14/04/08: 99km, climb: 774m, Omarama to Bendigo picnic area lake Dunstan
15/04/08: 17km, Bendigo picnic area to Cromwell
The day we left Mount Cook we scratched frost from our tent while running around trying not to freeze our bums off. We packed up and escaped to the public shelter where we defrosted ourselves under the coin operated hot showers. As soon as the sun was out it warmed up quickly and it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day with a good view back to Mount Cook and onto the bright blue lake Pukaki.
At Glentunnel we not only had the best pie so far - beef, cheese and bacon, but also the fanciest one, served up on a plate with a napkin and fork. While waiting for our food we were informed by a helicopter pilot that a bad weather front was expected the next day at 6pm and that we better find ourselves indoors by then. Taking into account this new bit of information, we quickly modified our plants to run run run as fast as we can. We did not stop again until Twizel, an oddball of a town, with public loudspeakers playing a bizarre mix of bad music put together by Radio Twizel. We continued until sunset and camped in a basic campsite by a river that read ' camping here is not recommended because of the risk of flooding'. We did not get to test the water resilience of our tent but had another one of those deadly freezing mornings getting up too early for our own good.
We got delayed by another pie tasting session in Omarama where Bea, still under shock from the cold morning, almost bought a pair of fluffy sheep skin boot slippers. After half a day of cycling slightly uphill we reached the top of Lindis Pass (970m) in time for a lunch picnic with a view of the barren hills. It was almost getting dark by the time we made it to the next town marked on our map. But Tarras only consisted of a petrol station and a shop so we decided to skip this metropolis and cycled on for another hour until we reached a picnic spot by lake Dunstan with public toilets. We spent the evening being spooked out by the random action of the automatic light in the toilets. Kiki thought that there was a person in the storeroom switching the light on whenever he hears some noise, so we tried to be loud.
By the next morning the ominous thunderstorm had still not hit yet, but we sat out some light showers while having breakfast in the tent. It was not far to Cromwell so we got there early and had all day to enjoy the delights of the trashy trailerpark we stayed in.
leaving the mountains
passing lake Pukaki again
Bendigo Picnic Area
1 comment:
looks really spectacular. but what about updating the maps...?
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