dscn5692

Everybody had told me that the west coast was going to be a nightmare as I was going the wrong way, and the headwinds and rain would be brutal.  The Met Service weather forecast showed that I had a 4 day window of south westerly tail winds and I intended to take it covering up to 150 km per day – it was time to hit eat, cycle, sleep mode once again and only stop to see a glacier.

The day before I had hoped to have jumped out of a plane but the weather had not played ball and it had rained all day.  The following morning as I was packing up camp ready to hit the road the sun rose over the lake to frame a perfect picture.

dscn5507

What a difference 24 hours can make in New Zealand and as I followed the river track down to Arrow Town it was like journeying through a lost world.

dscn5510

The sun was warming the air and a mist was beginning to rise over the river.

dscn5509

Once the river track met up with the bridge at Arrow Town I was back on Highway 6 which I would now stay on for nearly 1000 km as I headed north up the west coast.

dscn5512

I knew that today would be a tough ride as I had to cross over the ridges between three lakes and then grind my way over Haast Pass.  I was expecting that I would climb nearly 2000 metres by the end of the day as I had set myself a target of covering at least 100 km before dark.

The climb to the first lake was relatively easy and within an hour I was descending down to Lake Hawea.

dscn5513

The far end of the lake, which lay about 20km away, looked amazing as snow lined the very peaks of the mountain.  I had to cycle my way to the end of the lake and on a map it looked easy but they had cut the road into the side of the Mount Burke which meant that there was a fair deal of climbing to be done

dscn5516

At the top of the rise was a lookout

dscn5517

As I was pretty puffed by the time that I got to it and so couldn’t be bothered stopping to take a picture as the legs were just beginning to warm up nicely.  Instead I took a picture as I rolled down the other side.

dscn5518

I had now cycled the 20km length of the lake and the mountain peaks that looked small when I had descended down to it now looked mightily impressive, especially as there were deer roaming on the lower slopes.

dscn5521

The pattern of my day now seemed set as I was once again climbing over the saddle between Lake Hawea back to the upper end of Lake Wanaka which was the lake that I had slept on the shores of the night before in Wanaka.

dscn5526

Thankfully the climb was not long and I was soon at the point they called the neck which was the high point between the two lakes

dscn5527

dscn5528

If Lake Hawea had been picturesque then just perhaps this ed of Lake Wanaka was slightly more beautiful.

dscn5529

Again I was traversing the edge of the lake but on this side I was descending more than climbing and could sit back and enjoy the mountain views over the lake away to my left

dscn5530

It was now getting towards lunchtime and seeing as I had drunk a bottle of wine the night before I was in the mood for some comfort food and would wait to have my usual staple of pot noodle once I was over the top of Haast Pass. The map showed that the village of Makarora was about 10km up the road and I decided to wait until I had arrived there to see what my options were.

When I cycled into the village it consisted of 3 houses, a garage and most importantly a café.  Sat outside was my first bone fide cycle tourist that I had met in nearly a month on the road, which kind of showed the types of roads that I had been cycling on.

Richard was not heading my way though and was heading down to Wanaka where I had just come from.  I bought a toasted sandwich and a coffee then sat down and had a great chat Richard about cycling through New Zealand.  His story was that he had just finished working the ski season in New Zealand and had 7 weeks before he started working the ski season in Japan so decided to by a bike and hit the road.

After a great half hour chat it was time to get back on the bike and attack the main climb of the day – the short sharp Haast Pass.  This would be my last real pass of any note for at least a week as it would take me over the Southern Alps and down to the west coast where the road was pretty flat.

The road to the pass followed the Makarora River and the view from the bike was pretty special as the river ran out of the Mount Stuart Mountain range

dscn5536

Once the climb started the road narrowed considerably and for the first time there was no shoulder to the road which made it interesting when trucks came flying around the corner.

dscn5538

The speed limit in New Zealand is set at 100 kmph which I swear most drivers use as a minimum speed.  When I heard a truck coming I had to deliberately move out towards the middle of the road as this was the only way of slowing them down.  If I stayed right on the inside they would try to barrel their way through at full speed.  Thankfully the tight curves only lasted for a few kilometers and the road then straightened out as it climbed up to the top of the pass.

It was now time get my head down to power up to the top of the pass.  I had forgotten how many mountain passes that I had now climbed over on my cycle around the South Island and as this was my last one I was out of the saddle pumping my way up the last kilometer to the top that I could see up ahead.

