After finally completing my week of off road cycling over mountain passes to Mount Cook it was time to finish the southern loop by heading to Wanaka to do a sky dive and then start the cycle up the west coast and over to the North Island.  I hadn’t finished my climbing though as I still had two mountain passes to negotiate en-route.

My day had started in a mountain hut where I had sought shelter from a raging storm the night before.

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I had then cycled over the last hill and cycled down to Lake Pukaki where I had finally gotten to see the Ben Ohau Mountain Range, which holds Mount Cook, in all of its glory.

I was now on the east coast of the lake and the track that I was on was the start point of the 300 km Alps to Ocean cycle track which starts at Mount Cook and ends on the Coast at Oamaru on the east coast.  The track at this point was a gravel track rather than the dedicated cycle path that I had cycled 5 days earlier from Duntroon to Kurow and was terrible to ride on.

The gravel road had been corrugated which meant that it was fill of ridges that the bike bounced over rather than rolled over.  In the picture below each corrugation is a horizontal line across the track.

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It made for one hell of a bouncy ride and as my bike does not have suspension then every bone shaking corrugation went straight through my bun to my arms.  After cycling on the track for 30 minutes to check the map and it looked like I had at least another hour of being bounced around  before hitting a tar sealed road at the power station which lay around 15km in front of me.

Not a moment too soon I saw pipes running from the top of the hillside to the edge of the lake which was pumping water from a reservoir further up the mountain downhill to turn the turbines in the power station.

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The road turned to tar seal here which was a relief to my body. By the side of the road there were 3 cyclists that I stopped to say hi to.  It turns out that they had been helicoptered into the mountain 2 days ago and had then cycled down the track staying overnight at one of the mountain huts along the way.  To me though this seemed a step too far and a bit like cheating.  The reward for me is the downhill after crawling my way up and over the pass.  Still, if you had the money to hire a helicopter to drop you off then fair play.

Now that  I was on a tar sealed road the pace picked up from a paltry 8 kmph to a more  sensible 20 kmph and I was rolling along. Even the sun and blue sky had come out to play which really brightened up the day.

The road skirted the bottom of the lake before heading over a hill.  My last view of the lake looked like this and was pretty stunning with not a ripple on its surface.

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I knew that I should now be heading south but the road infront of me that was heading over the hill was still going north so a quick check of the map showed me that I could cut off the raod and follow a drainage canal that was on my left.  The only problem was that the drainage canal was about 40m below me and the only was to access it from where the raod stood was down a sheer grass bank.  In for a penny in for a pound as they say and I hopped the curb and went straight down the grass bank.  I hit the road at the bottom with a bang but managed to hold onto the front end and stay on the bike.  Looking back up the bank I realized just how steep the descent really was and thought that maybe I shouldn’t have attempted it after all !!!!

The drainage canal was running of Lake Pukaki and now that it was confined to a shallow area the colour and clarity of the glacial melt waters could really be appreciated:
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Looking at the reflection of the sky on the surface of the water was like looking in a mirror.

The drainage canal brought me out at the town of Twizel which was the town that I had tried to take a short cut to two days before and had turned back after a farmer had told me that I would have to ford three hydro rivers.  The silver lining was that if I had taken the road I would have missed out on spending the night in a mountain hut and seeing the reflection of the mountain range in Lake Pukaki.

I stopped here for a quick bite to eat and when I was sat inside out of the wind there was a very strong smell of smoke coming of me as I had dried them in front of a log fire the night before.  After eating I contemplated washing my clothes at a self service laundry that I found on my way out of town. They were charging 5 NZD for a wash and 5 NZD for a 30 min spin in the dryer which I thought was a bit exorbitant and would just put up with the smell until I found a cheaper option.

Once I was back on the bike and heading for Omarama the benefit of having a huge mountain range to my right was that the road ran pancake flat and arrow straight next to it.

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The down side was that the view never really changed but the tail wind and the flat road meant that I covered the final 30kmph to Omarama in just over an hour which was world record pace for me.

