Category Archives: family

bikepacking, bikes, family, MTB, national park, NZ

Half the Heaphy

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Adele lured me back to the West Coast for a few weeks with the promise of different biking and a change from the rather fruitless task of finding a job. The biggest part of the carrot was finally being able to ride the Heaphy Track. For most of the time I’ve been a mountain biking, the name Heaphy has been uttered with mild despair by New Zealand mountain-bikers no longer allowed to ride one of the best multi-day rides in the country. But no more, it is now open to bikes during the off-season.

Running between the north of the west coast of the South Island eastwards through rugged hills and valleys, the route dates from mining in the late nineteenth century – after which it was almost forgotten. In the later part of last century, the track came into use again for hiking/tramping and was also open to mountain-bikes as it was in a forest park. But when the North-West Nelson Forest Park became Kahurangi National Park in the mid-nineties, the mountain-bikers were shut out – much to their chagrin. But while I was living overseas, a trial was started allowing bikes on one of New Zealand’s Great Walks in the off-season (May to September) – a lot like how bikes are allowed on the Queen Charlotte Walkway. The trial was obviously successful as it’s now a permanent arrangement. Fantastic!

As Adele has work commitments, unlike James and me, the plan was to drive early Saturday morning to remote Karamea (the west end of the trail) and then catch a light plane with our bikes to the other end of the trail and ride the almost-fifty miles/eighty kilometres back to the car over two days – staying at a hut somewhere in the middle, Saturday night. This was also to be the first time Adele and James had been bikepacking – exciting! Despite the good weather forecast, it was not to be – when we arrived in Karamea it was decidedly wet with very low cloud. The plane couldn’t land – so we adjourned for bacon and eggs while we waited to see what the weather would do. Well fueled by second breakfast, it was now obvious a plane wasn’t coming to get us and we couldn’t be sure one would bring us back Sunday afternoon if we decided to ride the route west to east.

Plans amended consequently, we drove to the trailhead at Kohaihai, sorted our gear out and rode off late-morning into the rain. Immediately crossing the Kohaihai river on the first of many substantial bridges, the route climbed up to Kohaihai Saddle to avoid the cliff-lined coast. That first hill done, it was down to Scott’s Beach as James and Adele got used to riding mountain-bikes while wearing heavy hiking packs. The forest right down to the beach was impressive, but as the drizzle continued to fall we weren’t too interested in sticking around to look at the grey sea. While overall the trail was flat, there were sufficient short ups and downs to keep it interesting.

Quite surprised to bump in to Garry and cohorts riding out the way we had just came, we stopped for a brief chat in the rain. NZ is so small – here unbeknownst to us was a man far from home (as I was too). One of Adele’s previous rural medical teachers and colleagues I’d met him on adventures earlier in the year and then again as he was one of Adele’s teammates on that crazy Godzone adventure race in March. Not quite a bizarre as bumping into your Kiwi third (or fourth, I forget) cousin in a Tuscan village – but odd all the same.

With the tide far enough out, there was a short section on a beach – avoiding the high-tide alternative track.

Plenty of stream and river crossings gave opportunities to emerge from the trees into the rain.

Eventually, it stopped raining – about the time we reached the Heaphy River mouth and our lunch stop at Heaphy Hut.

With tasty, tasty salami and cheese ciabattas fuelling us, we set off inland. The section along the river flats beside the Heaphy was initially through more large groves of nikau palms before winding its way through stands of large native trees – rimu, rata and kahikatea. We eventually crossed the Heaphy on what is apparently the largest swing bridge DOC (Department of Conservation – responsible for much public land in NZ and the associated facilities) has ever built. Almost a hundred and fifty metres long, it is obviously built for when the river is in flood. It looked like most of the bridges have been upgraded recently, possibly for bikes – they are superb and easy to ride across. The one remaining wire-decked swing-bridge looked like hard work for James & his unloaded bike. I couldn’t even get my loaded bike up the ramp, so found it easier just to ride across the stream and risk wet feet.

Adele crossing the Heaphy.

Reaching Lewis Hut the flat coastal riding was done and we began a steady climb to James McKay hut. Generally it’s a very easy climb, taking eleven kilometres to ascend almost seven-hundred metres, but it’s a bit steeper at the start. The track is generally wide and the only really technical parts are some of the frequent, rocky, creek crossings. It was warm work, and some of us were down to short-sleeves before, and even when, the drizzle came back. DOC is working hard to upgrade the surface. If we’d been a week later, I’m told, they’d be finished and we would have missed the in-progress stretches of hundreds of metres of slick mud. This made it tough going at times for our little group, but I found it mostly rideable – even with a rather lightweight rear tyre.

