AKL to Greymouth 2024

 Our final day riding began with breakfast at home followed by coffee/tea stop at Cafe 186 just around the corner. John and myself struck up conversation with the other Chris who just happened to be calling in for a coffee as well, After that Chris went in to order and pay for his coffee I said to Peter and Stephen "did you know who we were just talking to"? "Who?, that businessman in the suit without the tie"?  they said. "Yes, I said that bloke" "Who is he"? they said. "The Prime Minister" I said! Pretty unreal really - and to think the only Aussie politician I got to see on my ride from Sydney to Melbourne in 2022 was an opposition backbencher at a bike shop! And that ride inclulded a visit to Canberra and the Australian Parliament House. Of course, we had to interrupt the PM's day and have a chat about our ride and also he and Ian knew each other from their days ay Air NZ - he was very happy to join us for a quick pic too. Our A...

 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...

 The  Mangatapu Saddle I do not need to ride again. Twice I have ridden/walked it and with gradients of up to 25 degrees on the downhills and 13/15/17% on the uphills it makes for a challenging outing (note I didn't say ride as some of the upper stretches make for a good walk! I ook quite a bit of GoPro footage however the post production work on that will have to wait so no video just yet. The ride started from the Trout Hotel in Canvastown on a lovely overcast day (just ideal for what lay ahead), there was a 10 km Highway ride to Pelorous Bridge where we turned left and headed up the valley on what soon became a shingle road. By the time we got to the start of the Mangatapu Saddle Track  we had already climbed about 330 metres and then right there in front of us was the track with a grunty wee 15% hill to start with and from there it went up mostly for the next 7 km's with very litte reprieve, The track is not flash and in places is deeply rutted and in others covered i...

We left the Hostel at about 6:45 AM for a nice ride along the waterfront to the Bluebridge wharf to catch the 8:15 AM ferry to Picton. As happens on these rides you get to meet other cyclists along the way and  your paths cross time and again and so it was with Reggie a Brazillian fellow cycling around NZ and John an English fellow out  here riding as well - both were on the ferry with us. Reggie shared some good GoPro editing software with me and I had been sharing with him the joys of riding with cycle.travel as the go to navigation tool. A teast 1.5 hours of the Cook Strait crossing was taken up with educating each other on software. We arived in Picton ahead of John and Ian wo are meeting us for the South Island leg of our ride - Ian once again volunteered to be our driver which means we now no longer have to carry all our gear with us as that can travel in the car. For me it also meant I can now hop on my new MTB for the rest of the ride (full suspension and light - yay)....

 WIND. Headwind into which we rode for most of the ride and it was not a gentle breeze it was a good Southerly and what direction did we have to travel - South! So it was a case of simply just get on and do it coz there was no alternative (well actually there was and a bit more about that further on). Coming out of Palmy there is a grunty wee hill with a 15% gradient so fortunately it is not a long one however a few km's after that the 380 metre constant climb began and it was simply a case of grinding it out to the top. With the wind that was blowing the wind turbines at the top of the hill were all turning around generating power and as majestic as they looked it was disconcerting to see them all facing the direction we were travelling which reinforced the fact it was going to be head wind for us. Part way down the other side of the Pahiatua Track as it is called we turned off the seal and took a gravel road for about 5 kms and with it being downhill it was quite a bit of fun. Pa...

 Our fastest ride of the trip so far - overcast cooler day and no major hills plus we had a back wind for a fair chunk of it - all up a good ride that had us at the Motel by 3:20 PM not feeling whacked at all. A coffee stop for the boys before we left Whanganui and then on to Marton for a late morning tea/lunch stop. There was about 7 km of riding on S H Way 3 which while it was not fun (the constant traffic noise is what I dislike most) we cut out in pretty good time and once off that H Way it was a good ride in to Marton. Feilding was our next stop for another lunch before a blast of a ride through to Palmy. My new pedals are working well and I now feel safe when I stand up on them for a bit of a change from sitting on the bum. Only one photo to show for today's ride and that I took yesterday! That was on our walk back from a very nice Thai meal in town.

  Technically if one starts a journey 70 km's upstream beside a river and finishes that journey at the coast (sea level) then on average the journey is downhill. Now while the route we followed today did pretty much that, follow the river out to the sea somehow the roading people managed to find a way to include 973 metres of elevation to have to climb! On a hot day and on the last significant hill there was a huge sigh of relief to have hit the saddle before a fantastic twisty, turny downhill. The old school at Matahiwi is now a cafe that does good muffins, so good infact that we all went back for seconds and treated that 11:00 AM stop as our morning tea come lunch stop. The road out to S H Way 4 was relatively quiet and we stopped in the shade of a farmers front garden for a breather and Peter went in to have our water bottles filled up. That took quite some time as the farmer couple were very pleased to be able to tell Peter the entire history of the locality. Although we were i...