A quick check of my campsite app (Camping NZ by Rankers of Rotarua), which is a must download for all cyclists through New Zealand, showed me that there was a D.O.C free camp spot and a Top 10 campsite in the town.  I decided that after sleeping on a mountain pass for one night and the other in a mountain hut I needed a hot shower and a shot of electricity to recharge my gadgets so opted for the campsite.

I called into reception to pay and the girl at reception said 38 NZD.  The most that I had ever paid up until this pint was 20 NZD so I clarified that there was just me and she said that the policy of the campsite was to charge 38 NZD for the camping spot regardless f the number of people.  Normally you get charged per person but not here.  She wouldn’t even give a discount for a round the world cyclist even though I tried my best to get one.

The free campsite was now far more appealing and so I said that I would head there instead.  The girl was not remotely bothered and so I left the office.

Instead of cycling out of the campsite I cycled into it as I thought that I would chance my arm and pulled up outside the kitchen/laundry/bathroom/lounge block and parked my bike.

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I checked how much a wash was and it was 3 NZD and the dryer 2 NZD, exactly half the price of the launderette in Twizel.  Like a scene out of that Levi 501 jeans advert from the late 80’s I peeled off all of my clothes and put them in the washing machine.  However, instead of being stood there in a tight fitting pair of underwear sporting a six pack I put on my wet weather trousers and jacket.  (As it had started raining outside I didn’t actually look that out of place by the way)  The rest of my clothes from my panniers joined the wash and as I had to wait for 30 minutes for it to finish I nipped into the bathroom and had a hot shower.

By the time that I was showered, dried and moisturised the wash had finished and while it was drying I went into the lounge to recharge my various gadgets.  Within an hour I was cycling out of the campsite with a clean me and clean washing.  A good shower after a few days of sleeping in the mountains really does make you feel much better.

The only problem with staying at a free D.O.C. site is that they have open access to all and sundry and although I’m sure that my stuff would be safe in my tent I don’t like to set it up and leave it there.  As I fancied a couple of beers I was going to have dinner in the pub that night and so would wait until after dinner to set my tent up and went straight to the pub that was just outside the campsite.

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I ordered a handle (pint) and the most cost effective meal on the menu seemed to be a fully loaded chicken burger so I got one of them too.

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The pub had free wifi and power sockets and so my night was set as I caught up on emails and route planning etc.  By the time that I had left the pub it was well after 10pm and I still needed to set my tent up. I cycled back to the edge of town where the D.O.C site was and found a nice spot under some trees and set up for the night.  It wasn’t that difficult in the dark and within 30 minutes I was in my sleeping bag and drifted off to the land of dreams.

In the night it rained and that was when I realized my mistake of setting up the tent under a tree.  The rain lasted about 20 minutes but the drips from the leaves on the tree went on for a good hour afterwards.  Not the best night’s sleep and to cap it off when I woke in the morning I could see the outline of a bird on the roof of my tent.  I gave the top of the tent a knock and it flew off.  I was just hoping the it hadn’t gripped onto the top of the tent and stuck its claws through my tent flight.  I couldn’t see any light coming through the top of the tent which was a good sign and would now just have to wait until the next time it rained to confirm that there were no holes.

The clouds were very low that morning which normally mean’t that rain would be on the way and when I checked the weather forecast on the met service app their prediction pretty much matched what I was seeing in the sky above me.  It was going to be a very wet day on the bike.

As I set off from Omarama the clouds descended down the mountains around me so that I could no longer see the snowy peaks.

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The rain then started as a drizzle and before long it was bouncing off the road in front of me. I was seemingly caught in the middle of no man’s land as there were no buildings that I could head for to shelter in and so just rode through it until it decided to give up.  Even though it makes no sense on any cognitive level cycling through rain turns into a battle of wills and after cycling though rain it feel like a ‘victory’ when the it eventually subsides.

My ‘victory’ was short lived though as no sooner as it stopped raining than I cycled past the sign below:

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As I passed the sign I expected the road to start to climb but nothing rally happened and I continued cycling down a flattish road for the next good while.

The next sign I passed signaled that I was getting closer to the mountain pass:

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This was the first pass that I had cycled over on tar sealed road and I thought that they were really trying to build up the anticipation nicely.  Thankfully, the road started to climb towards the clouds above me.

