Lake Wanaka
Hello from the sunny shores of Lake Wanaka. The last few days have been an interesting journey!
Our first day of riding saw us across the plains outside Ch-Ch and over Porter’s Pass. (Yes, a pass named after me...or maybe not...) I’ve never cycled into a headwind quite like this. It was blowing so hard that I was reduced to riding at 8-10 mph on the flats and about 4-5 mph over the pass. At one point I simply got off and walked b/c it was faster. Four of us reached the summit together and stopped for a celebratory picture:
L to R: Tom, Howard, me, Kurt
Riding down the other side and over the hilly landscape on the other side was no better. I collapsed at lunch, completely wiped out. (I sagged the rest of the way to Arthur’s Pass and I’m not ashamed to admit it.)
Arthur’s Pass is a tiny (I mean TINY) little village that is the start of many a hiking and backpacking trip. My legs had freshened up a bit, so while Nick collapsed on the bed, I went for a hike to Punchbowl Falls. It’s really big (bigger than Snoqualmie Falls); the picture doesn’t do it justice:
It was a good thing that I visited the falls that afternoon, because not too much later a really big storm blew in. Nick and I happened to have a room on the windward side our hotel. All night long the wind thundered down the mountain, rattling the windows and blowing our door open to the outside elements. Yikes!
The next morning was no better. The whole crew dashed to the town’s information center in a downpour, where Nick and I picked up our trip mascot. He’s a little stuffed kea bird, which we named Hokey Pokey (after the caramelized candy you can buy here).
The rain never let up, so the bike ride down the other side of the pass was cancelled. We loaded up the vans instead and headed for Hokitika.
The drive down the Otira Gorge was spectacular, even if it was pouring down rain and we were in a van. Every where you looked, there were waterfalls. The river was brown with stuff being washed down the hillside. Occasionally we would even drive under a waterfall. This is a rainforest, like we’ve never seen at home, that’s for sure.
By the time we got to Hokitika, the skies had brightened and it had stopped raining. Nick and I stretched our legs on the beach (our first view of the Tasman Sea). We came across the remnants of a driftwood sculpture contest. The entries were extremely creative and big.
The next day’s ride took us to Franz Joseph and our first day off. Nick chose to ride a little while I went off and spent the day on the glacier. I have to say it was one of the most surreal glacier experiences I’ve ever had. Every where you looked, up or down, you’d see no fewer than 30 people climbing around unroped. The guides spend a good part of their day carving steps into the side of the steep ice faces. Without the steps, you’d need ice climbing equipment to negotiate the terrain.
Franz Joseph Glacier, terminus is roughly 200m above sea level
We wandered high up, in and out of tight spaces, before returning home in time for dinner.
We’re on a biking vacation though, so we were off the next day on our trusty steeds to Lake Moeraki - 72 miles away. The riding was probably some of the best we’d had on this entire trip. The headwinds we’d been battling on every day up until this point abated a little and the temperature was cool. Nick and I stopped at Bruce Bay along the way to eat a sandwich we’d packed and dipped our toes in the Tasman Sea. (I think we were the only ones to stop.)
The water was cold, but not nearly as cold as the Puget Sound.
We arrived in enough time to take Hokey Pokey for a walk through the rainforest to Munro Beach.
Between July and December, penguins breed on this beach. We weren’t fortunate enough to see the birds, but we did get eaten by sandflies. (Itchy!)
Let’s see, that brings us up to yesterday - another 70 mile day - from Lake Moeraki over Haast Pass to Makarora (a three building town). We stayed in cute little A-frame huts and met a man who owns 25 acres on Whidbey Island. (It’s a very small world.)
Today we had a rolling recovery day - 40 miles to the delightful little town of Wanaka. We rolled past a good portion of the lake before cruising over a pass called “the Neck” to Lake Hawea. Throw in a few sheep and it’s about as picturesque as the landscape could get!
After a bit of lunch in Hawea, we rode back towards Lake Wanaka and the town of Wanaka. I think I could live here: sunny and hot in the summer, a skiing and climbing paradise in the winter. Wonderful!
Tomorrow we’re off to Queenstown. We’re still undecided about how we’ll spend our day there, but I’m sure we’ll have plenty of options.
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