  Finally we got traction on being able to get to Whakahoro and the start of the Kaiwhakauka Track. This was all off road and the first 15 km's or so on farm track then single track. Although it has been several days since there has been any rain the track this time round in places was quite muddy and this is thick, gooey, sticky, mud so this meant in quite a few places we had to hop off and push the bikes through. There is really only one major hill to climb and that was a bit over 400 metres over 5 kms with no respite. The first half is single track that the track builders have and are still spending a lot of effort improving and then from there on for a considerable chunk it is a 4x4 access track that leads on to the Bridge to Nowhere and past the abaonded rehab settlement farms that just could not make a go of it 100 years ago. Now all that remains is the odd clearing with inrtroduced pasture grasses, pine and macrocarpra trees along with hydranges and one or two chimney remane...

"BIKO" - Biko was the chap the Motellier had told us would do a shuttle for us to get ourselves and our bikes down to Blue Duck Station at Whakahoro. This was needed coz the accommodation at Blue DUck Station is closed on Tuesday and Wednesdays! REALLY. However had we stayed there there the shortest stay is two nights accommodation! REALLY. Because we had no ccommodation at Blue Duck Station we decided on two nights in Taumaranui with a rest day to service the bikes and chill. Anyhow back to BIKO - I spoke with him about the shuttle the week before and he said call him when we get in to Taumaranui  and sent him a confirmation text (just to be on the safe side). I phoned him when we got in to town and got no reply so had to leave it till the next day. I finally got though to him and he was not very "with it"but said he would organise his son's ute to take us down to Whakahoro - we had a haggle over his $3 per km however settled on $200 for a 6:00 AM start as we w...

Again I am opting for the easy option and taking another leaf out of Peter's book (blog)... Thanks, Peter. "We were awake from our tents at about 7 am and there was a real buzz in the campsite with families and groups getting ready gouge day of either riding the Timber Trail or hiking…. They call it “tramping” here. The night was very pleasant under canvas although quite cool! After breakfast, which was provided by the camping ground, we packed a lunch of sandwiches ( peanut butter for me) and 2 hard boiled eggs! We were off at about 9.00 am. After May 1.5 kms I realised I left my phone behind in the tent so had to do a trek back to retrieve it. After this it was on to the remaining section of the Timber Trail , about 45 kms. There were 2 climbs on the trail which were okay but in some sections the track was a bit churned up so I was walking. All up I reckon I walked about 500 metres today which was not too bad for me. There were many other riders on the trail today compared t...

It was a long day today and at 10:00 PM at night in the middle of the Pureora Forest when the blog I had just written disappeared from the screen of my tablet just before I hit post - I spat the dummy and said it can wait. Now here I am two days later at Taumaranui where we decided to have a rest day and I have time availabe to catch up with things like giving the bike a clean and service and sorting out the blog. However, rather than try to re-write a blog for a day two days ago I am taking the easy option (with his consent) and "borrowing" most of what Peter wrote for his blog post for the day. Peter's Bog follows: "Today was probably one of the most challenging days in all my years of riding. The day started at the guest house with breakfast at 7.00 am and on the road by about 7.45 am. The day was a perfect one for riding with virtually no wind and clear skies. The temperature started in the teens and got up to around 25 degrees on the afternoon. The road out from...

Finding a Cafe open for breakfast in Rotorua on a Saturday morning is not the easiest of things however after traversing the City's streets we managed to find one that was open. After breakfast we went past the Supermarket to collect something for lunch and something to have on board for a spare lunch should we need it over the next two days coz once we left Rotorua we won't be seeing another shop until Taumaranui. It was cooler today and the clouds looked like rain before too long so on with the rain jacket for the first time and I must have had it on and off about another five times before the we finished in the sunnshine at "That Dam Lodge" Whakamaru. I would have been the singleman's quarters during the build stage of the Dam. We have the three bedroom cottage all to ourselves and have dinner cooked for us as well. Other than the rain the day will also be remembered as on of our windiest so far, fortunately the route wound through some undulating hill country ...

Yay, an overcast dayso some reprieve from the heat of the previous days which none of us are complaining about. Breakfast at a lovely Cafe in the mainstreet called the "Cow Cafe" quite appropriate considering we're slap bang in the middle of the Waikato dairy country. About 2 km of S H Way 1 riding to the Rotorua/Tauranga turn off then about 3 km to Leslie Road and 290 m climb over the first 6 km - fortunately it was sealed however like the Port hills there was not a lot of downhill on the way up. We got to the end of the road and the locked forestry gate that cyclists and walkers can slip around and had a breather. The route then takes us through the pine forest on foresty roads for the next 18 km before we popped out 4 km North of Mamaku. A local kindly refilled our drink bottles and we enjoyed out Toasted Sandwhich on the grass verge. From Mamaku it is s lovely downhill ride to the S H Way 5 intersection which we quickly got off and rode in to Rotorua through Nongataha...