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We were now getting closer and the mountains next to me were getting bigger

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One final bend and I could now see the to of Lindis Pass in front of me

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I cycled to the high point on the road and my altimeter on my watch read 990 metres.  I was not quite at 1000m which is the standard geographical marker to distinguish between a hill and a mountain.  There was a path on my left which led up to a lookout point and so cycled up it until I had hit the 1000m mark.  I had now technically cycled over a mountain and so headed back down with more of a feeling of satisfaction than if I had just crossed the saddle at 990 m. (it really is the little things that matter when you are pedaling your way around the world)

It was now time to head down off the pass and head to warmer climates and have lunch.

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As I raced down the valley in front of me it was a fantastic feeling, my climbing was done for the day and I could roll along the remaining 50km to my destination that night on tar sealed roads. The only downer was the rain that started but even that couldn’t dampen my day (did you like the pun!!!!!!)

As I descended the sides of the valley narrowed

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I was now cycling through a type of gorge area with a vertical wall of rock on my left and a river running to my right.

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I knew that there was a free D.O.C campsite to my right that is called The Lindis Pass Historic Hotel.  When I had stayed with Sue and Derek in Pukerau they had told me that it was there and the normal way in was to cycle another 6km down the valley where you could cross the river and then cycle another 6km back up the valley to the site of the old hotel.  Out of curiosity when we had looked on google earth it looked like there was a track across the river at this end to save a 12km detour and I said that I would check it out.

I found the entrance to a track that we had seen on google maps and cycled down it to see whether I could cross the river and a bit like the hotel that once stood across the river so did a bridge.

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All that was the concrete struts and part of the metal supports that once spanned the river to hold the bridge in place.  To the left of the foundations there was another track where vehicles seemed to still ford the river but there was no way I could as the flow of the river would soon sweep me off my feet.  Well that had emphatically answered that question – yes there was a crossing pint but no you couldn’t cross it on a bike.

The spot that I was in though made an ideal stop for lunch and so I got a pan of water from the river and boiled it up to have a pot noodle and a coffee.  The sun had also decided to put in an appearance and I used the opportunity to strip off and get my clothes dry

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After lunch the sun decided that it was here to stay and for the first time in a long time I was cycling in lovely warm air which lifted my spirits no end.

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I was now so happy that I decided that I had enough of the tar sealed road and when I saw a gravel track heading off to my right across a hill I decided that I would take it without really knowing where it went.  All I knew was that the sigh did not say ‘no exit’ underneath so I knew that it would come out somewhere further down the road.  Whether it was a short cut or not I wasn’t really bothered to tell you the truth I just fancied a change from the trffic that ws constantly passing me at 100 kmph.

The track led uphill for 20 minutes and the view back down the valley was worth every ounce of the effort that it had taken to get me to the top of the hill

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The road continued to climb on and on and for the first time I was doubting my choice of taking the gravel track

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I rounded a bend and the sight which greeted me was a wall of darkness in the valley that I was about to cycle into

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There was no way around it, at some point in the next hour I was going to get very wet and there was no way that I could out run the rain as the road I was on was heading straight into it.  I came across a cross roads which gave me the option of staying on the sides of the valley rather than heading down the centre of it and so I took it.

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It was on this road that I forgot all about the impending drenching that I was about to get as in front of me was the one picture that I associated with New Zealand before arriving – a whole flock of sheep just wandering down the track.

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They were not really randomly walking down the track as I had passed a farmer further down the track who had let them out of their field and he had said that they would find there own way to the next field as there was a cattle grid further down the track.  He had then closed a gate on the track behind me so that they  couldn’t double back on themselves.

I cycled up them and it was clear that I was not going to be pushing through them.

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When I tried to get past instead of moving out of the way and going around me they just pushed forwards squashing into each other  I would either have to go round them or just follow them to the cattle grid and decided that it was easier to just follow them. Although I had no idea how far ahead the cattle grid was I figured it couldn’t be that far

As I was following them I heard a truck behind me and as he had a loud engine I was sure that the sheep would move out of his way and I could follow the truck through.  As the truck passed me he turned left down a track that the sheep should have taken but the sheep went straight on.  They had now reached the cattle grid and just stood there so I pushed through them on the right side giving them room to pass me on the left.  Once one sheep had worked it out the rest of them followed and within a minute all of the sheep were now behind me and the road was clear in front.

