#travel #adventure #newzealand

Well….leaving Christchurch turned out to be more of an adventure than we had planned. We’d been on the road less than an hour before the dashboard on Harvey (the RV) lit up like a Christmas tree, we pulled off the main highway in to a side road in a town called Amberley, and turned him off, gave it a few minutes and tried to start him up again. No luck. We then spent the next few hours trying to get him on the road again, bloke grabbed his bike and rode off in search of some help from the local garage and returned with a set of jump leads, having been told by all three garages that they couldn’t help us out until Monday at the earliest, it was Friday afternoon. Fortunately we were parked up outside a house with pick up parked on the drive and bloke went off in search of the owner to get a jump start. The guy turned out to be an absolute star. He’s name was John and he went out of he’s way to getting us going again, he even lent us his battery out of his pick up to be able to drive to a garage. To cut a long story short, Harvey needed a new alternator, two garages later and one borrowed battery, we were good to go. John had put our battery on charge whilst we were driving backwards and forwards to and from garages, but it hadn’t had enough time to fully charge, so he insisted we take his for the night, camp nearby and then go back in the morning, which we did and hey presto, we were on the road again (John refused cash but was very happy to be left a few beers as a thank you :bloke) .

The plus side to having a breakdown in this case was that we got to stay in Amberley. What a pretty little place with some gorgeous views. As we had arrived at the campsite late the evening before, bloke dropped me at the camp office to settle up and I was left to walk along the road to John’s house and I’m so pleased I did. It was a lovely morning and I got to enjoy a really nice walk and check out some of the local landmarks.

After leaving John’s, we made our way to Hanmer Springs, (the locals tell us there’s no ham in Hanmer), I’d somehow heard of a riding spot there and thought it would be a good way to break up the drive to Nelson. John told us it was in a basin and could get really hot there, it had been 37C the previous day and we had reservations about stopping there if it was that hot. Much of the island is starting to resemble a dust bowl now, gone are the lush green hills, this seasons colour is brown, imagine mid-western cowboy country. Thankfully, it was much cooler when we rocked in to town. We found a campsite right near the forest, had a spot off lunch and set off in search of trails. Once again we weren’t disappointed, it turned out to be some really cool xc trails, perhaps a little easier than some of the stuff we have ridden previously, but graded 4 (advanced blue) all the same. Narrow and techy, but not too steep – we really enjoyed it. Bloke went off and did a short grade 5 (a black section, it clearly doesn’t get ridden much and the trail petered out on the exit of a steep right hander. Fortunately I was able to leap clear and watch the bike disappear over the edge. It only took a minute to retrieve the bike from the bushes before rediscovering the trail :bloke). I took the grade 4 back down to the bottom, it was soooo much fun. Infact I felt quite buoyant after that ride, it was just hard enough to make me work hard and concentrate, but not scary enough to have me permanently out of my comfort zone, it made a very nice change, or am I finally getting acclimatised 🤔.

And look, no pads…..I’m turning native 😄

The next day we had planned to have a bit of a rest day and maybe visit some of the hot springs Hanmer is known for. Our traveller friend Nick had visited the area before and recommend a place out of town, an hour down the road, on our planned route, suggesting it was a quieter spot. He wasn’t wrong, it was gorgeous, so quiet, with no children and amazing views, a lovely place called Maruia, we pretty much had the place to ourselves most of the time. Three different temperature pools, all fed by a mixture of natural spring water and river water, to cool the hot spring water down. It had a type of aglae in it that was harmless and apparently very good for the skin, if not a little disconcerting seeing slimy black things floating in the water, and a plunge pool, that was extremely refreshing at 7C!

We spent a few hours there before moving on to enjoy our first freedom campsite in Wai-iti domain and with a clear sky that night, we had the pleasure of seeing the most incredible star filled sky which more than made up for the two visits to Lake Tekapo. We also met a really interesting woman biker, Miriam, travelling solo around NZ on a DRZ400, with little more than a pop up tent and a spoon. She was really inspiring and mad as a march hare. She sat down next to us, ate her dinner of a tin of baked beans (she had to borrow a tin opener from us) and the leftovers of a bag of sliced bread, she wouldn’t accept my offer to heat them up for her, telling us they were warm enough having just been in her bike bag all day. We spent the evening listening to her tales of previous adventures and swapping stories on where we’d all been so far over here.

The following morning we set off way before any of the few fellow campers had surfaced, and drove on to our meeting point with the Wairoa Gorge uplift crew. It was imperative that we arrive on time and go in convoy up to the site before the logging trucks started work for the day. Poor old Harvey took an absolute beasting bless him, we had to do at least 15km, if not more, on seriously unmade roads, with three ford crossings each way, we were amazed that he didn’t rattle himself apart! The noise alone was awful and the dust was just ridiculous. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to ride that day, when bloke booked on, my knee had just had its funny moment and I could barely walk, so I didn’t book on with him and they were adamant they would not let me get a last minute place on the uplift bus. I was more than a bit gutted, as I’d met some chicks getting ready, who I would have loved to have ridden with and they were even older than me, proper bad ass! So I’ll pass you over to him for a recount of the day.

