February 15 - Lake Hawea to Wanaka - 17 km

Almost not worth getting up for - 17 km is barely enough to break a sweat.  I can be smug today - tomorrow will tell the tale.

See - I did get Laura a rose.  It managed to survive the ride to Wanaka.

Here's a couple of shots of Wanaka.  Wanaka is definitely a tourist town.  It caters to sun tourists in the summer and skiers in the winter.  I did a bit of touring around the residential part of town.  The houses don't look that much different from ours, except for a lot more brick construction.  The town is obviously affluent.

And I couldn't resist taking this room in the backpackers.  'Nuff said.

Off to Queenstown tomorrow via the Crown Saddle.

February 14 - Haast to Lake Hawea - 128 km

So why the 128 km day?  We were only supposed to go 87 km.  Sounds like somebody was slave driving, eh?  so, here's today's story:

I poked my nose out at 6 ayem (yawn) and noticed clear blue sky above, so we packed up, had breakfast and off  we went.  Turns out the clear patch was only overhead - low cloud and drizzle filled in for the first 40 km.

There was lots of water flowing out of the hillside, but no evidence of damage from yesterday's heavy rains.  They are still fighting washouts and problems from the torrents a few weeks ago, however.

Here's a pretty waterfall.  Note how lush it is around there.  Laura commented that it seems the ferns are growing right out of the rock.

I like this photo - it's the first hint of clearing and blue sky.  We're still in the Haast river valley.

The beginning of today's climb, and the raging river below.  The climb was steep for the next little bit, but not far.  Then it flattened out into a gradual climb again.  The sky is clearing and the sun is coming out.

Here we are at the top, before noon yet!  The pass turned out to be a non-event.  For one thing I thought it was 650 meters high instead of the actual 564.  Just because I'm a glutton for punishment I decided to climb the 90 or 100 meter trail to the Haast Viewpoint for a look (maybe the 650 came from the elevation of the viewpoint?)  From the top there were a number of great views, including the glacier that feeds Haast River.  And, just for you Pat, here's a photo of my better side as I view the glacier.

Down the other side and into the Makaroroa river valley.  We made it into Makarora and spoke to the lady at the Info Office (a Scot who now lives in Lake Hawea and cycles, runs, tramps and all those other outdoorsy things).  After chatting with her we decided to have lunch at the (only) cafe in Makarora and then head to Lake Hawea instead of hanging around for the afternoon and night.

The Makarora River flows into Lake Wanaka.  As we continued along two things became evident - the vegetation has changed significantly and the views are stunning.  We have passed over the NZ divide (from Westland to Otago) and we are into an "interior" (read Penticton, Kamloops, Lilloet) type environment.  This view is of Lake Wanaka.



A bit of bicycle trouble - Laura's front shifter worked loose, so I had to remount and adjust it.  Being Campagnolo it is not a standard mount and it was modified when Laura changed her front rings.  Al - you and I will have to fiddle with it some more later on in Nanoose.

We turned left over a short hill called the Neck (above) and came to Lake Hawea.  Absolutley beautiful country!  I've included just a few of the many pictures I took.  I did some panorama shots and camera videos, but I can't include these in the blog right now.

It took a while for us to make it into Lake Hawea town, but the scenery convinced us both that the longer day was the right choice.  We had a great Valentine's Day meal (yes, I bought Laura a rose after all I need the points).

So, sanity will prevail and we are only going 15 km to Wanaka after a sleep-in tomorrow.  Almost a rest day to prepare for us to follow Gerry and Leddy over the 1080(?) meter Crown Saddle the following day (coffee at the Cardrona Hotel, of course)

February - 13 - Rain Delay

The weather forecast said we still had 100 more rain today, so we decided to take a day off.  Not much to do in Haast - we toured the entire shopping district (2 shops) in half an hour.  After we decided to stay it looked like the rain was going to hold off.  I was about to curse the rain gods but then the skys opened up and our sympathies went out to a couple of young Aussie bicyclists who had decided to continue.  We've probably had about 20 mm of the 100.  It is supposed to stop tonight.

Otherwise, Laura has been relaxing and I've been fiddling around on the computer.  I made up a couple of maps of our trip so far.

so far we've done just under 1800 km, split roughly equally between the two islands.

February 112 - Lake Paringa to Haast - 51 km

2pm in the afternoon and we're done for the day!  A nice easy ride into Haast.  If you have a map handy, Haast is just under 2/3 the way down the left side of the south island.  (I tried to post a link map on the blog earlier, but I couldn't get enoughtdetail for it to be useful).

