8
Dive bombing birds, beautiful snow lined mountains, empty roads, crazy headwinds, electric shock therapy and my first injury would mark my journey south to the coast.
After spending a night out out on Doubtless Sound it was time to continue my journey cycling to the very south of the island. As it was the afternoon by the time the cruise boat had docked back at Manapouri I decided to stay the night back at Possom Lodge campground. I pitched my tent in the same spot and then went for a walk along the shoreline of Lake Manapouri. The view over the lake towards the fjords was pretty special.
That night the temperature once again hovered around 1°C and it was damn cold in the morning when I got up. Still, there was a nice hot shower waiting for me to warm up.
After a quick breakfast of steaming hot porridge it was time to pack up the tent and get on the road. There is only really one route to follow down to the south coast from Manapouri and I would be on sealed road all day but the roads are very quiet in the very south of the island at this time of year which meant that traffic would not be an issue.
When I set off that morning my destination was not fixed. Ideally, by nightfall, I wanted to get to the south coast but that was over 120km away and so if the going was tough I had the option of stopping at a village called Tuatapere which lay about 80 km south.
I had cycled about 5km when I heard the sqwuak of a fairly large bird as it sat in a tree away to my left.
It then took flight but instead of flying away it made a beeline straight for me.
I thought it a bit strange and as it got closer it put its claws out and dive bombed for my helmet. I’m not sure how close it got as I had ducked out of the way and just heard a loud screech that seemed a couple of inches from my ear. The bird then flew back up in the air to gain altitude and after gaining about 5om of elevation it turned and made another dive bombing run.
By now I had stopped and this time watched it descending and it again swooped just over my head with another loud screech before flying to land back on the tree that it had launched from moments before. It then just sat and watched me watching it.
The bird stayed in the tree until I once again started pedaling down the road. As I set off cycling the bird launched itself out of the tree on another direct line for me. It must have chased me down the road for about 200m before finally giving up and heading back to the tree line where it had first taken flight from. Paul, who I had me in Queenstown, had warned me about Magpies attacking cyclists further up the country so I assumed that these birds were magpies.
When I later googles Magpie attacks the following advice is recommended (Click here to read further)
- Do not wave your arm or shout – it makes magpies more aggressive
- Do not duck – this will expose the back of your neck
- Put cable ties on your bike helmet with the long ends sticking up – they will hit the ties if they attack
- Put two black dots on the back or top of your bike helmet – they look like eyes, and deter magpies
During the ride that day I would be swooped on 5 times and the furthest that I got chased was for nearly 1 kilometer before the bird finally gave up. Most of the time I did not see the bird descending as they attacked from behind and the first that I would be aware was when I heard the loud screeching in my ear followed by the flapping of wings. Slightly unnerving but as they never actually touched my helmet I could cope with them.
The road south that I was on ran parallel to the Waiau River which flowed into Lake Manapouri and the scenery was pretty special. The landscape that I was cycling through was flat sheep country which was framed by a mountain range to my east and the fjords to my west.
As the temperature in the lowlands had hovered around freezing the night before the peaks of the mountain ranges had received a fresh dusting of snow which looked pretty spectacular.
After about 20km the road turned towards the Brunel Peaks mountain range and there was a long uphill section as I had to cross over to the back side of the mountain range.
I had been told that the road to the coast would be flat all day so the climb came as a bit of a surprise.
Luckily, I never had to climb over the peaks as the road crossed over the saddle of the mountain range 
From this vantage point I could see the line of peaks as they snaked their way north.
As I crossed over the saddle I descended towards into the valley on the other side and cycled on towards Blackmount As I descended into the valley there were many streams which drained from the mountains behind me and along each of these grew gorse, which at this time of year was a vibrant yellow.
The mountains on this side of the valley looked even more impressive framed against the flat green sheep paddocks.
The road that I was now cycling down was ruler straight and I could easily see 10 km down the road. About a kilometer in front of me I thought I saw a plane descend through the tree line and cross the road at head height. Now this was not something you see everyday so I wasn’t sure if there was a landing strip up ahead or if it had crash landed.
