tent and as it was still pouring down, snuggled into our next book, ‘catch me if you can’. And mixing chocolate with our custard powder and bananas uuu,mmmmmm
Wednesday 28th Lake Paringa to Haast township 50km
What a fantastic ride, scenery changes every 5km, from windswept beachs to thick jungle, to telephone line poles made out of whole trees, they were all sorts of wonky ones, it was brill. We stoped off today at knightes point after a rather tough hill, to enjoy the view of the ocean and a sandwich. Then we stopped at ships creek, where there was a wooden tower that smelt like B&Q made of freash wood and ladders. Great view of the coast and a swamp area. We walked on the beach with so much driftwood that we found ‘gandalf the grey/whites’ staff 100 times over. Drift wood lovers eat your heart out. We then followed the swam walk into the jungle. Again this was amazing furry fern trees, as old as the world pretty much. There were dinosaur trees, that date back to the dinos. Then the fun bit the swam. Wow it was so cool and something that is becoming very rare in NZ.
Headed off to Hast township and had the worst fish and chips in the world, they live by the sea we had frozen fish and French fries!! Ahhhhhhhh we were so looking forward to it. Oh well got into our camp site and cooked again as that food was little more than a starter. Chilled in the eveing.
Thursday 29th Haast to Pleasant Flat 47km
What a day!!! An apsolute stunner, in scenery and weather. We followed a glaciel river up the velley again through jungle and admitiring snow capped mountains. The roads were pretty quiet today which was nice and the road was soooo smooooooth. We passes numerious massive cascading waterfalls. We stopped off for lunch and a walk to a waterfall, again through lush jungle, it opened out onto the massive riverbed (which would be full in the spring) the waterfalls were all very full as there had been a lot of rain in the last coulpe of days, for our viewing pleasure. ‘Roaring billy’ was roaring today it was a great stop off. We reached our camp site at 3pm set up and got hounded by an inquisitive bumble bee, Gen ran away numerous times as it was trying to get behind her glasses and down the back of her neck – she is not a good nesting area bumble or a flower. She was more worried if it stung her it would die. Then we got attacked litlerally by an army of sand flys, so we dived in our tent and they bombarded it, until it sounded like it was raining, but no its just attack of the flys, they were hitting the tent so much to get to our juicy blood. We were held prisoner in our own tent… who is going to need the toilet first!!!??? Dan made a beautiful dinner and flapjack mix with custard… ummm good night
Friday 30th Pleasant Flat to Boundary Creek doc camp site 46k via Haast Pass
Woke up to another fantastic serving of yep you gussed it porridge!! today like everyday involved some grit and determination i kept telling gen not far to the climb then once she got started I was almost begging for her to get off and walk but she wasnt getting off so how could I?? even cars went passed looking as if they had seen aliens perhaps they had i didnt half feel strange! anyway Haast pass is the lowest pass from E-W at 560 odd meters (and was only completed in 1995) but no less of a climb invloved gen was almost tipping over in a wheely it was so steep!! we got up the initial climb to find this was it, we went across the plateau for some 6km then dropped down we had made it a hard climb but not relentless.. in the distance the blue pools forest walk awaited then later the sweet delight of cake and coffee from Makarora this cake left us with unimagginable sweet shakes.... poor gen had to ride the next 15km to boundary creek doc with a sugar low ooooops where as i was loving my coffee and cake mmmmm first in weeks. the camp site tonight was one of the best as you can probably tell from the pictures beautiful clear blue glacial lake wanaka couldnt wait to strip off and jump in as we were so hot!! it didnt quite happen as gracefully as expected - the rocks were so slipery gen slipped in - oh well it was abit quicker than walking slowly in the freezing water - our muscles thanked us for the cold therapy. great day - 1 more left
Sat 31st Boundary Creek to Wanaka town 48km
The hardest most arduas ride yet for many reasons- many ups and less downs while feeing down and tired. There must be a medical term for the feeling of arriving somewhere youve antisipated for weeks then to be on the last day and just not feel so great for it to be over (im not sure but il try and describe it to you) add together the accumilated riding distance 1000km + no rest days, riding day in day out for 30days.... a rest day consisted of a 20km ride with two 1hr walks to glaciers and very little good food for replenishment. pair this with some great but outdoor damp nights sleep and i think the general feeling of exhaustion (mental and physical) got the better of me and took over all the feeings of joy and relief the end of the ride should have had. Just like the book said 'test you physically and mentally' and by the end i was lacking in both i had nothing left i was stripped back down, nocked back to my own self not sure why or how but it was only going to happen on the last day of riding, cant believe how helpless you can feel when your so tired nothing can help. food sleep bed get to the end and forget what your head is telling you just get to the end but even that 'getting to the end' the destination scares you' whats there for me??
but now im here ive worked it out all i want is a blithering BATH hot water in a plasic bin for me to wind away my riding sores!!!!!!!!! dam i miss you all so much !! wish you were all here to sort me a bath!!! jokes aside by the 11th hill on the last day I really needed you all thanks for being you and being there when im there and even when im not......Dan
A great personal test for us both one day our world journy will be a triumph when we look back on the things we saw a great time was had.... hope you enjoy our story so far....
Comments
Sitting here in blight, scrolling through your incredible journey makes me realise how glad I am taking you are doing it and not me!!!
Glad to hear you are still mad as two hatter's.
Love from us both. T&R