So, why the easy day?  Two reasons:
1.  Our next leg is to Makarora, 87 km away over Haast Pass (650 meters) or to Wanaka, another 54 km beyond that.  So, it will be a long leg.
2.  The Weather Service has issued a rainfall warning - 150 to 180 mm of rain in the next 30 to 36 hours.  And part of ther warning is about problems with bridges over streams & rivers. Being wimps, we hunkered down in a nice motel in Haast until it starts to clear.  Discretion is the better part of valour (and one way to avoid rain wrinkled skin).

A few photos today.  The first two are of views from Knight's Point.  The one with the faraway horizon reminds me of hiking on the west coast, where you can see down the coastline for miles (and unfortunately, have to walk there, eh, Ian?).

And, the bridge over the Haast River.  Yes, I have a facination with one lane bridges - I take my life into my hands whenever I cross one.  This one is so long that is has two passing bays on it where vehicles can pass.  We had to wait at both passing bays for vehicles.

A couple more entries in the funny signs department.  NZ names almost all of their culverts.  Why?  And, I had to snap one of Kaka Creek.  Actually, most of the streams along here are pretty clean looking.  

Another nature note:  a lot of the area around here is World Heritage 

protected because it is one of the largest intact temperate rain forest left in the world.  It is pretty scrubby forest (which is why it hasn't been exploited, no doubt) but very lush.  

Don't know when we will be on next.  We were going to try Skype, but the Internet connection around 

here is pretty marginal.  

February 11 - Franz Josef to Lake Paringa - 101 km

So, what did I tell you yesterday?  Oh yes, we were heading south unless we decided not to.  We got up had a leisurely breakfast and headed out about 0845 (very late for us).

Franz Josef on a nice morning.

Franz Josef to Fox Glacier is only 24 km, but with 3 snotty hills that Gerry and Leddy know about from their trip.  We worked up the first hill, breezed down it, did the second one and then ran smack dab into a traffic jam on the third hill.  We passed a hundred vehicles or so (I got two offers to trade my bike for a motorhome).  At the front of the line we also had to stop because they were finishing off some paving.  Finally the traffic could go, but we had to wait for the end of the line, so all those vehicles passed us back.  Oh well.

We sailed into Fox Glacier town (guess what it's named after) and grabbed an early lunch.  We had made our day's objective in 2-1/4 hours.  

So, should we go or enjoy the day?  It was beautiful, but Fox is even smalller than Franz so it might be quiet.  Laura the slave driver made the decision.  Head off another 38 km to Jacob's Creek, where there was rumoured to be a motel.  We took a short side trip for a quick look at the Fox Glacier.

On the way to Jacob's River were 3 interesting suspension bridges, all one lane.  We were travelling through flat open fields next to the mountains.  We reached the motel at Jacob's Creek - it was only 2:30.

Laura the slave driver said, "Press on to Lake Paringa."  So off we headed for another 32 km.  The scenery was actually getting quite boring. We were travelling through a tunnel of scrub brush and swamp.  Then we rounded a corner and beautiful Bruce Beach appeared.  Note the two signs - the large one is rather worrisome (luckily no wind today) and the other one was salvation to Greg the Walking Stomach.  Smack in the middle of the beach is a takeaway wagon!  We had a nice break and some fish and chips.  The photo of the beach shows a lot of debris washed ashore.  Apparently the beach is usually cleaner,  but the junk was washed down the rivers by all the rain two weeks ago.

Next to the takeaway wagon were a pile of white beach rocks, signed by various travellers.  So Laura and I grabbed one and left our mark on NZ (see photo in the left sidebar).

 After filling our faces we trudged (what's the pedaling equivalent of trudged? Pudged?) on for another hour and sure enough made it to the Lake Paringa lodge where we are now.  Check out our neighbours - they are Kea, I believe (Rick, can your bird dog confirm this>)..  The one on top of my bike actually damaged my taillight by pecking at it, but it is still working (the light that is).






  And the last photo is a view of the lake.  I have found out that the long leafed Yucca-like plant in the photo is New Zealand Flax, which  is very common.

Tomorrow will be a short day - about 50 km to Haast, because there ain't nothing past Haast for a long ways.  Laura talked to a couple of fishermen staying here - they saw the sun rainbow we saw earlier and agreed that it means rain is on the way.