It was with some relief we saw the marker indicating only two kilometres remained until we reached our destination for the night – James Mackay Hut. This was also about the time it started to rain again, albeit lightly. Due to rare wildlife living in the area, kiwi and giant carnivorous land snails (! – I didn’t see one, but saw some of their old shells – disturbingly large), one is not allowed to ride the trail at night – so we had to be at the hut before nightfall.

It’s a pretty damp climate with plenty of interesting flora and fauna.

After one final slog atop the slick and muddy track, we made it to the hut easily before five o’clock – not bad considering the late start. This was where we had intended to stay originally – but approaching from the other end of the track. It’s very weird turning up at such a palatial back-country DOC hut and finding it only contains mountain-bikers. What’s more, in the middle of nowhere it has bike-racks and even a bike wash stand (much needed)! Having cleaned our bikes, we went inside to find the coal range roaring and even such things as basic electric lighting, gas cooking, running water and flush toilets – luxury. Being such a new hut, it is very good and has wonderful facilities – but does lack in character.

It turns out large groups of mountain-bikers have very poor hut etiquette, being generally loud through the night – walking/stomping around, talking loudly, and getting up at four o’clock to shovel coal noisily (who does that?). Thankfully, they were gone by the leisurely hour we got up, had breakfast, packed up, talked bikes and brevets (I even got an unexpected handshake for completing the Kiwi Brevet – I was quietly chuffed) with the other more considerate mountain-bikers. With slightly better weather, we could see all the way down to the Tasman Sea and the mouth of the Heaphy.

Looking all the way back down to where we’d been for lunch the previous day.

Bike racks and wash area – at a hut, wow!

Although it was mid-morning by the time we set-off back down the hill, it was quite chilly and we got a little wet from the spray off the muddy surface. While much easier to ride through the mud assisted by gravity, it still had its tricky moments.

Adele enjoying the downhill – possibly this was before she fell off the side of a bridge, but it’s hard to tell as she’s always got a smile on her face.

While waiting for Adele, James and I tried talking to the friendly locals. This robin was particularly curious, and the many fantails we saw elsewhere were super inquisitive.

The ride out being the same way we rode in is thankfully much shorter to describe, but with much improved weather we saw so much more – and there was an eleven kilometre downhill too! Thankfully, the lack of rain meant I could get my camera out a bit more and I had plenty of time to take photos as well.

Occasionally there were glimpses of the Heaphy River – but annoyingly there were no great lookout spots on the way down.

Looking east up a tributary of the Heaphy – some good limestone cliffs to on the right.

After a rapid pace on the flats back to Heaphy Hut we got strangely hot – a good time for lunch; the nikau palms began to reappear also.

With lunch done, it was only sixteen kilometres back to the trailhead mostly following the coast. It’s a great fun trail and I was expecting to enjoy it more in the dry – it had dried out well since the previous morning. I was not expecting to be so blown away by the scenery – it all seemed so foreign to New Zealand. Apart from the temperature (which was mild), I could have easily believed we were riding alongside tropical rainforest on an island somewhere – perhaps in the Caribbean. The beaches were gorgeous, the surf was wild and the palm groves – wow.

Over the last saddle separating Scott’s Beach from Kohaihai, we enjoyed the final downhill back to the car and the end of our little adventure. I’m pretty sure Adele & James enjoyed their first bikepacking experience – we may not have gone that far, but there was so much to see. Now that all the bikes are cleaned of the grit and mud and all the washing is done, I’m waiting for a two-day window in the weather so I can ride the whole trail. I’m not hopeful, but if the eastern end is anywhere near as scenic as the part we rode it must be quite something.

bikes, family, MTB, roadtrip

West Coast Week

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Probably coming close to doubling the amount of time I’ve spent on the West Coast ever, it was a great week exploring various parts of the area previously unseen by me. Unfortunately Adele had to work for most of our stay – that after all being the whole reason she is there – but at least there was a long weekend in there to enjoy together. Activities were varied for the week, hopefully James enjoyed having a few extra people around during the working week – at least, he was pretty easy to persuade to go mountain-biking with.

