Category Archives: NZ
Settling In – Napier
It’s a little strange going back to work after a year, but not too much of a shock really. After a good few months of looking for a suitable job, I took one as a process engineer at a pulp mill just north of Napier (in the Hawke’s Bay region – east coast of the North Island). The company just happens to own the mountain-bike park next door, so that’s quite attractive; also the commute by bike is a pretty good one (a bit flat, but very scenic around the bay) – I’ve ridden to & from work five days out of the two weeks so far.
There’s plenty to learn and discover – so many new faces at work, yet another new process to get my head around, and a whole new city and surrounds. I get the impression that the area was one of the first in the country to set up a rather extensive network of cycle trails – so I’ve done a bit of riding on those visiting the few people I know in the area, as I try to familiarise myself with my new home.
Speaking of new homes, I move into a share-house tomorrow and will keep my eye on the market for a suitable house to buy. I’m starting to get a idea of where I’d like to buy and what I would like in a house – so it’ll just be a case of waiting for something suitable to come along.
With all that going on, I’ve not done anything terribly exciting – but have ridden around a bit in the sun (for the middle of winter, it’s shockingly warm compared to what I’m used to) and taken the odd photo. So that’s about all I have to share.
Looking around the Bay from outside the motel work put me in for my first two weeks – very handy. That’s pretty much half of my commute around there – tough alright.
Looking over to Mahia Peninsula and the top of Hawke Bay.
Port Napier (from which our pulp is exported) and the only hill in Napier – this end is called Bluff Hill, the other (out of shot) – Hospital Hill.
Looking south from the hill over Napier and on to Cape Kidnappers – the southern most part of Hawke Bay.
Over Ahuriri Estuary at dusk – on the other side of the motel.
The public space along the Pacific waterfront is rather long – this a small part near the centre of the city.
In this part is also the much-photographed statue of Pania of the Reef.
Another view from Bluff Hill over Marine Parade.
A cathedral apparently – a bit different to those I’m more used to.
The Six Sisters – also on Marine Parade – remind me of being in San Francisco for some reason.
Farewell South Island
With the gradual erosion of my bank account balances, a suitable opportunity to rejoin the workforce was most welcome. As such, since I got the phone call offering me a job on the last day of the June sojourn to the West Coast, July was rather quiet as I sorted details and prepared for the move north. There definitely was not much biking as a rather frigid few weeks set in and I couldn’t get motivated to re-ride gravel roads that were no longer new to me. But there was plenty more to do and think about.
Having been back in NZ for eight months, it was bigger trips away that got more coverage here. Understandably too, as there were a fair few highlights there – mostly notable surviving the 2015 Kiwi Brevet (1150 km around the top of the South Island was a great re-introduction to NZ); the big training rides for the brevet; a couple of trips to the North Island with short bike tours, a fantastic wedding, and visiting family & friends; a quick trip to Sydney to see family; and two trips to Westport to see Adele in her new home (the Heaphy Trail was the highlight of the riding). But the time, between those trips, with Mum & Dad in their new home was just as good – plenty to do and many places to explore.
The local beach, a short distance from home, was always good for a walk in the, frequent, sun.
Waikouaiti Beach
Further around the beach towards to estuary mouth
Out on my twenty kilometre loop – looking out across Waikouaiti and Hawkesbury Lagoon and over the Pacific.
As I trained a little bit for the Brevet, my eyes turned to the myriad of gravel roads slightly inland. I was surprised by the quality of the gravel road riding out there – wonderful scenery and pretty much deserted too.
Out riding in the hills of coastal East Otago.
At the end of one of my favourite gravel roads to ride, a station – remove a letter and you can anagram my name.
Looking over Karitane village to Waikouaiti Beach.
There was even the odd local event to go along to, sit in the sun and drink wine at.
A day at the local races.
My twenty kilometre loop came over that saddle and was a great rush down that hill.
The facilities are looking a little long in the tooth.
Another recurring route on the bike was north to Palmerston, avoiding the highway, and then on past Trotters Gorge to Moeraki.
On one of the few trips to the fishing village of Moeraki – where there is a uncanningly fantastic restaurant, with plenty of seafood, naturally.
The decor is somewhat eclectic – this historic hand-drier reminding me of Polimeri (my workplace in the UK actually still had these!).