I crested the rise to the top of the pass with a huge smile on my face.  I had taken what I considered to be the hardest route on goat tracks over the tops of the mountains and had survived them all.

dscn5541

In hindsight I should have bought a small bottle of champers with me as it would have tasted so good right then.  Instead, it was time to crack out the pot noodle and have lunch.  I didn’t fancy having it on the top of the pass and so rolled down the other side to find somewhere a little more picturesque.

dscn5543

After a couple of Kilometers I came through an area known as the Gates of Haast which was a gorge area where an iron bridge crossed the River Haast below.

dscn5550

There was a walking track which looped under the bridge and so I took this to take a closer look at the river rapids as it forced its way through the gorge.

dscn5547

 

dscn5549

dscn5552

The sun was shining and this was as good a place as I had seen and so I broke out the cooker to boil up some water for a pot noodle and hot coffee.

dscn5553

After lunch it was time to get the payback for the energy spent climbing up the pass an hour before as I rolled down and into the valley below.

dscn5555

I checked the map and the road that I was on would follow the River Haast for the next 70 km all the way to the town of Haast which lay on the coast.  I had already covered over 100 km that day and another 70 km would be a step too far.  There was a free D.O.C. campsite up ahead so I pulled in to have a look.  The grassy area that had been set aside for tents was pretty water logged and so I carried on and would just find a place to camp next to the river that I was following.

I pushed on down the valley for another hour until I felt the first spots of rain and decided that was a good signal to pull over for the night.  On my right through the trees I saw an area of river terrace and just needed a gateway to get into it.  A few minutes later I saw my way in

dscn5580

Once I had unhooked the fence post the barbed wire section fell down to allow me to push my bike down the track.  A quick check that the terrace was dry and I ran back to put the barbed wire fence back up.

dscn5558

I now had a secluded patch of grass that I could call home for the night.

dscn5561

Once the tent was up it was time to hike across the gravel river bed to fill up my water bag.

dscn5565

dscn5564

The bag I carry holds around 10 litres of water which is more than enough for my needs for the night.  When I camp for the night I normally need water to have a wash (1 litre of boiling water added to 1 litre of cold water), have dinner (2 litres of water for food, washing up and a couple of mugs of tea), breakfast the following morning (2 litres of water for porridge, coffee and washing up) and enough to fill my water bottles (1.5 litres of water).

I had been warned about sandflies on the west coast and once I had stripped off to have a wash they came over for a nibble.  By the time that I had finished washing there must have been a swarm of a few hundred of them buzzing around and without waiting to dry off I quickly dressed to stop them diving in head first for a feed of my blood. Once all signs of flesh were covered most of them let me be but it was a manic 5 minutes trying to get washed without being eaten alive.

I was then all set to sit down and eat dinner

dscn5567

The earlier spots of rain that I had felt returned though and was quickly followed by a huge downpour.  I retreated to my tent to eat dinner and have an early night.

When I woke up needing the loo in the middle of the night I realized my mistake of pitching the tent too close to the trees as there was a loud drip drip drip onto my tent from the branches above.  It got inside my head and I couldn’t get back to sleep.  I even contemplated getting up and moving the tent but eventually managed to drift off back to sleep.

The next morning the clouds were down low and when I got up I couldn’t see the mountains on the other side of the river.  Over breakfast the clouds began to lift as the sun came out

dscn5573

By the time that I had finished packing the tent and was back on the road towards Haast the sun was shining and the sky was blue.

dscn5581

I was once again following the river down to Haast but as the town was on the coast then it was an easy ride.

dscn5582

I had not had any phone signal since leaving Wanaka the day before and so when I eventually arrived at Haast I called in to a café to check the weather forecast.  There were a couple sat outside eating a fully loaded burger that looked amazing and I was suddenly hungry so I ordered one too.

The weather forecast had not seemed to have changed since I checked it before I left Wanaka 2 days before as once I hit the coastline I had a very strong tailwind which would push me along all day.

As I left Haast I saw the sea, something that I had not done since I had left the Sea Lions in Purakaunui Bay two weeks before.

dscn5588

It was weird cycling along a flat road as this wasn’t something that I had done since arriving in New Zealand.  The wind was really whipping me from behind and I was rolling along at +30kmph which was another first.

To my left was the sea and to my right was what can be best described as a temperate rainforest.

dscn5593

Each year the west coast receives over 6000 mm of rainfall (New Zealand average is 600mm) and it rains on average for 230 days per year.  That is why my 4 day weather window was such an amazing thing to have and I intended to make the most of it.

My progress was dented somewhat when I came upon an area known as Bald Hill that climbed and climbed up from the ocean as the road clawed itself to the cliffside

dscn5595

Over the last few weeks I had gotten into the rhythm of New Zealand road signs and a wiggly arrow meant a very tough section ahead and on tar sealed roads a lookout sign signaled the end of the grind up the hill.