First up we headed up to the Denniston Plateau, an old coal mining area just north east of Westport. Considering its proximity to town it was remarkably remote – helped by the very steep hill we had to drive up to get onto the plateau. We timed our ride well and didn’t get wet at all as we explored a loop, recommended by the local bike shop, taking in part of the trail network up there. It was a great fun loop with a variety of trail surfaces that seemed to change in an instant. From bog standard gravel road, to smooth almost-slickrock double track to quite rocky singletrack. Well worth the drive up and with a few decent little pinch climbs to keep us honest.

At times the trail got rocky, narrow and steep.

I’ve not seen such an interesting sign-in hut before – this for the coal mine just down the road.

Back near the car, I couldn’t resist poking around some of the old mine buildings long since abandoned. These, below, near the powerhouse and changehouse. A little bit down the hill we found the main historic displays detailing working in the various mines and life in such a wet and isolated place as the company town must have been. We also happened across Mum & Dad out exploring a bit; unfortunately the cloud and rain really rolled in, so I abandoned a scheme to ride down the closed bridle track to sea-level.

The next day’s ride was a stunner on the Old Ghost Road – which is not quite completed; even so, there’s more than enough there for its own post.

The warm sunny weather persisted, much to our surprise and pleasure (the West Coast is notorious for its rainfall), into Friday. With a day off the bikes, James & Dad headed out for a round of golf while Mum & I took the drive south to Cape Foulwind. It was a much better visit that the one twenty years previous – where both of us were completely overcome with hayfever and remember little else. The beach and coast was looking fantastic and we spent some time watching the seals basking in the sunshine or playing in various rocky pools.

Spot the seals and rocks.

Friday evening walk on the beach and sundowners.

Saturday the weather turned somewhat, but we were keen for a day out to Reefton. Somehow we got our three mountain bikes on and in the Vitara and the five of us piled in for the hour drive south-east. Bikes assembled, we rode from town to do the Murray Creek Circuit that had been given four stars in the most recent edition of the NZ MTBing bible – which interestingly uses a scale of zero to four. We would have liked to do a bigger ride, but didn’t want to keep Mum & Dad waiting too long.

Leaving the highway after a couple of kilometres, it was a steady climb through beautiful native forest beside the creek passing various mining relics and even an old town site – Cementown, one of the more boring names for a town possible. It got a bit muggy at times as we were surrounded by all the trees keeping the moisture in. For most of the climb we followed an old road from gold-mining days that was still a good wide and even surface.

Opting for the singletrack route, we continued climbing as we turned left at Waitahu Junction back towards town. It was a rare point when the thick canopy of trees opened enough to look down on the view below – this down to the Waitahu River:

The track narrowed and soon it became apparent we were on some new singletrack. Around the time we were passing the last gold mines (well the head of the shafts – a look at a plan on a signboard showed that the hill was riddled with various mines off two deep vertical shafts) the trail became really quite good. There wasn’t a lot of overall altitude gain or loss for a while and trail was lush – there was one point where they’d worked really hard to put some tight switchbacks in, much too steep and compact for me to climb. With littles bits where one still had to work hard to crest a rise, it was a good mixture with the flowing singletrack. I was disappointed when the trail became gravel closer to town – even if it was still fun.

Reefton looking pretty much as it is – small and surrounded by hills and native forest.

Back in town to savour a fun little ride and eat lunch, we loaded up again and headed out to Waiuta. I’d never heard of Waiuta until the Kiwi Brevet earlier in the year and was then disappointed I didn’t have time to stop as I rode past and into my favourite part of the entire brevet course – the Big River Trail. Once a company town for yet another gold mine, this one lasting about fifty years; Waiuta went into decline in the fifties after the mine closed. I thought the rest of the family would enjoy going up to this remote corner of the country and enjoy poking around what is left. I think I was right, even if it made for a long day by the time we got back to Westport.

Sunday the weather proper rolled in and was quite wild. But that didn’t put us off driving south along the coast to harvest large mussels (Adele & James had been talking of them for a while) off the rocks at low-tide. Unfortunately, with the stormy weather the tide wasn’t quite as low as it might have been on a calm day – but how wet we got was worth it for this rather large pan filled with fresh mussels, white wine, butter and garlic. It’s even better considering Adele doesn’t like mussels, so there were more for the rest of us.