Now that Mum & Dad have a much bigger section there was always plenty to do around home – particularly outside. I went a little way towards earning my keep by washing the exterior of the house, repeatedly mowing the lawns, replacing paving stones, picking apples & pears, carting & stacking dry firewood, and finally by wielding a chainsaw an awful lot cutting trees down & into burnable pieces. The weather often played fair and it was always nice to be outside – even on those crisp days close to freezing.
It looks a little different now that winter has arrived and many of the trees have been dealt to by a chainsaw to let some more light in.
So a great few months at home spending time with Mum & Dad. Nice to have that time before I dive into seeing if I can get used to a life that will be more settled &, dare I say it, normal than the preceding six years. We’ll see.
Lake Christabel turnaround
I’m unsure who was more excited – Adele to take two novices for an overnight hike (tramp in the local parlance) or Fiona to go on said hike. It assuredly was not me – but I was more than happy to go along for a walk, at the very least there would be a whole lot less cleaning afterwards than after a West Coast winter mountain-bike ride. We set off early Saturday morning east through the Buller Gorge and carried on past Reefton as dawn marched on.
Adele had chosen a route that would take us from the Lewis Pass highway (just short of Maruia Springs), up besides Rough Creek and on to the tops before descending to the overnight hut at Lake Christabel Hut (which is actually a mile short of the lake), before walking out to Palmer Rd. As such, we had to leave a car at the end of our planned walk – we discovered it really was quite cold out, as all the short wooden bridges on this rural road were iced over.
Nonetheless, car shuffle done we set off alongside Rough Creek. Quickly, it became obvious that the creek was not the only rough feature around – the trail was mostly unformed and soon started steeply climbing the hill over a lot of tree roots and moss.
The sun made a brief appearance in the sky – some of its light even filtered through the canopy.
The route flattened out a bit as we walked beside and through/over the river for a while.
While we were still well below the tree line, we started to come across patches of snow – a somewhat worrying sign for walking over the tops.
We made good time to the tree line and started tracking our way through a good half-foot of snow to get a view of where the snow-poles would lead us. Visibility had decreased, but we could make out a few poles in front of us – as it wasn’t windy or miserable we decided to push on. The snow deepened – generally about knee high, occasionally I post-holed to my waist when I was making tracks. We were glad to have a hiking pole each – just as well someone thought to bring those .
There’s a pole! Go over there. About half-way up Adele took the lead through the steeper terrain, I had it easy at the back for a while.
Reaching the saddle (we’d climbed about 900 metres in four kilometres – a bit more than I’m used to), we turned to see cloud filling the valley we’d walked up.
Venturing just over the saddle, Adele suddenly found it very icy and compacted. We were unprepared for such conditions, with no crampons or ice-axes (and Fiona & I have no real experience in using such things). The ice patch was likely not that large, but it wasn’t a risk worth taking – so we turned and headed back down the hill. I’m sure I’ve said before, I loathe prolonged walking downhill – especially with a large pack – it just hurts and there’s no challenge or enjoyment in it. Thankfully we made it back to the car safely – which is no mean feat considering the number of small falls Fiona and I had on the slippery route/roots back down.
So for the second time this year, due to adverse conditions I found myself staying at the rather bizarre Alpine Motor Inn & Cafe at Springs Junction – a place I didn’t even know existed last year. I think I even had the same burger – it was just as large and somewhat weird (probably due to the hash-brown). Grateful for a roof overhead (it was cheaper than huts on the Heaphy) – it was just as well we had our sleeping bags as the only heater in the room shone like a small star, so had to be turned off at night. The provided linen would have been OK, perhaps, in summer. A memorable and perversely fun place to stay, if only for odd reasons – including the mountain stream that the stone-walled building was built into, it reminded me of being in European mountain villages.
Sunday was a much more leisurely day – mostly because we didn’t take loaded overnight packs on a day walk and the terrain and trail was much friendlier. Also, hot pools! Just past Lewis Pass is the northern trailhead of the St James Walkway – a sixty-six, five day hike. We walked the first hour or so until we got a decent view of Cannibal Gorge (a literal name, unfortunately) and then stopped for a snack before returning to the shelter at the start of the trail – where (royal) we cooked and feasted on Pad Thai (meant to be the previous night’s hut-dinner), yum.
A pretty little walk, I don’t think it even rained and considering the snow and ice around – not too cold for wearing shorts either. With all this extra time, we went and soaked in the Maruia Hot Springs. I’ve driven past here a few times in the last few months – considering it’s in the middle of nowhere, it rather odd it is so Japanese-spa themed. Nice all the same.