Wellington and The Tongariro Crossing

We spent a few relaxing days in the lovely not windy city of Wellington. It was nice to stop cycling for a few days, to sleep in a proper bed, to see some friends, go out for a drink or two and to be able to go to the cinema (not that we did but the possibility was there). If Tim and Anna had a TV we would have probably spent all day watching daytime telly. Luckily they did not so we were free to spend our days in front of the computer surfing the internet and having long breakfasts and lunches.

It was hard to get dragged away from big city life but we were driven up to the volcanic plateau on Saturday after a morning of deluxe milkshake drinking and driving around sunny Wellington.
We had an early night on Saturday after arriving in Raitihi and set off before daylight the next morning to walk the Tongariro Crossing.

The weather was perfect and everyone kept saying how lucky we were. We began to worry that it was going to start raining any minute. Luckily it it did not and the weather stayed beautiful all day, which helped make it a perfect day. We spent a long time at the top of the crossing experimenting with the lesser force of gravity you get at high altitude. What fun it was. We were surrounded by smoking volcanoes (Mt Doom), walked through craters, and floated on top of the world (not quite the top). In order to blend in and not embarrass our friends we went with the locally popular leggings & shorts combination look. In the evening we celebrated with a roast and red wine before being dropped off at the start of the '42 Traverse' Mountain Bike Track the next morning.

Wellington milkshakes

Large carrot outside a town with nothing better going for it than a large carrot

Volcano

Mountain Elves

Clowns beneath volcano (Mt Ngauruhoe)

another volcano (the same one)



climbing out of crater

landing

jumping

floating

cool

getting the hang of flying

steaming mountaintop

The Emerald Lakes

Maruia Springs to Picton

07/5/08: 63km, Maruia Springs - Glen Roy River
08/5/08: 63km, climb: 804m, Glen Roy River - Lake Rotoroa DOC
09/5/08: 33km, climb: 850m, Lake Rotoroa - St. Arnaud via Porika Track
10/5/08: 90km, climb: 508m, St. Arnaud - Nelson
11/5/08: 44km, climb: 1127m, Nelson - Pelorus Bridge via Moungatapu Track
12/5/08: 40km, Pelorus Bridge - Aussie Bay
13/5/08: 16km, Aussie Bay - Picton

We traded our kimonos back for our bikes after an extended breakfast by the fireplace. It was a nice day for cycling and we were in a good mood so when we got to Burnbrae we spontaneously decided to take the turn off for a four wheel track as we were getting bored of cycling on the road. It turned out to be one of the better ideas we had as the track was enjoyable biking leading through forest and through several streams and we didn't see a single sole for the rest of the day. We camped by a beautiful blue river and had a swim.

In the morning we continued along the gravel road though farmland before returning to the main road in Murchison by lunchtime. We only had 5km on the main road before we took another turn off onto another quiet road. It started off paved but turned into a gravel road after a while and then went over a 650m hill. We stared to think it might be usefull having a map with contour lines. It was a beautiful long short cut. We descended to Lake Rotoroa just as it was getting dark and camped by another beautiful lake.

We had spotted another four wheel track on our map (the one without contours) which went from where we were towards St. Arnaud which is where we were heading next. We had enjoyed being off road so much we wanted to keep off. The road turned out to climb 600m to over 1000m in the first 4km which meant we had to push our rather heavy bikes some, most, all of the way up. The path was loose gravel and extremely steep so it took us a few hours to get up. Once we did get to the top we had a great time cycling down into the beautiful Howard Valley, and then joined the main road for the last bit to St. Arnaud. We slept in a backpackers as we wanted to start early the next day so we could get to Nelson at a reasonable time.

We spent the next day back on the main road, it was mainly downhill though and pretty easy apart from a couple of hills. One of them being called Kikiwa hill, which we, or at least Kiki was excited about. Arriving in Nelson in the afternoon we checked into a backpackers that provided us with free chocolate pudding, our sweet teeth had to be fed.

The next day we took another jeep track over another hill. We heard it would be pretty steep and could be muddy and you should not really try it with a lot of luggage but we thought it couldn't get much worse than the Porika Track so we went for it. It did turn out to be pretty tough but not quite as rocky so it was a bit easier to stay on the bike going uphill, when the gradient was not ludicrous and a mud stream was not flowing down it. We met a mountainbiker coming down who obviously thought we were crazy. It was a relief to eventually make it to the top around three o'clock. The downhill was great fun even after it started pooring with rain. We stumbled into Pelorus Bridge after dark and the kind man at the campsite clearly felt a little sorry for us as he gave us a cabin for less than it would have cost to put our tent up ($15). Kiki felt like it was his birthday.

The next day we cycled along towards Picton following the coastal road. It was pretty nice and we camped by the sea. We had a whole little beach to ourselves for our last night on the South Island before catching the ferry to Wellington the next day.


over the Maruia Saddle


setting up camp at Glen Roy River





attempt at impersonating a Kiwi

successful attempt at impersonating a Kiwi


reaching the sea again near Nelson

enjoying the comforts of a hostel decorated by a 12 year old girl
Moungatapu Track

happy birthday kiki, hope no motocrossbike lands on your cake

cabin fever


sweet tooth calling, we got fig jam and apple&elderberry jelly, mmm....

Aussie Bay DOC

Greymouth to Maruia Springs

04/5/08: 71km, Greymouth - Slab Hutt Creek DOC
05/5/08: 59km, climb: 645m, Slab Hutt Creek - Marble Hutt Creek DOC
06/5/08: 12km, Marble Hutt Creek - Maruia Springs

We set off east from Greymouth deciding to leave the west coast and head inland. We stayed at another DOC campiste where the only other person there was a lone spanish cyclist. It was a cold night (-6) and we woke up to a frosty morning. We took our time getting out of the tent, waiting for it to warm up a bit and cooked our first daal breakfast. We stopped in Reefton for a while. It seems to be a town where all the men have long grey beards, wear a denim waist coat and cowboy boots, although that wasn't really the reason we stopped there.

We made it to Marble Hutt after dark and it was pretty freezing again, but the thought of being so close to Maruia Hot Springs kept us warm. It was an absolutely freezing 12km cycle the next morning but it just meant the Hot Springs felt that much more deserved. There is a pretty expensive Japanese themed and run resort there and we had intended on sleeping in the campsite next to it, but the campsite turned out to be closed in winter so we treated ourselves to a room. It was worth the money because we got to wear a kimono.


being blessed with frost at Slab Hutt Creek



not the only frozen cyclists in that campsite


defrosting at Maruia Hot Springs