Up I went and around every bend I peered to try and see the lookout sign that signaled that I had reached the crest of the rise. Eventually, up ahead was the relief that I had been looking for:

dscn5598

The view of the coastline seemed like it was worth stopping for so I pulled into the car park and went for a look:

dscn5600

It was then payback time and the hill rolled me all the way down to Lake Moeraki

dscn5601

The sun came out so I decided to cycle to the lake shore and spread out my tent to dry out as it s still wet from the night before.

dscn5611

I boiled a pan of water for a coffee and for the first time in many a week I was able to sit by the shore of the lake and enjoy my coffee with my t-shirt off.

dscn5615

For the first time on this trip I could see where the country emblem had come from as now that the road had moved inland away from the coast I was surrounded on all sides by fern branches

dscn5604

All too soon I came upon another wiggly sign

dscn5605

But thankfully there was no distance given under it which meant that it was just a curvy road rather than a hill ahead which was a good thing as I was now nearly out of water.

There were plenty of streams next to the road but I was back in an area where they were dropping poison from aeroplanes as on every stream and pathway there were the following signs:

dscn5608

I’m sorry but there is something wrong with the conservation efforts of a country when they need to post signs like the ones above and it can even be unsafe even to walk in the countryside with your family or pets.  Perhaps, instead of trying to exterminate every animal in a valley the government should just concentrate on getting rid of sandflies!!!

Once the tent was dry and the coffee drunk it was time to get on with making the most of the gale force tailwind that was pushing me down the coast.  The road brought me back to the coastline at Bruce Bay and all along the beach area were piles of white stones.

dscn5616

On each of the stones people had either written their names or written a message for somebody else.  I have no idea who had put them there or why they were even there in the first place. I can only think that it is an itinerary item for a tour company.

I still had a couple of hours daylight and although it would have been lovely to sleep next to the sea after being in the mountains for so long I was worried that my tent would get blown away so decided to press on and make the most of the wind.

Fox Glacier lay 50 km further up the road and with only a couple of hours of daylight left even with the strong southerly pushing me along I knew that I wouldn’t make it to the town that night.  Instead, I would push on for another hour and then make camp in a field next to a river.

The decision of when to make camp was taken out of my hands somewhat when I felt the first spits of rain on my face.  I was still 20 km shy of Fox Glacier but pulled over at the next river I crossed to get the tent up before the heavens opened.

dscn5622

There was no gate next to the river and I had to take all of the panniers off the bike to lift everything over the barbed wire fence next to the road. The field that I had pitched the tent in was a sheep field but all the sheep had bolted through a wooded area when I hopped over the fence and left me to it which was nice of them.

dscn5623

Once the tent was set up it was time to get some water on to boil for food.  There was still rain in the air and as it was drizzling I was able to sit outside in my wet weather gear rather than having to squash into my tent.

As I was washing up the rain steadily got stronger and I had to then retreat to my tent for the rest of the evening.  I decided to get on with updating my blog and found that my chair made an ideal ‘desktop’ for my laptop.

dscn5626

If you watch the end of the video below you will hear just how hard and loud the rain was that night.

The next morning it was still raining so I decided to pack everything up without having breakfast and ride until the sun came out.  Once it did I would stop for breakfast and at the same time dry everything off.  I wasn’t sure what the weather forecast was as I had zero phone signal for the last two days but I could see patches of blue sky appearing.

dscn5632

If the rain didn’t stop I could always just get breakfast when I got to Fox Glacier in an hour or so. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait that long and after 30 minutes the sun came out and I pulled over in the gateway of a field to get breakfast.

dscn5630

Once I was back on the road it was only a short cycle until I came to the outskirts of Fox Glacier.

dscn5633

As I passed the sign there was a turning signposted to my right which said “Glacier 4km”.  I wasn’t sure if this mean’t that the Glacier was 4km away or that you could hike in from a car park which was 4km up the road.  I decided to wait until a car came back down the road and would wave it down to ask rather than cycle up the road to see.

It was a bit like waiting for a bus – nothing came along for a good 10 minutes and then a convoy of vehicles all came down the road.  I flagged the last one down and luckily the driver was Canadian and he told me that after 4km there was a car park where I would have to leave the bike and then hike for 10 minutes to get to the face of the glacier.  He also said that the only way that you could actually get onto the top of the glacier to walk on it was by helicopter.