I didn’t see any smoke rise above the tree line so I assumed that it must of landed safely and when I arrived the plane was just taking off again after being filled with chemicals. It then buzzed along the field away to my right spraying a mist of chemicals before flying overhead and banking hard to complete another pass. I couldn’t capture a clear picture of it so instead shot a video which you can see towards the end of this post.
By now I had covered nearly 50km and had not passed any sign of civilisation except for the odd farm building and was happy that I was carrying food with me. In this part of the country the primary schools seem to all open their doors so that you can use the toilet facilities and in the distance I could see a sign pointing to one.
The toilets were located in a block behind a swimming pool and as I pulled up to use the facilities a rain shower blew through. As it was Sunday the school was closed sp I decided to use the tables outside the swimming pool to shelter and have some lunch.
I was back on my normal lunch – pot noodle with an extra pack of noodles. In Queenstown, I had also bought some tubes of condensed soup and decided that I would have a cup of mushroom soup with my noodles. I’m not sure who at the factory had decided on the final taste of the soup but it was not good and so I ditched it after taking a couple of mouthfuls.
One of the big mantra phrases when travelling through New Zealand is ‘leave no trace’ and in many places rather than providing rubbish bins, which eventually need to be emptied, they ask you to take your rubbish away with you. It seems to work as in all of the places that I had stopped so far there was not a trace of rubbish.
The rain shower had now passed and once I was back on the road it was another 10km before I passed my first person of the day. That is how remote the areas that I was cycling through were. When I see a person either cycling or walking along a road I always make a point of stopping and to have a quick chat. People are always curious about my cycle ride and I can often get valuable information about what the road is like up ahead or whether there is anything to see in the local area.
The lady that I had stopped was called Siobhan who was Irish and had moved to the area about 10 years ago. She said that apart from sheep there was not much to see until I came to the town of Tuatapere which was about 15km down the road. Siobhan said that an area known as the big flat stood between where we now were and the town and if the wind was blowing it would make for an interesting hour on the bike.
The official name for the area is Otahu Flat and on all sides it is surrounded by mountains and is best described as like a bowl. The land for as far as you can in all directions was pancake flat.
In the photos above it is like they were taken on different days but this is what I was seeming to get. Behind me you could see the rain clouds that I had sheltered from during lunch and in front of me was brilliant sunshine from the south. It would stay clear until the next band of rain blew through but at least you had lots of warning as you could clearly see them rolling towards you and could take shelter accordingly if needs be.
Looks can be deceiving as it looks to be a perfect day in the last photo but the wind was blowing through the flats pretty hard from the south and so I was now cycling into a very strong headwind. I was glad that I only had to ride for 10 km through this as I was now in the granny gear and even though the legs were pumping it was a struggle to keep up a double digit pace.
All through the valley farmers had planted rows of trees across their fields to act as wind breaks. As these ended at the roadside all they did was funnel the wind down the road adding to the speed that the wind whipped through the flats in front of me.
I had passed not one shop or petrol station along the road since leaving Manapouri that morning and by the time I exited the Otahu Flats I had cycled nearly 70 km and I was now out of water. I would normally just stop at a house and ask but again had not passed many of these and through the Otahu Flat area there was none by the roadside. However, at the far edge of the flats there was a golf course and so I pulled in here to get some water.
The clubhouse was closed and when I went round the back there was a toilet and shower block with a tap where I could fill up my water bottles.
At the 80km mark I arrived at Tuatapere. When I set off that morning I thought that I may camp here overnight but after cycling through the town there didn’t seem to be much of interest to see and as it had just turned 4pm I decided that I would just push on towards the coast.
As it is now heading towards summer time in New Zealand I have nearly 3 more hours of daylight to cycle in compared to Asia, but to cycle into the early evening I have found that I need to have an extra food stop and so as I was leaving the town I passed a 4 square supermarket and decided that I would pull in to get a snack. After cycling through Asia the cost of food here seems exorbitant and even the cheapest sandwich in a supermarket is about 5 NZD. Instead, I bought a pack of ham and 6 cheese rolls and sat outside to make my own.