Laura just proofread this entry and for the record is complaining about the "Slave Driver" title - according to her I agreed to this willingly!

February 10 - Pukehura to Franz Josef - 87 km

I have to start off with one more picture from Pukehura (or "Puke" as we refer to it).  The hostel came with one feature we haven't seen anywhere else - a bug net.  Is this a positive thing?  We didn't seem to need it, but it was reassuring, I suppose.

Here's one of our first views of the Southern Alps.  Above the treeline terrain and glaciers.

We stopped at Harihari and Whataroa for coffee and snacks.  The towns were nicely placed 30 km apart, to give nice breaks.  This photo says it all - what else is there in life?

We pedaled to Franz Josef today.  It is a tourist town (trap?) beneath the Franz Josef glacier.  It is a nice little town but has the dubious honour of having the most expensive gasoline in NZ.  After checking in, I rode out the 5 km to the glacier for a look and a few photos.  The Franz Josef glacier is very fast moving in glacier terms as it can move 70 cm a day, I assume due to the steep slope it's on.  In this picture you can see all the humanity (read lemmings?) walking to and from the The whole purpose of this town seems to be the glacier - there were thousands walking, more overhead in planes and helicopters (so many that you could easily see that they had a specific traffic pattern in the sky).   Yours truly was one of those walkers so I guess I shouldn't comment too harshly.

A view of the top of the glacier.

This shot is of some of the waterfalls coming off the side of the glacier valley.

The last picture is of the cycle / walking path on the way to the glacier.  It is sort of incongruous to be on the way to a big hunk of ice and travelling through a tropical palm forest.

Bye for now, it's bedtime.  Tomorrow we continue south, unless we decide to take a day off.  The  weather is supposed to be closing in in the next few days so who knows what we'l end up doing.

February 9 - Greymouth to Pukehura - 90 km

Another good day - up early and out of the Backpackers by 7 - stopped at the MacD's for a bite and off.

First surprise of the day - I told you about one lane bridges before.  Well, how about adding a railway track to the one lane bridge?  As soon as I saw this sign I thought "Oh, oh."  Once the light turned green we high-tailed it behind a logging truck across the bridge.  We had about a 2 foot path between the side  of the bridge and the rails.  We made it with no problems.

Further down the road I stopped to take this shot.  It shows how the trees are distorted by the prevailing wind.  Unfortunately, that wind is in our face today.  The morning wasn't bad - only headbreezes not headwinds.  The bush underneath the trees looks impenetrable - I don't think you could walk through it easily at all.

Coffee stop in Hokitika, where we also up on emergency food - stuff we can eat if we are caught out not near anywhere.

We are travelling parallel to a railway - in fact the railway went right through the middle of a couple of roundabouts.  You really have to think about what you are doing.  Actually, this particular bridge is no longer in use, but it looked in better condition than some they are still using.

 Our next stop was Ross, a small mining town dating from the mid 1800's.  I took a quick trip around a mining bush walk.  Very interesting.  The first  shot is of the bush trail showing the (mostly) native vegetation.  The brush here looks like you could walk through it, as opposed to the bush alongside the road we saw earlier.

More shots of the Ross mining bush walk.  A miners cabin and an early Ross cemetary - I saw headstones from 1830 on.  The cemetary is high on the hillside and has this fabulous view.

Leaving Ross we fought headwinds for half an hour and then turned away from the ocean inland.  Here it was like biking through a tunnel.  Very narrow roads with no shoulders, but beautiful.

We ended our day in Pukehura.  This is a shot of the entire main street of the entire "town."  It consists of a tearoom/cafe/museum, a bar and a hostel.

Here is the tearoom menu.  Check out the humour.  

I noticed that there was also a sign for the "Bank of Pukehura" which listed exchange rates for 5 countries, one of which was Canada.  I was proud until I read the explanation: "The owner of the Bank of Pukehura was married to a Canadian once.  It was a bad experience.  Therefore we will not be dealing in Canadian currency."  Oops - I never inquired further.  Before you get too smug, Margaret, here's the comment for the British pound: "You buggers have had it too good for too long.  Now its our turn.  Today's rate is 3 pounds for 1 $NZ."

Here's the hostel.  It's somewhat decrepid, but comfortable. We had a great "Bambi Burger" in the bar and and had some wonderful chats with the owners.  

Since we were in the middle of nowhere I couldn't post this (whot's the Internet?).  Its now Thursday and we are in Franz Josef.   I'll tell you more about today later, but we're off for a tour of the town now.