As always, I capture the highlights of my day on video:

I had only cycled a couple of hundred metres more when I felt the first splash of rain on my face which was rapidly followed by many more.

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I decided to take shelter from the rain behind a row of pine trees which had been planted as a wind break and wait it out.

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Within a few minutes the worst of the heavy rain had pushed through and all that remained was a light drizzle and as it was getting late I pushed on.

After another few kilometers I came to another T-junction.

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In the valley to my left the rain was still falling steadily.

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but in the valley to my right there was blue sky.

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Guess which direction I took?

It was then payback time for all of the climbing that I had done earlier as the road went steeply down into the valley in front of me.

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As I descended there was a field of cows 400 m in front on my left and when they caught site of me they came running through the field to meet me.  They then chased me all the way down the track until the field ended.  Every time this happens it cracks me up and I caught this on video but forgot to take a photo.

I was now heading back towards the mountains and the town that I was heading for that night was somewhere at the bottom of it.

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The track that I was following ended and I was back on the main road.  I remembered that Sue and Derek said that at a town called Luggate there was a track which followed the river that would take me to Wanaka and avoid the main road.  As I had come over the mountain I wasn’t sure which road that they had taken to get to Wanaka but on my map there was what looked like a track by the river and so I headed for this.

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The track descended to the river and was more like a goat track than a path so I was still not certain that I was on the right path as Derek and Sue normally drag their equipment on a trailer rather than in panniers and I couldn’t see a trailer getting through here.

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The river was once again clear blue and clear as a bell.  If only the weather had been warmer it would have been great for a swim especially as the sun was once again out. The drop offs from the track into the river below were fairly steep in places and I was glad once the track rose up to the terrace above the river.

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I then met a mountain biker who was coming the other way and he told me how to get to Wanaka – I had to take a swing bridge across the river in about 5km and then this would take me out to a main road where I would need to cross the river again and that road would take me into Wanaka.  At least I was on the right track.

The track then descended back to the river and I was thinking for the first time that taking the track on a fully loaded touring bike may have been a mistake as the bike and panniers were really bouncing around.

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Going slowly seemed to make matters worse and so I let the brakes off and powered down to the river below.  One hell of a ride and I reached the bottom with a smile on my face.

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For the next few kilometers the track went up and down to the terrace above and I then came to a sign which signaled that I needed to get off the track and head for the swing bridge.

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I wasn’t sure what a swing bridge was but when I found it it was pretty obvious

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The swing bit was that as you were crossing the bridge it really did swing from left to right over the river.  I had hit the bridge at full speed and had to stop and wait for the swinging to stop before heading on.  While waiting I checked the map to see exactly where Wanaka was and for the first time I made the connection that I was cycling over the Clutha River which I had last crossed in Millers Flat when I had started my off road adventures.

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The map showed that the source of the River Clutha, Lake Wanaka, was about 10km outside of Wanaka and so decided to head there as it would be a fitting end to my southern loop rather than stay in Wanaka.

Here is a video of my off road adventures on the way to Wanaka:

As I arrived back at the main road I was checking the map when the mountain biker that I had met earlier cycled over the bridge in front of me and came over to say hello and see if I needed any help.  Another older guy of about 70 who was also cycling joined us and we ended up talking for about 20 minutes about various things related to cycling in the area.

They said that there was a campsite on the edge of Lake Wanaka where I could stay and the older guy said that he could show me a track to get there if I followed him.  We said our goodbyes to the other cyclist and set off together to find the track.

The guy shot off up the road and I had real difficulty keeping up with him.  Eventually he dropped me and pulled away and waited for me at a turning up the road.  I know that I had cycled +100 km which included a mountain pass but this reminded me that I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover so to speak as I slowly caught him up.

I then saw the source of his speed – at the bottom of his bike underneath the crank was a small electric motor which pushed him along.  He said that the battery power was good for about 30km if he used it sparingly to push him up inclines.  Not sure why but it made me feel slightly better about my own fitness.