Now that I knew what was up the road I cycled the 4km to the car park.  What was amazing was that the road that I cycled through to get up to where I left my bike took me through rainforest.

dscn5635

At just 250m above sea level, Fox Glacier is one of only three glaciers in the world that descend into a temperate rainforest zone, the others being Franz Josef (25km north of Fox Glacier) and the Perito Merino Glacier in Argentina

Once I arrived at the car park I left the bike leaning against a rock and hiked up into the glacial valley.

dscn5637

There was a marked path to follow and it took us to the front face of the glacier

dscn5639

Here the path climbed up the side of the moraine to give a better view of the glacier

dscn5643

The face of the glacier was fairly dirty and covered in sediment as it melted.

dscn5647

dscn5646

Here is a video that I shot of Fox Glacier:

As I am going to visit the XXX Glaciers in Patagonia, Argentina in January I decided that I wouldn’t take a helicopter flight onto Fox Glacier but would wait until I got to South America to set foot on a glacier.

It as now time to retrace my steps back down the valley retrieve my bike and getting back on with the job of cycling up the West coast before the south westerly winds died and the rains arrived.

As I cycled into the town of Fox Glacier there was a petrol station so I topped up my fuel tank for my cooker as it was running low.

dscn5650

I knew that the road was going to now climb over 3 mountain ridges before I came to the next town of Franz Josef which lay 25km away.  I contemplated stopping to eat lunch before attacking the climbs but decided that  a steak and cheese pie would tide me over until I arrived in the next town so went in search of one at the café next to the petrol station.

A sign on the edge of town signaled the task ahead of me and I was in for a slow grind for the next 16km as I cycled over each of the 3 mountain ridges that I knew lay in front of me.

dscn5651The sun was shining as I climbed up the first slope and for the first time in days I was actually sweating from the heat of the day which was actually a lovely feeling. After 20 minutes of climbing I was on top of the first ridge and descended into the valley below.

dscn5654

At the bottom of the valley was a river and as I crossed it the cloud ahead started to descend and I felt the first spots of rain start to fall

dscn5655

As I climbed my way out of the valley the valley and onto the second ridge the rain that had cooled me as I climbed pushed on and the sunshine returned to dry me out

dscn5656

The third climb that I had been expecting never really materialised and after just a short climb I was rolling my way into Franz Josef.

Franz Josef is the other gateway to a glacier but when I asked a couple who were walking back from the glacier they said that like at Fox Glacier you could only access the face of the glacier and needed to take a helicopter to actually set foot onto it. I decided that I wouldn’t bother going to see the glacier face and cycled into town to get some food.

Whilst eating the rain that I had encountered earlier returned and it rained steadily for the next couple of hours.  There didn’t seem to be any let up as the sky was black all around the valley that I was in and the strong south westerly that was blowing wasn’t pushing the rain away.  I had a decision to make – either stay in Franz Josef for the night or to head off into the rain in the hope that it would disappear in the next valley that I crossed into.

I decided that as the wind would be behind me that I would push on in the hope that the weather would change.  A quick check of my phone showed me that there was a D.O.C. camping spot at a lake 15km ahead and if the rain hadn’t stopped by the time I got there I would give up and camp the night.  I set out from Franz Josef in my full wet weather gear hoping for the best.

By the time that I arrived at Lake Mapourika 10 km further on I had out run the rain and there was even blue sky and sunshine on the horizon.

dscn5658

The 3 mountain ridges that I had crossed earlier in the day had slowed my pace and I had only covered 90km so far that day which was below the 100km minimum that I was trying to cover.  The contour lines on my map showed me that there was a steep hilly section coming up but as there was blue sky I decided to press on instead of camping at the lake.

The hilly section was soon upon me and the sign showed that I would have around 40 minutes of climbs ahead of me

dscn5668

This climb was nearly as bad as the first climb of the day from Fox Glacier to Franz Josef and the road kept climbing

dscn5665

dscn5663

The steepest section was still to come but I passed a sign that indicated that in 600m I should hopefully reach the top

dscn5664

I was then over the top and the road on the other side descended more gradually than it had ascended which is the type of hill that I like – a sharp climb followed by a long descent.

I was now well past the 100km mark and I only had another hour of daylight left I decided that I would stop at the next town that I passed though and stay in a campsite for the night as I had slept rough since leaving Wanaka 3 days ago.  I was in need of a hot shower and all of my electronics needed charging.

The map showed that the next town that I would come to was Hari Hari and just it was starting to get dark I rolled into town.

dscn5669

There were no campsites in the town and the only option for camping seemed to be on a grassy area next to the local pub.

dscn5671

The pub doubled as a back packers though which meant that it had everything that I needed for the night.  I quickly set up my tent and went in search of the showers to try and warm up as once the sun went down the south westerly wind direct from Antarctica that had been pushing me along all day chilled the night air.

