After a rest day in Fox Glacier we had our biggest day ever on the wettest day ever. I should mention that the average rain fall for Fox Glacier is 5 meters a year. To put this into perspective, rainy wet Vancouver only receives 1.2 meters of rain fall a year. As we soon learned, when it rains in Fox Glacier it actually pours! It seems ironic that the only rain we received was on our longest ride, 121km. Needless to say we cycled very fast, stopped minimally and made our way to Haast within 8hrs averaging a speed of 21km an hour, with our peak speed on the flats reaching 30km an hour. Sharon met us along the way and was able to take a picture and provide some yummy sandwiches that were very eagerly eaten.
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| Sandwich time! |
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| Soaking wet but finally in Haast |
From Haast we made our way to Makarora to tackle the largest climb on our trip. From the cycling book it looked like we would climb from 150m to 600m over a 10km stretch. We foolishly figured that this would be relatively easy as the climb was over such a large distance. Well, what the guide book didn't mention was that the first 300m was within the first 3km...which is actually crazy steep! When we checked the gradient after, it was 10-15% and was the steepest sustained gradient we had done on this trip.
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| Waterfall at the top of the big climb |
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| To bad we were going up! |
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| The very top at last |
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| Pete's speed coming down the pass: 79.9km/hr |
Once we made our way through the pass, the weather on the other side was sunny and the terrian was completly different.
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| Riding away from the darkness... |
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| and into the sun |
The best part was that there were no sand flies around! We could actually stop to relax and not worry about imminent attacks on exposed parts of our flesh...it was wonderful.
I don't think we've mentioned the sand flies yet, so let me take a minute to say how absolutely horrible these little creatures are. They are much worse than mosquitoes as their bite itch's for days and even weeks. Unlike the polite mosquito's who limit their mealtime to dawn and dusk, sand flies are around all the time. They also travel in packs and swarm around you in such large numbers that there is no way you can keep them off you. Any exposed flesh becomes a feeding ground and no amount of swatting, shaking and walking keeps these little guys at bay. Cycling seems to be okay as long as you are traveling fast enough to stay ahead of them. If you are climbing a hill slowly (which I often do), they come along to say hello and generally mock you as they know that you are in a weakened state and that you can't possible expend more energy to kill them as you need it all for the climb. Needless to say I wouldn't wish these little guys on anyone. Perhaps this is why the west coast of the south island is so deserted as everyone has run away from the sand flies.
From Makarora we made our way to Wanaka where we would have two full blissful rest days. These rest days were very much needed as we we had done eight days of riding with only one rest day in between. We had heard from friends of ours, Rudy and Marlene, that Wanaka was a beautiful place. Our expectations were high and we were not disappointed. It's a lovely laid back town, with great restaurants, beautiful scenery and friendly people.
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| Beautiful Wanaka |
Now among all this beauty and peacefulness, something was bound to happen and sure enough Travis was stung by a bee just below his right eye. Right after the sting, Trav's eye looked a bit red but didn't swell up at all. However, the next morning when he poked his head into our tent sure enough his entire eye was swollen shut. Travis took it all in stride and on more than one occasion referred to himself as quasi moto, without the humpback. I would insert a picture, but I don't think that would be very nice. Trav's eye took a few days to heal but did fully recover. I should mention that on the same day as Travis was stung, my eye infection returned. I'm sure the two of us made quite the sight as I had jelly residue around my eye (due to the medication) and Trav kept wearing his sunglasses even when it was dark.
While the rest of us were resting up, Dave and Pete went "tramping". Now, tramping may not be what you think it is...out here it means to go for a hike :)
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| Danger...it's a Dave! |
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| Pete and the sheep becoming one |
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| Climb up so the animals can't get out |
We left Wanaka and made our way through wine and fruit country into Cromwell. Although the ride was mostly downhill, the road surface and the amount of roadkill on the shoulder made for a bit of a tiring ride. Luckily, we stopped for lunch at a winery and tasted some delicious pinot noir wines, which the central otoago region is known for.
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| Seriously, this is the road?! |
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| So many choices... |
Passing the 45 parallel we made our way into Cromwell, which is the 'fruit basket' of the south island.
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Our last ride day as a group was from Cromwell into Queenstown. We stopped again at another winery for lunch and to pick up some local cheese. The last ride was on a beautiful sunny day and was just as scenic and leasurly as a last ride should be.
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| Riding into lunch |
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| You messin with me? |
Dave's uncle, Mac, was kindly letting us stay at his place in Queenstown and in making our way to his house, we encountered yet another steep climb of 14% gradient over a few hundred meters. I'm not ashamed to say that Travis and I had to push our bikes up this monster climb. It was short, but extremly painful! Dave was the only one that didn't stop and he just pounded his way up the hill. If this was the tour de France, he would have claimed the polk-a-dot jersey for sure. Mac's place is just a few kilometers from Queenstown and has beautiful views of the mountains and lake. It only seemed right that this was the final stop for the group and that we celebrated by taking some pictures and cracking a tiny bottle of champange.
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| View from the top of the climb |
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| The group of riders |
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| View from Mac's house |
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| Cycling, champagne and queenstown |
I still can't believe that Dave, Sharon and Travis have been here for nearly a month and that the time has gone by so quickly. We've been spending our time in Queenstown by relaxing and taking in the city and scenery. I have to say that when you've been traveling through places where the population is 30-130, entering a "big city" like Queenstown (population 9000) is a bit of a shock. Pete, Trav and I were originally going to make our way down to Invercargill, but to let my eye heal a bit we are staying in Queenstown until the 29th, when Trav is scheduled to fly home. It's worked out great as we've had a bit more time to spend with Dave and Sharon and to generally just relax and catch up on sleep.
A huge thanks to lovely Sharon, who would meet us in the morning at our campsite to take our heavy panniers, who met us on the road with sandwiches and generally scheduled her day around us. Also to Dave for planning our route to avoid traffic and hills (whenever possible) and for finding cool places for us to stop along the way. A huge thanks to Trav, for always making us laugh and for generally keeping our spirits high and especially for cycling with slow little me. Thanks for traveling with us and we'll miss you like crazy!!
A few more pictures...
Distances:
Fox Glacier to Haast: 121km
Haast to Makarora: 82km
Makarora to Wanaka: 65km
Wanaka to Cromwell: 62km
Cromwell to Queenstown: 69km