The Charming Creek ride/walk was reported as being beautiful by Adele & James – following an old river-side railway through tunnels, over swing bridges, beside huge native trees and past, once again, old mining equipment. I decided to ride, naturally, while Mum, Dad & Adele walked on the public holiday Monday. While happy to walk and ride in the rain, we didn’t factor in the cumulative rainfall over the previous day or so.

The river was absolutely raging and the trail wet under wheel (so much so, that I put my over-trousers on to keep the spray from my wheels away). All that wasn’t much of a problem, but the number of waterfalls seen became an issue when I emerged from a tunnel to find a torrent of water dumping right on to the trail. I pondered awhile – it didn’t take long to see that I’d be absolutely soaked trying to pass under it or, worse, swept into the river. Not keen on either outcome, it was disappointing but prudent to turn around after only two and a half kilometres. That trail will have to keep for another visit.

That was about our stay in Westport – most enjoyable, there’s so much to do and still left to explore. One just needs to be able to time outdoor activities with the famed rain to make the most of it. Tuesday Mum, Dad & I left for home down the West Coast. It sure is a long, & at times slow, drive to Haast. It’s definitely just short of twenty years since I’ve been down that way, so we stopped to look at some of the more famous sights – the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki and a brief glance at Fox Glacier.

It’s a long time since I’ve seen so much flax in one spot.

The wild West Coast – a whole lot less wild than the previous two days.

There definitely isn’t a lot to do in Haast Township of a cold, dark evening – but that didn’t matter as we were exhausted from the slow and winding drive. The whitebait was excellent.

Following day we set off for home to complete our little road-trip.

Over Haast Pass and away from the West Coast, the rain was gone and the sun was out.

Not a bad spot for lunch, near Bannockburn.

Aus, bikepacking, bikes, family, friends, NZ, travel

Visiting long-neglected friends & family

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Returning from Wanaka and Queenstown, it wasn’t long before confirmation of a job interview in the North Island finally came through. As I had to be near Auckland for a wedding at Easter there wasn’t much point in coming back in between, so a three week trip up north was hastily booked and all of a sudden I was back visiting familiar faces and places.

The nights either side of the interview I was pleased to back at one of my favourite places – Lake Tarawera – visiting Bron & Terry. Among the numerous improvements since my last visit, there’s now a spa pool at the edge of the lawn. The view has always been spectacular – it’s even better from a hot-tub.

It wasn’t too bad in the morning either!

Straight after the interview, I drove to the Redwoods, got changed out of my suit in the car & pulled my bike out for a ride around one of the most popular riding destinations in the country. Surprised by all the development at the parking lot, I did a route I regularly did before I left. I must be an awful lot fitter or my memory is fading – it didn’t take nearly as long as I remember. These trails were feeling pretty worn in places – I’m sure I’d have had more fun if I was on a more trail-oriented bike or chosen new trails.

Still, I got to ride this classic – which I never get tired of, even after twenty years.

Back to Auckland, there was time to drop the rental car off and bike across Auckland for the first time before catching up with and baby-sitting for Shelley and Andrew & family. Before noon the next day I was in Parramatta ready to see my grandfather for the first time since November 2008. In that time, dementia has well and truly set in (much as it did for my grandmother in the years before her death) so I had some idea of what to expect. I was pleased to find Grandad a lot more cheerful than he could have been, even if any sort of short to medium term memory has pretty much gone.

While most of my time was spent at my grandparents’ house, that’s now usually unoccupied and hasn’t changed much in my life and I suspect since it was built in the mid-sixties, there were a few pleasant day-trips around the city. Unfortunately, I’m pretty useless at taking photos in Sydney as I’ve been visiting since I was eight months old. But here are some token ones.

A day trip to Manly with Valerie – mostly on the Rivercat and the Manly ferry.

A great day catching up with Kiwi cousin Chris, who I last saw before he left London in mid-2011. $2 all-day public transport on a Sunday – brilliant. My first visit to Watsons Bay and the south head of the entrance to the harbour.

Back in Auckland, I had arrived in time to watch the thrilling cricket semi-final between South Africa and New Zealand – with Eden Park just down the road from Andrew & Shelley’s we could hear the cheers for each wicket and boundary, not to mention the fireworks. With not much sleep after that excitement and the change in time-zone, I headed off on a little bikepacking tour.

