Well here we go – somehow after two and a half months spent cycling around this magical little place on the other side of the world, we are about to leave! It doesn’t feel long ago at all that we were looking down at Auckland on the short flight from Tasmania – a huge swell of emotion as we descended, nearly nine years after leaving here in 2015.
If you’ve been keeping up with the blog, you’ll know that we have had a truly fantastic time here. Of course it’s not been without challenges – weather (WIND! RAIN! Etc etc), gnarly trails, sometimes highway riding with no shoulder, loss of important personal items, kit wearing out/going wrong and of course low level incessant tiredness from the non-stop excitement of it all…
But it has been truly magical to explore this special place with new eyes, on our bikes, with the benefit of knowing just enough about the place for it to feel ‘easy’, whilst exploring and discovering every day. We’ve reconnected with old friends, been the grateful recipients of humbling generosity and even made new friends. We’ve felt at home, even though we don’t have a home of our own at the moment. We’ve laughed a lot, argued only a moderate amount and eaten so many Abe’s Bagels that we really should get a sponsorship deal (Abe – hopefully you’re reading!)
Leaving will be a big wrench – a now familiar feeling for us throughout this trip. So familiar of course that I think we’ve both learned to accept the sadness of departure as an inherently good thing. As it means that at some point we arrived. And we’re so glad we did.
Achievement unlocked
Before I conclude the emotional goodbyes – I think it’s about time we followed up on the cliffhanger from the last blog (I know you’ve all been on tenterhooks…)
We were eyeing up cycling up and over Danseys Pass – a gravel road going up to just shy of 1,000m, providing us with the opportunity to connect the Otago Central Rail Trail with the Alps2Ocean route.
‘Never in doubt’ (as Matt says, ‘always in doubt’ as I do) – we ‘of course’ ended up having a fantastic day scaling the pass. I’m proud to say that despite the challenge for me of cycling with all of the luggage up and over such a big pass on rough, corrugated gravel… I didn’t need to do any impromptu hiking. Definitely an ‘achievement unlocked’ moment and maybe one of my proudest on the trip so far!
Aside from the sense of accomplishment we both loved the non stop views on the way up and down as well as the opportunity to join up the historic institutions of Danseys Pass Hotel on one side, with the Danseys Pass Holiday Park on the other side. We stayed at the latter for the night and it turned out to be one of our favourite NZ campsites (the beautiful river swimming really was a treat!) We also had a fantastic chat with three young British women partway down our descent (they were cycling up the other way). Totally badass!
Alps2Ocean… or Ocean2Alps?
The Danseys Pass ride was an incredible day in its own right, but the reason for tackling it as mentioned was to join up with our last ‘Great Ride’ in NZ – the Alps2Ocean. A newer route, as the name suggests it connects up the Southern Alps (from Mount Cook, NZ’s highest peak) with the Pacific Ocean. The Danseys Pass road popped us out a little inland and logically our overall route meant that we would need to be cycling ‘upstream’ (like salmon – as Matt says). We were a little concerned this might be very much the ‘wrong’ direction, with a lot of cycling uphill, but as it turns out despite a bit more overall elevation gain than going the opposite way – there were some big benefits, including big views of big mountains as we cycled inland.
We overall loved this ‘last’ trail with Matt’s photos showing off some of the highlights!
We were pretty lucky with the weather too, apart from the day when the wind was gale force from the North (=headwind) so we waited it out at the campground in Kurow. A good call, except for the huge amount of dust which ended up blowing into our tent and onto us, our sleeping bags, pillows etc overnight. We swiftly spent the few dollars to upgrade a basic cabin for the second night which was far far better.
The trail itself ended up including the most technical riding of our time in NZ (and probably our whole trip) – but the rough trail surface was 100% worth it when clinging to the shores of Lake Benmore and cycling up and over Tarnbrae saddle.
We were joined again by quite a few groups cycling in the opposite direction, including lots of e-bikers (many of whom were a little disconcerted/frightened by the tricky sections). One group was led by Will, our WarmShowers host from Uchiko in Japan (what’s the chances?)
It was great to bump into a familiar face on the trail, swiftly followed by bumping into a French couple we had met on the North Island several weeks ago! This was then followed by a (planned) meet-up with Alison and Simon who we stayed with near Motueka, and who were tackling the trail over a few days in the opposite direction to us. We managed to time it to perfection, enjoying a night with them in Twizel (hopefully we didn’t scare them too much with our descriptions of the cycling they had ahead of them!)
That day we had also (also) bumped into Rooven and Lisa, two of our German cycling buddies last seen on the Around the Mountains route. It’s a small world (especially in NZ).
After the social whirl of the trail we enjoyed a last day into Lake Tekapo with incredible views of Mount Cook and the surrounding mountain range.
Tekapo itself has changed a lot since we were last there in January 2015. The campsite still has the same incredible location on the lakefront but is now camping on an industrial scale with endless campervans as far as the eye can see! We still enjoyed our day off though, catching up on laundry and doing an actual hike(!) up Mount John and along the lake short.
Rolling into Christchurch
The day off was also welcome as we planned to do a big day to get us a good chunk of the way to our final NZ destination – Christchurch. This ended up being a 145km road riding epic. Made especially challenging by more headwind for the final 40km. Matt was my human shield and towed me all the way to Mount Somers where we both flopped in a big heap of tiredness for the night!
Our final three days of riding were spent taking the inland scenic driving route across the Rakaia Gorge and then to the outskirts of Christchurch, before adding on an extra bit to revisit the Banks Peninsula for our last night of camping. This was a really special spot – a complete contrast to the industrial camping of Tekapo – we had a forest glade to ourselves.
Our last day’s riding involved somehow getting over the hills into Christchurch itself where we had arranged to stay for a few days with Julie and Ian, our uni friend James’ Mum and Stepdad’s. Somehow harder than it sounds as the road we had originally planned on taking was closed, as was our second option. Which meant Plan C, taking the biggest climb. I wasn’t keen but I was proved completely wrong as the views were stunning, the climbing steady and it was a great way to round off a proper cycling adventure, kiwi style.
Home from home
I must have been tired though as on arrival at Julie and Ian’s house in Christchurch I shed a few big fat tears as Julie showed us our room for our three night stay. Something about the combination of arriving, being given a big hug by a lovely mum and knowing we were soon to leave was all too much.
The tears turned out to be happy ones though as we thoroughly enjoyed our time with the Stewart-Macbeths. Ian and Julie did a big cycle trip when they moved to NZ from the UK 17 years ago so absolutely ‘got’ us and were so generous (especially the Julie-tour of Christchurch on our last day, and even more amazingly Ian sorting us out with bike boxes from the airport!) We couldn’t think of a better way to end our time in the Southern Hemisphere – thank you.
So… what’s next?
Well, I started writing this post at Julie and Ian’s but didn’t quite get to the end (too much chatting, eating, packing and exploring to do!)
I am signing off from the warmth of a stranger’s cabin, somewhere up the West Coast of the USA, sheltering from a rain storm for a couple of nights! We arrived in San Francisco after a thirteen hour flight in the early hours of the morning on 1st March (the same day we departed NZ – it was a loooong day) and are now heading North when the weather allows. Wish us luck!
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