AKL to Greymouth 2024

 We thought we would show Peter and Stephen some of our High Country and where better than the road from Lake Lyndon to Lake Coleridge - it was a great day weatherwise for riding and involved a lot of downhill relative to the up. The scenery and environment we were in was totally different to anything we had ridden in the previous 19 days - Of course it would be - it's New Zealand. As we turned off the sealed road at the Lake Coleridge end to pop up to the intake for the power station in the Lake we encountered 19 military collectors vehicles on the road coming towards us - mostly WW II jeeps and the like along with several support vehicles - most impressive and we learnt from the tail end Charlie that there were quite a few Americans in the convoy who had travelled out from the States to do this trek around the South Island. Just like us - a bunch of people with a common interest out there doing it. We decided to call an end to our tour there at the inlet to the Power Station and ...

  Rather than ride the road through to Ikamatua and then the next day in to Greymouth we decided as we had a vehicle to go to the Seddonville end of the Old Ghost Road (OGR) and ride in from there. Unlike the Lyall end it does not have any major hill and the woman at the Coffee Cart at Granity said it's an easy wheelchair Granny track. That certainly buoyed up ur Aussies who are not big fans of gnarly Big River/Waiuta trails. It certainly is the easy approach to the OGR although some may say it does involve a bit of hill climbing. I had mapped out a trail of up to 30 km's in length with a turn around point at a hut. Ian was able to follow us with the live track and we estimated that our ride back would take about 60% of the time going in. Within a couple of k's we encountered a slip with a good trail through it and then there was a small climb over about 400 metres. After that we regrouped and headed off along the trail in the order of John, myself, Stephen and Peter. John ...

  A decision was made to explore some more of the West Coast rather than ride the road through to Greymouth. Originally I had planned our journey through to Greymouth as that has the option of relcoating to CHC aboard the Tranz Alpine however as John join us as a rider in Picton and Ian has once again volunteered to come along as our driver our options opened up for us. The need for coffee is very strong within the group (I am not one of those addicted I must add) and from the day before much of the conversation appears to centre around where's the first coffee stop going to be,  does it do good coffee, how long is it before we get the coffee etc. then on the day any likely place that does coffee is quickly pointed out to Ian and once again the whole conversation around coffee repeats itself! Like I say for a man who does not need a cup of tea I find it very strange that these otherwise in control blokes allow an addiction to become a large part of their lives. Fortunately non...

 After a rest day yesterday spent trying to Zoom in to a meeting (that was a fail for me) we then had a quiet day servicing the bikes and I ran the mower over the grass. We had planned a 7:30 AM start today for a short ride in to Reefton however the cheese puffs were held up while the coal range came up to temperature. They were out of the oven by 8:00 AM and we were underway by 8:30 AM. The road was lovely and quiet, the temperature was just right and we took 2:25 for the 44 km which after the first 8 km is largely downhill or flat. The boys made a "B" for the Broadway Cafe as evidently that does the best coffee, that I can't attest however I am quite partial to their Lammingtons. The day just got better weather wise and the leg of lamb that Ian had popped in to the Pizza Oven when he left an hour after us was cooked to perfection after being left unattended for four hours. It smelt and looked so good that the decision was made to have hot meat sandwiches for lunch. Afte...

We got off to a good start as for some they're was a 112 km ride in to Murchison then over the Maruia Saddle and on top the bach at Springs Junction. For me it was a ride to Murchison then on to the bach with Ian in the car as a) I wanted to get the bach ready for the boys (hot water, did and stuff) and b) I had a Prostate Cancer Foundation board meeting starting at 4:00 that afternoon that I was Zooming in to. It is a good wee grunty hill up out of Rotoroa but once that is out of the way there is an even longer downhill on the otherside and a good ride on in to Murchison about half of which is on sealed road.  Half way down the hill I got a call from Ian wondering if any of us had the keys for the bach we had stayed in! No, we didn't and we had to leave that to Ian to sort out. We made it out Murchison in good time and stopped at Rivers Cafe as you do for our. Coffee stop. For Peter and Stephen they were back in familiar territory as last year they had biked over the saddle an...

 A 7:00 AM departure from the Wakefield Hotel had us at the Spooners Tunnel before too long. The tunnel is 1.35 km long and steadily rising for about 85% of te distance - a light is definitely required and the thing with this tunnel compared with others I have ridden through is that it is very dry (as in no dripping water or puddles/water course and the surface is very well formed and smooth like concrete. John and I met another cyclist (Graeme) yesterday at the start of the Mangatapu track and we re-connected with him at the Hotel last night. As he was riding to Rotoroa as well we offerred to take his bags for him and invited him to ride with us if he wished - he accepted the invitation so today we had five riders in our peleton. The track away from the tunnel is "hard and fast" and has a gentle decline of about 2% to it - this makes for a false sense of reality in that one can begin to think they have their shi* together and are actually a pretty good rider as you get along...