Much more than usual, the cycling was a means to an end. Being so, the riding on roads I’ve been familiar with my whole life was pretty boring. The riding highlights were cycle trail through the Karangahake Gorge (especially the over-a-kilometre long tunnel) and riding back past Kawakawa Bay. But the general tedium of the riding was more than made up for by catching up with so many people that are dear to me – plus meeting all the new offspring, I think there were six in various homes.

Back in Auckland for a couple of nights there was the chance to see a few more people and try to fly kites at a local park and all of a sudden I was in Waiuku, within sight of the steel mill, and with more old friends. But that was nothing compared to the Easter weekend to come.

For Luke and Anna’s wedding a lot of us stayed at Castaways at Karioitahi Beach. I’d only visited this beach once while I lived in Pukekohe, and never Castaways – what a great venue. Quality accommodation and the views up and down the beach and over the Tasman were fantastic. Anna being the eldest daughter of the family in whose home my sister, Adele (who was one of the bridesmaids), and I spent so much time  growing up in Te Puke – there were many familiar faces. The wedding was absolutely lovely and we all had a lot of fun. About half of those at the wedding stayed the three nights after, so there were many good times together over barbecues, on the beach (I even tried to explain making steel from the sand to a seven year old, I’m not sure that was successful), some mountain-biking at my old local trail and more good food.

I even got an unplanned trip back to Te Puke in when Kathryn (Anna’s eldest sister) needed help moving furniture from Auckland before jetting off to live in the UK. Muggins me had nothing better to do, so I was happy to help a little and go for a fun little road-trip.

Back in Auckland it was a beautiful day for a trip out to Waiheke Island to visit a Pukekohe riding buddy (we’ve both obviously moved since then). The riding was nice and the beer and hospitality so good, I crashed in the guest room before heading back to town on the ferry with a whole lot of commuters the next morning.

This ferry trip from Queen’s Wharf has many similarities with leaving Circular Quay in Sydney.

Catching up with more friends over the course of the day, and continuing to indulge in the now-in-season feijoas, it was a big day in which I still managed to pack up my bike and everything else I’d been dragging around for the last three weeks. It’s nice to be home now, but it’s so much more autumn-like down here unfortunately. Perhaps that’ll give me time and motivation to try a little harder to find a job…

bikes, family, MTB, NZ

Godzone following around Southern Lakes

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Adele, in a moment of madness, had managed to get herself into a team of four doing the Godzone adventure race around Wanaka at the start of March. I was very happy to go and spend ten or so days around the Southern lakes running errands, cooking meals, & providing support when needed – not to mention fitting in a fair bit of riding and visiting family. With the 550 km course requiring teams to hike, mountain-bike, kayak, canoe, cross a glacier, swim and complete an orienteering course (with no specified rest periods) there was an awful lot of preparation to be done and gear to be packed in various boxes and packs.

My first ride of the week took me up to Sticky Forest – a maze of singletrack close to Wanaka. It was OK, but I bored of trying to find good trails to ride using a five year old map (this somehow is the latest version) that is quite inaccurate. When I stumbled across a guy from Washington (state) similarly confused by the map, it didn’t take much to convince him to go & ride the wonderful Dean’s Bank trail. A pleasant morning out around the edges of Lake Wanaka.

Somehow after running a few errands for Adele, I still had masses of energy to burn so headed out for an evening ride on the Millennium Trail clockwise around the lake to Glendhu Bay. A wonderfully formed shared trail around the edge of the lake, it was pretty much deserted at that time of the day. There are quite a few steep bits of the trail – but these were good to get a bit of elevation above the lake to look out over it to the mountains. Another beautiful ride on a very still evening.

Not much was required of us during the day, Friday, so it was time for James & I check out another cycle trail to another lake. This time we were off to Lake Hawea – although we first had to skirt Lake Wanaka on the Outlet Trail before crossing the Hawea River and following the true-left bank to the lake. Being beside another river, there’s not a lot of climbing for the length of the trail – that is, until you get to the dam near the lake and there’s a fair hill to get up to overlook the lake. Which is of course another great view.

The Hawea River has specially constructed whitewater features in it for kayakers – we spotted a couple of surfers giving it a go.