I checked the map to see what camping options were ahead of me on the coast and there was a free D.O.C campsite about 20km further on which would mean just an additional hour or so of cycling and so decided to head there for the night.
After leaving Tuatapere it was pretty much a slight downhill for the next 10km until I hit the coastline.
The island that you can see in the picture below is Stewart Island and beyond that there is nothing but ocean for 2000 km until you reach Antarctica.
As the island is my namesake I had originally planned to visit this island but at 130 NZD for the short boat trip across I will skip it and instead just take a picture of it from the mainland as I cycle past.
It was now getting fairly late and the D.O.C. campsite that I was heading for lay another 8km along the coastline in the village of Orepuki. As I cycled into the village there was a sign outside the bottle store offering free tent camping on the ground outside the shop. They also strangely offered use of their showers with the stipulation that conditions applied. I never inquired what the conditions were and instead cycled down to the coastline where the free D.O.C camping was.
When I cycled down the track there were already camper vans parked pretty much nose to tail with others arriving as the sun was beginning to set. For camper vans to go to park up at private campsites for the night it can cost them upwards of 50 NZD and so where possible they try to camp at free D.O.C campsites and sharing my tent space with 20 camper vans was not the picture of isolated peace and tranquility that I had in my head.
I cycled down to the end of the track where there was a stream and across the stream there was another small area that I could probably have pitched a tent. To get across the stream there was a log next to the fence line and I decided to use this to traverse the stream. I grabbed onto the wire fence for balance and as I stepped onto the log a bolt of electricity erupted in my chest. It was not a tingling sensation but just one big hit of charge which literally knocked me off the log that I was stood on. Next time, I would definitely be checking the wires before I grabbed onto a fence line.
As the log was the only way of crossing the stream I decided to give up on camping at this end of the track. I still had another hour before dark and so as I didn’t fancy camping nose to tail with the camper vans further down the track I decided to carry on down the coastline to find somewhere else to camp.
The next village on the map was Colac Bay which was 15km away and so headed there. It was on the other side of the headland which meant another roller coaster of an hour on the bike with some steep uphills to get over before a nice downhill run back to the coast and into the village.
It was just getting dark by the time I reached Colac Bay and at the edge of the village there was a campground with a pub so I pulled in there without going any further. The campground was 14 NZD per person and the owner said that as I was the only person camping I could pick anywhere in the camp ground to pitch my tent.
It only takes 5 minutes to put up my tent and after a quick shower I headed to the pub to grab a pint and a hot meal to reward myself for the +120km that I had covered that day. It was now nearly 9pm and as I was the only person in the pub once they had served me food they closed up shop.
When I left the pub there was not a cloud in the nights sky and the stars were shining brightly. It was a beautiful display but also meant that it would be another very cold night in the tent. I headed to the warm lounge room that you find at all campsites in New Zealand to keep warm while I charged all of my electronics.
I’m sure that my combination of different adapters is a bit of a health and safety concern but so far I have not blown anything up or set myself on fire.
When I walked into the lounge sat there on one of the sofas was a guy called Chris. When we got talking we worked out that he was the partner of Jane who I had planned to stay with after my time in Queenstown, but she had been away on business the day that I had planned to pass by their place.
Travelling in New Zealand is a bit like Ireland in that it doesn’t matter where you are in the country as you will always meet somebody who knows somebody that you know. When I complete my southern loop and head back towards Queenstown in a couple of weeks time I will hopefully stay with Chris and Jane before cycling over the Haast Pass and up the west coast.
Here is a video I shot along the way:
When I woke the following morning to another freezing cold dawn I had planned on putting another long day in on the bike by cycling another +100km along the coast to a village called Fortrose. This is where the Catlin Heritage Trail starts which is meant to be a spectacular section of road which threads its way through beautiful deserted sandy bays.
Once on the bike I could feel the effort of the previous days +120km which was pretty normal for the first 5km until the muscles warm up but there was also a steady pain in my left hamstring that got progressively more painful. When I got to the first hill of the day I couldn’t really put pressure on it without a sharp pain and when I rolled my leggings up to check it was visibly swollen. This is something that I have had in the past when training for triathlons and I think that the tightness of the new socks and the snug fit of the leggings that I am currently wearing for warmth must have caused me to tweak the hamstring.