(Where to start? Hmmmm OK. Well, apparently 12 years ago a mysterious millionaire commissioned a private bike Park. Over 10yrs and an estimated 40million NZD “well, it wasn’t his first 40million was it” later, 70km of some of the worlds finest technical trails was completed. 2 years ago the park was made available to members of Nelson mountainbike club. Only 35 riders can access the 1000m of elevation and the http://www.thegorge.co.nz is open only 3 days per week. The uplift Road is as rough as the trails and the location is both remote and isolated. Phones don’t work – Riders are issued a walkietalkie per group and must stay in >3s. In case of injury you radio for help and wait for the NZ emergency services to travel the hour from Nelson and retrieve you from the hill – the gorges’ staff are not allowed to help as they are needed to coordinate help from the officials, from the top of the hill. what about the trails? 5-6 descents is all most riders can manage – each top to bottom took me 25-40 minutes and these trails are sooooo cool! steep, exposed, technical, sooooo committed. If you are a mountain biker that likes to be tested, you have to ride here – it is AMAZING. If I rode here everyday for a year I couldn’t get bored. To top it off, there is a rumour that the same gazzillionaire had another 10 sites built, just like this one, but they’re all in secret locations. The mystery of the owner and his motivations makes the Gorge even more cool. I love it!! :bloke)

After a long day riding and a round of post ride beers with a few of the riders we’d met during the day, we pitched up in a campsite in Richmond for the night (not far from the gorge :bloke) and the following morning headed back to Kaiteriteri with the view to chill out there for a few days, get the SUP out again and ride the bike Park. However that was not to be. Unbeknown to us, a fire had broken out near the campsite at the Wai-iti domain and spread rapidly (the whole area was in drought and under heavy fire safety restrictions :bloke). We could smell the smoke and what we initially thought were rain clouds coming over, turned out to be the smoke from the bush fire. Over the tannoy system of the campsite they made an announcement that no fires were to be lit at all, including anything other than gas bbq’s with lids, and that the bike Park was now fully shut as a precaution. The weather didn’t help, it was really windy and that was blowing the fire further out of control. Over the next day or two it got worse and other fires broke out, the decision was made to shut the vast majority of bike parks/ woodland recreation areas in and around the Nelson area, understandably so, they just don’t have the resources to cope if more fires were to break out. (10 days later, they are still burning, >3000 people were evacuated and many people are still not back in their homes. >2300 hectares have burned :bloke). We elected to get out of the area so as not to become a statistic or use resources needed by the residents.

We had a ferry booking already made to go back over to the North Island, we decided to leave a few days earlier than planned and head up to Rotorua, where the conditions were not quite so hot and dry. We spent a long weekend getting some really good, fun, riding in. I absolutely love this place so I was more than happy to be back sooner than expected. The first day my knee gave up well before the rest of me was ready, and not feeling particularly happy about it and the thought of either not riding the next day or only managing a short ride, I decided to give in and hire an e-bike.

They are seriously popular over here, and having ridden one for the day, I can see why. There is no getting away from the hills in this country, and my knee doesn’t appear to be enjoying riding up them very much, with the e-bike I was able to take the pressure off on the climbs, by using the 6 speed power controls I could work as little or as much as I wanted to. I spent the majority of the ride with it on the first setting, meaning I did most of the work, but I ramped it up to 2 (or even 3) on a few of the “pinch” climbs (short, sharp, technical climbs). That’s when my knee suffers the most and it was amazing how much pressure it took off them and allowed me to enjoy the rest of the trail without either, being in pain, or losing my speed. What I didn’t get with the e-bike though, was a sense of achievement for having made it up some of the longer climbs I have previously done, but I guess there is always going to be a trade off, that and the weight of the thing. The staff tried to get me to book on to the uplift service, but there is no way I could ever get that bike on a trailer, it was nearly 50lbs – I could barely lift it off the ground. When, not “if”, I have to move over to an e-bike, weight will be a massive consideration for me – that’s for sure. What I did enjoy the most from the experience though, was being the lead rider for a change. Bloke is fit, a lot fitter than me, especially at the moment, with him training for his race and my knee being a bitch, it has felt at times like we are riding separately. With him having to wait for me to catch up all the time, my confidence is very low. With the e-bike, for the first time ever, I was able to lead him out on most of the trails, because the trails we were riding were not exclusively downhill trails and had plenty of uphill sections, I was able to carry my speed a lot more than usual and give him a damn good run for his money. It was bloody awesome, roll reversal at its very best (and I got a hell of a workout just trying to keep up! :bloke).