Back in town by early afternoon there was plenty of time for a trip to the store to prepare for the final supper for the team – not to mention all the many snacks for an afternoon on the balcony overlooking the lake & watching the cricket. The team had finished all their packing and dropped their bike boxes and transition zone boxes off at Race HQ and came around for their last cooked meal until the race finished – a big barbecue. With the weather forecast for the coming week looking rather dire in the mountains, chatter around the dinner table was sparse as the team nervously contemplated the many possibilities of the huge week ahead.

It was early to bed for them as they had to meet for the race in the wee hours of the morning before being taken on buses to a community hall at Hawea, where they would receive maps and compulsory check-points’ positions for the first part of the race. Until then, the race course had remained Wanaka’s best kept secret and the source of much speculation. For those of us that didn’t get up at three o’clock, the day dawned just as miserably – it didn’t look like it was going to be a fun day in the mountains.

The excellent tracking component of the Godzone website went live when the race started at eight o’clock and the route for the whole week was also up – we could begin to appreciate a little, just what a mammoth challenge this race would be. Even the first hike up to the Brewster Glacier sounded awful in the rain; the weather was so bad that the walk across the glacier was cancelled for all teams. I headed for Queenstown to stay with cousins for a few days – I was thankful for the comfort and dryness of a car to get there.

The day was nicer in Queenstown & I enjoyed catching up with David & Mary after many years, and also watching a rather memorable NZ vs Aus cricket match.

Our obsession with following the race increased steadily throughout the week as the we watched the tracking dots move around the course (each team carried a GPS transponder that usually sent out their position every fifteen minutes, which was then posted on the website) and followed the news feed on the website. The top teams were alarmingly fast, while those further back in the field – well, we could only imagine the ordeal of coping with the course & weather and lack of sleep & proper food and will them on. The weather Sunday & Monday was much improved in Queenstown, so it was ideal for me to go for a much easier bike ride.

I realised I could use The Queenstown Trail (yet another part of the NZ Cycle Trail that I’ve now ridden recently) to get to Arrowtown and then ride to the historic gold-mining settlement of Macetown up in the hills. I quickly discovered The Queenstown Trail is an absolutely brilliant facility in the area – just in case it needed more attractions. Following the Kawarau, Shotover and then Arrow rivers on the wide easy trail, I was comfortably in Arrowtown in an hour and a half.

Just after I started to Macetown, the sun came out and the day began to warm up. Which was just as well as it seems as that trail spends most of its time underwater! I forded the Arrow River fifty times that day – mostly it was hub deep and I was pleased to have big wheels and be able to ride all but two of the crossings. But that didn’t stop my feet being dunked on most of those crossings. Quickly I passed the tourists, and even some locals, panning for gold and there were few other people to see for the rest of the day. After staying at the bottom of the river valley for a little while, the trail climbed up in the hills to get above a dam and waterfall before rejoining the river as it came around a ninety degree bend in the valley.

At Macetown, I found very little to look at – but one could appreciate just how remote the area was and wonder what it was like to live such an isolated life in the late nineteenth century in pursuit of gold. I turned and headed back down the valley and through the river as the day still warmed – I passed many more people riding up to Macetown now that it was just after noon.

Arrowtown was hopping when I rode back through, so quickly passed through before heading out to the original & iconic bungy-jumping bridge over the Kawarau for the extra time and miles on the bike.

Monday was forecast to get wet in the afternoon, so it was another morning departure on The Queenstown Trail – this time through Queenstown itself and then further around Lake Wakatipu before finding the singletrack up towards picturesque Moke Lake. Unfortunately, the singletrack doesn’t go all the way & I joined the gravel road and a very strong headwind. In the cloud, the lake wasn’t as pretty as normal – but with the hills around, still picturesque.

Leaving Moke Lake, there was a climb through farm land and then a steep drop to Lake Dispute (one wonders what the dispute was) and then some wonderful singletrack (Phoenix Trail) back to the main road.

Wednesday, I was even more glued to the team’s progress on the race as more and more teams were retiring or continuing unranked after receiving assistance (three teams managed to hike up the wrong valley for hours without realising it, two of those eventually being helicoptered out). After over thirty-four hours hiking and only sleeping a few hours on the second night (no sleep on the first night!), a nice canoe followed by a horrid hypothermic swim, they were on a mountain-bike stage from west of Wanaka, up onto the Garvies and Pisa ranges before passing right past David & Mary’s house.

While I waited, I went for a short walk to the grocery store – The Remarkables were looking just that.