I took off my socks and rolled up the left leg of the tights to take any pressure off the hamstring and got on the bike. I was now trying to pedal by pushing as much as possible through each revolution of the pedals with my right leg but as I was cycling through rolling hills this was not always possible.
A quick check of the map showed that the next town that I would come to was Riverton which lay 12km away. I decided to give myself until I reached there and if the level of pain was still the same I would camp there for the night to try to give my hamstring a rest. There really was no point in pushing on and getting injured.
When I rolled down the hill into Riverton I hoped that there would be a pharmacy where I could get some Voltaren, which is an anti inflammatory that I had previously used to treat a similar injury. When I explained to the pharmacist the problem she also recommended I take Voltaren to treat the problem and said that if I doubled the dose of what she could sell over the counter then this would be the same strength of tablet that I would get prescribed by a doctor.
The pharmacist told me that there was a camp ground on the hill overlooking the bay and so I cycled up there to pitch my tent as I had already decided that I was going to take a couple of days off the bike to try and rest my hamstring. There was no point in aggravating it further when I didn’t need to.
The campsite was only small with pitches for about 10 vans / tents and Craig and Veronica, who own the campsite, said that I could pitch my tent anywhere. As the site is up on the hillside over looking the bay the view out of my tent was not too shabby.
Once I was set up they suggested that I cycled down to a place called the Beach House Cafe and Bar as it had a great view of the headland and so I jumped on the bike and rolled most of the way back down the hill to the cafe and enjoyed the view over a steaming hot cup of coffee.
The sun was now out and the sky was blue with hardly a cloud in the sky. It was definitely one of the warmest days that I had had since arriving in New Zealand and as I was forced to have a day off the bike it was nice as I could sit back and enjoy it without feeling guilty that I should be making the most of the fine weather to get down the coastline.
As it was still low season the cafe closed at 3pm on Mondays and Tuesdays and so I stayed there until it closed and used their wifi to look at cycle routes through this part of the country. When it closed one of the members of staff suggested that I continued on to the end of the headland where there was a park area and a couple of beaches. As this sounded like an idyllic way to spend the rest of the sunny afternoon off I cycled. As I entered the park area I crossed a cattle grid which is used to keep the grazing sheep from wandering around the village.
There is always seems to be at least one black sheep in a family and here in the park was no exception
At the end of the headland were a couple of beautiful deserted beaches
There were signs up all along the beach area asking you to not disturb the birds that were nesting in the area
In the grasses and on the rocks at the end of the headland I could see lots of pairs of nesting birds
So instead of disturbing them I found a picnic table and made myself a brew before sitting back and just enjoying the view of the beautiful coastline.
The wind was still coming from Antarctica and so even though the sun was out the wind had a chill to it and around 5pm I headed back into Riverton and to the supermarket to get some food for dinner. As I had the use of a kitchen back at the campsite I treated myself to steak and potatoes and would wash it down with a bottle of Heineken.
When i was cooking Veronica came in and lit the fire in the lounge area and as I had the place to myself had a TV dinner in front of a roaring fire.
As I was heading to bed that night Craig was just doing his final rounds of the park and said that as it was going to be another cold night that I could sleep in one of the caravans that they have in the campsite if it got too cold in my tent which was a fantastic gesture. Although it was freezing cold when I got into my tent once I was cocooned inside my sleeping bag I was fine.
The next day when I got up the swelling on my left hamstring was not really any better so I decided to have another rest day off the bike instead of cycling on down the coast. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and so instead of sitting around in the cold drizzling rain I cycled into town and went to the pub to have a pint and to use their wifi to catch up on my blog.
A day in the pub and two days off the bike seemed to have done my hamstring the world of good as when I crawled out of my tent the following morning the swelling on my left calf was markedly reduced and so I decided to hit the road and cycle the 100km to Fortrose where I had planned to get to two days before. From there it would be time to hit the heritage trail and go in search of Sea Lions, that is if my hamstring lasted that long.
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