There was a chip shop next to where we had stopped and I suddenly felt hungry and so I asked the guy to give me directions to the track rather than taking me there which he did.  I then went and got a scoop of chips, a loaf of bread and a bottle of beer to wash it down with

While I was sat there having my dinner I phoned the sky dive people to check on the pricing of a sky dive for the following day.  The price was around 300 NZD for a 15000 ft tandem parachute jump and then the prices went up from there for photography.  The top price was 650 NZD and for that another sky diver would jump with you and film you on the way down.

The only problem was that the person that I was talking to told me that tomorrow was forecast to be a wash out with the cloud level being at 10000 ft and rain all day.  The following day was mean’t to be an improvement if I wanted to book it for then instead.  The problem was that the booking was nonrefundable and I would then have to hang around until the weather cleared enough to jump.

I texted Deirbhle to see if she fancied doing a sky dive when she arrived at Christmas and as she did I decided to not do the jump then and as every cloud has a silver lining I would instead be able to throw my wife out of a plane at Christmas !!!!

Now that that was settled and I had eaten dinner the only thing left to do was to find the source of the Clutha River and a place to pitch my tent for the night.

I followed the directions that I had been given and found the track that led up the side of the river

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The river valley that I was now cycling up was beautiful in the fading light of the day and couldn’t have been more perfect.  After a couple of kilometers I came to the campsite and it was in a fantastic spot right on the shore of the lake.

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As the weather was predicted to rain the whole of the next day then I paid for two nights and would spend the following day having a look around Wanaka.

As predicted the next day was a washout and in the morning when I woke up it was lashing down with rain which carried on until mid afternoon.  I was glad that I hadn’t paid the money for the sky dive.  Around 3pm the rain stopped and the clouds lifted and I decided that I would take the opportunity to cycle the 4km into Wanaka as I wanted to see the town before I left the following morning.

The campsite was on a kind of headland with Wanaka located on the opposite site to where I was.  There were two routes from the campsite to the centre – one was continue on the path around the shore of the lake and the other was to cut across the island on tar sealed roads.  As there were still rain clouds lingering I took the shorter route on tar- sealed roads.

The setting for the town was fairly awe inspiring with the mountains as the backdrop.  Seemingly a wonderful place to live.

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As I was in town I took the opportunity to have lunch so headed to Subway to get a sub, something I had not done since leaving Vietnam, and then popped into the pub to enjoy the view over a pint.

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When I left the pub the rains had lifted and the sky now had touches of blue.

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I called at the supermarket on my way out of town and picked up a steak and potatoes to have for dinner and a bottle of Riesling.  As the weather had brightened up I decided to take the longer more scenic track around the lake shore.

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You can see the location of the campsite that I was staying in as it is at the very far end of the shoreline in the picture below.

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By the time I got back to the campsite it was nearly 8pm and most of the people had already cooked and so had the kitchen area very much to myself.  Unlike on most campsites that I had stayed there was no equipment in the kitchen so I boiled my potatoes and left them on the side when I cooked my steak in the same pan.  I don’t carry a plate with me so used the plastic base that the steak came on as my plate and my pen knife as my knife.  By now the wine was nicely chilled but there were no glasses so used my plastic mug.  Regardless, I still sat down to a steak dinner with a mug of chilled wine.

I was joined at the table by a dutch couple and a German guy who had a carton of red wine to accompany his dinner and so we spent a very enjoyable few hours discussing life and our respective journeys through life.  What had started out as a steak dinner for one turned into another fantastic evening shared with like minded people.

Now that I had completed my southern loop it was time to start the long trek north to Auckland to meet my wife who would be flying into the country in just over 3 weeks time.  My off road cycling on the south island was now done as I wanted to ride a few off road routes in the North Island on my way through.

Nearly 1000 km lay in front of me to get to the ferry to the North Island and I was going to be covering this in eat, cycle, sleep mode aiming to cover up to 150km per day.  The only problem was that the west coast was notorious for strong wind and rain and as I was heading north I could potentially have a horrendous head wind for the next 1000km.

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Completing the southern loop (NZ)

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