Progress must have been horribly slow, as I waited to be able to ride the last part of the leg with the team my predictions of when I should set off kept being pushed out as they just never got any sort of prolonged speed up. Preparing myself for a night ride, I eventually went to bed and woke every hour or so to check progress. They’d obviously decided to sleep before they got close the to the trail I’d ridden on Sunday; but only an hour or so of sleep was taken before they were on the move again – I was up at five to eat and get ready for a bit of night-riding.

Meeting the team in the dark near the airport, they seemed remarkably chipper. Apparently that was all a front as they battled desperately to stay awake on the bike and keep what they were seeing grounded in reality. They were happy to get all the race gossip I could pass on – as the field had really spread over the almost-two days they were on this MTB leg (!), they had little idea of how everyone else was getting on. Eventually, the day dawned as we went around the lake – the pace was understandably slow and there were frequent stops for snacks.

Finally, after forty-three hours the bikes could be packed in their boxes for a while and the team got ready for the kayak to Kingston at the southern tip of the lake. Missing the 2 a.m. deadline by about six and a half hours, the team was now on the short course (this cut out the last hike, the orienteering course and modified the second bike leg significantly) along with many other teams. Actually, the course and the weather were so demanding that two teams that made the cut-off by a matter of minutes elected to do the short course so that they would finish without assistance.

Slowly packing up the bikes and getting ready for the first kayaking stage.

And off again – this a relatively short leg, only six and a quarter hours…

I set off back home to pack up and return to Wanaka so as to meet the team later the following day as they were due to ride through the night back to Wanaka and get back in the kayaks for final stage on Lake Wanaka. As I did so, the morning cloud burnt off and I was treated to some wonderful views over Wakatipu.

With an enforced six-hour stand down at Kingston (the re-routed bike ride through the Nevis was on a lot of public roads, so the organisers didn’t want ultra-tired competitors weaving in front of traffic), the team got plenty of sleep (probably as much as they’d had over the previous four nights!) before heading out on the bikes late evening Wednesday. Keeping an eye on the dots, I set off mid-afternoon on yet another new-since-I’ve-been-away cycle trail, the Upper Clutha River Trail, to meet the team as they battled a nasty nor-wester from Cromwell to Wanaka.

Hanging around a bit at the start of the Newcastle Trail (down the other side of the river back to Albert Town) that the teams were taking towards the last transition at Dublin Bay, I snacked and checked the teams’ progress along the left side of the Clutha. Realising I was far enough ahead of the team, I headed along a rather boring sealed road towards them with a nice tailwind – travel in the opposite direction can’t have been nice, as I was about to find out.

I think they were pleased to see me as the battled against the wind – at least I hope so, after yet another over-a-day long leg. Even I might be sick of riding a bike after sixty-two hours over three days. Finally, it was off the road onto the Newcastle Trail – but I don’t remember much of it, as I tried to chat away without getting in the way. News begin to filter through that the final leg was beginning to be shortened as high winds had tipped some of the kayakers out of their boats on the far side of the lake. I left the team to ride Dean’s Bank & on through to the lake as I nipped back to town to down dinner, as I’d no idea how long before they’d be at the finish (due to ever-shortening kayak leg).

With a careful eye on the tracking, it became clear that the kayak was being shortened extensively. In the end, only a handful of teams did the full leg, with most after them only having to go to one of the six checkpoints, significantly shortening the watery ordeal. At as soon as the team were in the water, it became clear from their tracker that they had been instructed to miss all checkpoints and just paddle for home around the point into town. So I hussled down to the finish line to meet the weary souls.

And here they are, crossing the finish line – what an effort & achievement. Five days, fourteen hours and thirty seven minutes of a difficult course and rather horrid weather.

The team finished twenty-seventh in the end, a slight improvement on their position for most of the race. To illustrate just how tough it was, of the fifty-two teams on the leaderboard – only thirty-two completed without assistance. Of those, only fourteen did the full course! Well done Rachel, Jeremy, Garry & Adele. With celebratory beer, pies, hot chocolate & scones (some supporters are so much better than I am) I ferried the team back to the team house where Claire (Jeremy’s wife) had a big roast in the oven (like I said, some supporters are awesome).

Having to get out of the house where were staying Friday morning, it was a quick clean before we headed back to Queenstown for a couple of days of rest and relaxation and food. What a fantastic week following such a mad event; I briefly caught adventure race fever, but simply following it was exhausting enough for me.