My original plan was to take in Mount Cook. However, having experienced a week of rain in Queenstown I decided to omit New Zealand’s highest peak from my itinerary. It did not make sense to bike 420k out of my way to visit a mountain that could be under cloud when I got there. It is not possible to bike up it in any case and I would need even more time to ‘tramp’ it. Omitting it would allow me a more relaxed ride up what is known as the ‘Wet’ Coast, from where it is also possible at points to view the summit of Mount Cook.
While I was sad to leave Wanaka my work there was done. I pedalled out with an open-mind but I was unsure if the country could deliver as good scenery as Wanaka and Queenstown. I had not pedalled more than 20k before I turned the corner into Lake Hawea; my jaw dropped. The weather showcased it to absolute perfection and it was one of the few times that a panorama photo was needed to convey the full beauty of the scene. Unfortunately I do not have such functionality on my camera. Regardless, I became really excited about the scenery that I might witness further up the road. As I was not carting camping equipment my way-points had to be wherever the hostels are situated. While there are plenty of hostels there is also plenty of distance between some of them. I would need to suffer a few big days on rougher roads but thankfully the weather was largely compliant. There was an absence of wind, which was a huge stroke of luck as the winds can slow you to a standstill in this part of the country. In addition, while I did see some rain I managed to more or less avoid it on the bike. The squalls seemed to hit at times when I was under cover and so could enjoy some rain-delay indoors. I did get caught out at Franz Josef Glacier but as wet as I was it was a warm day. The other thing I needed to watch out for were the hills. I had been warned that NZ has a lot of hills but I had also heard that they weren’t bad at all. I didn’t know who to believe but the West coast is reasonably flat bar a few sections where there are some twenty minute climbs. I am guessing the non-stop hills that people are referring to are on the East coast, not sure.
By all accounts, I was having an easy time of it and I could sit back and enjoy the ride. Having climbed Haast Pass from the less difficult side I was soon on the West coast and in World Heritage country. Haast Pass, the lowest of the three passes, would mark my first crossing of the Southern Alps. As the whole of Westland is a World Heritage Site, there is very little in the way of civilisation and where there are towns, they are to provide for tourists. It is effectively rainforest with some beaches and glaciers thrown into the mix. It was strange cycling through so much wilderness, there was no farmed land at all. If it wasn’t for the tourist traffic it would be totally unspoilt. However, the sand flies or ‘Draculas of the West’ spoil it. These flies are murderous. It was impossible to stop for more than two minutes without being eaten alive. Like mosquitoes, the females are only supposed to bite at dawn and dusk when they normally feed. However, the perma-grey clouds must give them a false sense of dawn and dusk as they bite non-stop. They have a death-wish as unlike mosquitoes you can feel them bite and they are still sucking when the inevitable hand-slap comes. You can’t but kill them as their teeth are sunk so deep that they can’t pull the rip-chord. The trick is not to itch. However, the problem is that no sooner do you survive one twenty minute window of not itching than the next kamikaze pilot dives into you. The bites didn’t effect me so much but some people were scratching for three days. There was little incentive to explore the bush when these barbarians were at the gate. Thankfully I was able to pedal faster than they could keep up, so as long as I kept moving I was fine.
The ride up the coast wasn't incident free. There was one cranky day when I didn’t have enough to eat and then some drama when the BNZ ATM swallowed my plastic. As the ATM was not at a physical branch I eventually managed to ensure its delivery to the nearest branch 180k away for my collection. Throw a weekend into the mix and I had an excuse to slow down until the bank reopened on Monday. Fortunately I was able to convert some hard dollars into some soft kiwi ones to tide me over. There was also the time when I pulled over on the side of the road to rummage for some pic 'n' mix. But for the fact he shouted at me I would have missed the clown on a uni-cycle coming the other way. Ok, he wasn't a clown but he did have red hair and a crazy grin. Unbelievably he had a rucksack on his back. I could barely believe what I saw. Needless to say he didn't stop to chat as I'm sure his 29" wheel took a great deal of effort to mount with a back-pack on. Then again maybe not; it seems that he was one of a merry band that travelled over to Wellington for the Uni-cycle World Championships. One other funny incident was when I was internally debating on whether my view of mankind is a little too dismal, only for me to stumble on a group of hippies who had managed to ditch their shag-wagon on a straight piece of road. It was a scene straight out of the seventies with the van looking like it would topple but for the fact that there were 10 hippies hanging off the side of it as counter-weights. Meanwhile a girl had her face in her hands ... oops, I guess it was her fault but no doubt they all had a good laugh about it later. Only hippies will know how it is possible to sleep 10 people and their stuff in a VW shag-wagon. Clearly they are good at Tetris. My only regret is that I didn't stop to shoot the scene as it was so funny. However, my initial thought was that they needed neither another chief nor an Indian. Needless to say my prognosis for humanoids tilted towards the more dismal side of the scale.
I spent the weekend on the beach in a photogenic little town called Hokitika, where I managed to watch Avatar in a small art-deco cinema. The cinema was supposed to close due to lack of business before the community intervened and installed the latest digital technology. This allowed me to watch Avatar in 3d … why they didn’t finish it at the tree battle I’ll never know. Goddam Hollywood! I then biked through Greymouth to Pancake Rocks to inspect some ‘Burren-esque’ rock erosion. It was on this day that I cracked. It was so grey and miserable that I could feel some crazy depressing weight on me. I really felt the need to get off the coast. Fortunately the rocks were worth the trip but I could not help but notice that every house was for sale. It seemed to me that as pretty and wild as the coast is that it is largely inhospitable but for the brazen few. After a while people get the message and sell up. It left me wondering what the more populous east coast is like but I will have to save that for some other time. All that remains is for me to traverse the Southern Alps once more to see Christchurch.
Mind how you go
Marco