After showering I went to the lounge area of the backpackers to charge my electronics and sat in the room there were a group of 8 people who had a table full of alcohol infront of them. Once we got talking it turned out that they were all related and 4 of them had been in a car accident earlier that day.  Apparently, the driver of one of their cars had fell asleep a the wheel for a couple of seconds and had veered across the road.  When he woke up on the wrong side of the road he tried to correct it but lot control and ended up rolling the car down an embankment.

The driver and four passengers all walked away without a scratch but the car had been totaled as the top of it had caved in as the car had rolled. They were now getting over the shock of the accident by having a few beers.

I joined them for one but as the next day would probably be the last of my wind window I wanted to try and cover 150 km to get to a town called Punakaiki so did not have anymore and left them to it and headed to bed.

The next morning my plan to cover 150km was set back as I awoke to rain drumming down on the roof of my tent.  Not an ideal start to the day and I had to cook my breakfast as I lay inside the tent.

After breakfast I packed the tent up and went across to the backpacker lounge to wait out the rain as it was now hammering down and there was no way that I was setting off in it.

The hours ticked by and it wasn’t until nearly 1pm that the rain eased to a drizzle.  I decided that this would be the best that I could hope for and put on my wet weather gear and headed out into the rain

dscn5670

After an hour of riding through drizzle the clouds started to lift and I could nearly see the tops of the hills around me.

dscn5672

The rain finally stopped and so I pulled up next to lake I passed to get a pot of coffee on and to have some hot noodles to try and warm up a bit.

dscn5677The sun even decided to show its face so I got the tent out to try and dry it out as I had had to once again pack it wet.  I also stripped off my wet clothes to see if I could get them dry while I ate lunch.

dscn5678

The road after lunch took me back towards the hills and into an area of rain forest. I could see why some people regard this part of the coast as the most picturesque as the various trees did combine to paint a very unique and stunning backdrop to my cycle.

dscn5681

dscn5683

After 10 km the forest area abruptly ended and I descended out of the hills onto a coastal plain

dscn5684

The terrain here was pancake flat and the road straight as an arrow.

dscn5686

I still had the wind at my back and this would be my chance to make up for the earlier wash out to the start of the day.

I was now pushing over 30kmph as I kept up a high cadence and pushed on.  The gold town of Ross flashed past and an hour later I was still flying when I came to the town of Hokitika.

I was now back at the coast and cycling next to the beach so pulled over to have a coffee and a snack.

dscn5692

dscn5689

The next town that I hit was Greymouth which is probably the biggest town along the coast and as such had a proper supermarket where I could restock my food supplies. I still had an hour of daylight left by the time that I had finished food shopping and had even treated myself to a steak for dinner.

When I had set off at lunchtime I still had the plan of trying to reach Punakaiki by nightfall and even though the wind and terrain had been so good to me I would be about 20km short of my 150km target by nightfall

As I left Greymouth the road split and I could either head east and over Lewis Pass towards Christchurch or continue north towards Westport.  As there had been a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in New Zealand a few days before the roads to the north of Christchurch were now impassible due to subsidence and severe landslides.  This meant that the only way that I could reach the ferry port of Picton would be to stay on the coast road and cross over the Southern Alps further up.

I checked the map and there was a campsite on the beach in Rapahoe and decided to head there for the night.  As I arrived in the village the sun was just setting and cycled down to the beach to watch it go down.  Luckily for me there was a pub there so I could enjoy a cold beer as the sun descended over the horizon.

20161121_202556
20161121_202818

After watching the sunset I cycled to the campsite to check in but there was a sign on the office saying that the owners didn’t want to be disturbed at night and if you arrived after 7pm to just find somewhere to camp and pay the following morning.

I did just that and then went to cook my steak and potato dinner.  In the kitchen area there was another couple called Bernard and Marina, from Belgium and France respectively, who were also cycling their way up the west coast.  As they were just heading for bed I said that I would catch up with them in the morning before heading off.

After cooking the potatoes my steak was soon sizzling in the pan and it smelt so good.

dscn5698

My wind window was now closed as the forecast was for north westerly winds for the next few days.  It didn’t matter though as I had hit my target and covered nearly 600 km in the last 4 days.  I was now at the top of the west coast and in a day or so I would be turning eastwards back over the Southern Alp Mountains and catching the ferry to Wellington on the North Island.  For now though, I had a fat juicy steak to eat and a cold can of Heineken to wash it down with.

If you would like to automatically receive all future posts straight to your email inbox please just add your details to the form at the foot of this page.

The West Coast of New Zealand
Tagged on:                                         

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *