NZ_24 - A South Island Adventure Odyssey

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
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Another early start to move another notch closer to Christchurch.....the scenic way. :)

Retracing yesterday's run for the start, it's off to Lake Pukaki and across the spillway to branch north onto the gravel that runs up the lake shore.
This time Mt. Cook stays in the clouds, it's still a nice run even if the gravel is about as deep as they come.


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As the sun cracks through the clouds, the other shore of Lake Pukaki is lit up like a disco-ball.


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Tacking east, it's a heavyhearted Goodbye to those snow-covered peaks, I really don't want to leave.


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Next target is the Mount John Observatory, perched on a hill outside Lake Tekapo, a place I'd wanted to see for decades but somehow it had never worked out.
But as a couple of days prior, Lake Tekapo wouldn't have a bar of us, the narrow road up turned out a $10/bike toll road with a long line of cars waiting at the gate for their slot to go up.
So we kept going for a bit of a snoop around and found Godley Peaks Rd. to be a little gem....and the betterer, the furtherer one goes :)


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Next we try the road up Mt. Dobson Skifields north of Fairlie.... which is also sadly locked :mad:

OK then....there's Opuha Dam next on the list, which also can be worked into a bypass of Fairlie and sort-of-extended-shortcut onto the Spur Rd.
Where there's a will, there's a way. :annoyed:


Not bad, aye?? :)


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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
First a stop for a cuppa at the Burkes Pass Three Creeks Garage.....what a whacky joint!






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Does anyone remember the Spy-vs Spy cartoon characters in the MAD magazine of the '60s to '90s?
Looks like they moved to Burkes Pass! :)


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Sorry, dunny is busy



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It sure is a wacky place....that also MAKES THE BEST ICECREAM IN NEW ZEALAND!!

Never seen anything like in my life....some weird blender/ grinder machine to grind fresh fruit and standard vanilla ice-cream from a tub into a firm mixture, then squashed out of a nozzle like Softserve into a cone/tub.
At hand were fresh berries of your choice on the day, no other extras needed, oh gosh.. EYE-popping delicious!!
And none of that sickly-sweet chemical aftertaste of most icecreams...brilliant.
Not to mention that the portions were HUGE for the $5 charged....we pay double for total shit in poshy Melbourne.

Anyways....around Fairlie, up the Spur Road gravel and vistas.... and then a 20km goof-up on my part, p(r)icking the long way into Geraldine.
Ant found us a great place to stay at the Geraldine Motels, well done, mate.

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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Time for a "transfer day" to get us within easy 1/2 day distance to Christchurch.
As much as I like to look at the Canterbury Plains from heights like Mt. Hutt or the start of the Lees Valley Road or such....they are a 2hr. PITA transfer across the flats in a mostly straightline pattern.

To spice things up, and for shit + giggles, let's have another go at the Hakatere Valley, Clearwater Lake, some LotR locations and finally, hopefully, make it to Erewhon Station, a Clydesdale Stud of international repute.

Twice before the weathergods had shown us "the bird" in years past, both times the winds had been absolutely brutal, whipping up stinging sand and small pebbles hammering bikes and riders to the point
of ultimately getting blown over or blown off the bike.
And the winds were up again today, strong gusts whipping up small plumes of sand and dust the second be turned inland at Mount Somers.


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They know why they put up info signs....


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Onto the gravel at Old Hakatere Town


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Nice to get out of the ever increasing wind gusts at Potts Lodge....


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Potts Lodge Concierge Team :)


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Cozy place....and the sole staff busy with a vacuum cleaner in the back nearly has a heart attack being confronted with a bunch of dusty old farts.
Nice girl, from near Liege in Belgium, close to the German border and an area I'm pretty familiar with from many childhood family bushwalking and skiing weekends.
Remembering a few words of her native Flemish dialect gets us a smile and a big pot of plunger coffee. :)


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"From one White-Beard to another, lemme tell you somethin' about sacks-on-your-back..."


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Charged up again, it's back in the saddle for the final stretch.

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Back out there it's still blowing a half-gale....and yeah, they love their gravel here thick and deep.


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....and the gusts are getting to "serious" level.,. just check the clouds of sand and debris blown out of the riverbed.



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Looks like we are at the right place now....beaufiful critters!!



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Getting out of the windbreak of the farmgate-trees...



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...that wind is getting ferocious! That's most of the wide riverbed airborne over there:icon-cry-::icon-cry-:
We gotta get out of here....right now.


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With the gusts mainly in the back, it's only the occasional veering-offline that produces some "uplifting moments" but makes for a rapid return to Mount Somers for a cuppa and some nice pies from the shop for an early lunch.

Then a zigzag of straight, sealed bits through the plains to Rakaia and the main Hwy SH1 to cross the Rakaia River.

Which proves a real piece of work and some white-knuckled shitzenpants, getting bobbed around like a rubber-dinghy in a tsunami.

More flat zigzags to join up with the Banks Peninsula highway SH75 for our final target, the pre-booked old farmhouse near Little River.

:glu:glu
 
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glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Oh man....this place turns out to be the top spread of the whole 3 weeks. :smilie-wave:


LOTS of space, elevated above the bay, huge timber deck, all mod cons and loads of pretty stuff everywhere.



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The road/ gravel network on the Banks Peninsula is quite extensive for a basically small area.....and just about ALL of it is extremely scenic!
Bays, ridges, beaches, thick greenery and endless vistas...it's a true gem. One of those places worth the effort to get to and spend some time.
Particularly when there are very few tourists around....like....NOW!

Not well known in international bike-circles and the locals rather to be found on/ around the "northern bays-loops" into Akaroa.....the southern loop, ridges and bays have been "up my honker" for a while.
Ant and Gero took to the planned route and had an absolute ball of a time!


Dave and I went along up to the junction up the top...

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Akaroa on the center-right....this Bossu Road is turning into a screamer!

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....while back at "Farm Soul-Fodder" the skies went BIG-SCREEN!


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Thought that was it? :slob:slob





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Not half bad for a ...."transfer"....day, I'd say!

:)
 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
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The final day, a final loop, some final gravel and breathtaking views (which happened a little late but hey :)


Despite the early start, the morning just slipped away.
Some low fog, a little hazy, but the bends of the Banks Peninsula still deliver the smiles, pronto and permanent.

Narrow, tight, awesome views when the clouds allowed it.

The phones were worked to schedule the bike-return, an early check-in at the same place we started the 3 weeks, a dinner booking with our favourite Romanian eatery (being a Friday and all that), again time ran away.

Neat idea for a wall light.

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Down the beach, the sun is already winning.


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By the time we hit the Christchurch outskirts, the sun is out, the skies are blue W-)

Time for a proper cleanup of men and machines.


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Handing the extras and bits and bobs back to Greg is bloody sad, those DR's are perfectly fine to instantly repeat the lap and do it all over again.

Hmmm yeah....they might need some fresh rubber soon.


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There's 3 weeks of tightly bundled memories in those packs on the hallway floor....


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Aotearoa, I miss you already! :love::love:

 

glitch

Mapping the next ride...
Staff member
Well, there they went....3 weeks of fabulous New Zealand South Island Spring.
Nearly 5000km of twisties, gravel, sand, mud and rocks, bikes that held together despite the punishment rendered and no damage or injuries to spoil a fantastic time, laughs, brainfarts and bloopers.

All of it thanks to a great, very capable, funny and tolerant crew that just "knew its shit" whatever the situations or circumstances.
A HUGE THANKS to them for all the help and support along the way...it meant a real LOT to me.

There also aren't big enough thanks to Greg and Karen, the owners of rideabikenz , for all their support, a fleet of well-prepped, solid bikes, all the extras and transfers, the extra length they go to.... those guys are pure Kiwi GOLD!

Another thanks across to @platypus121 Bernard, the only "Native" in the bunch, for enduring yet another ride with a bunch of Aussies....it must be tough hearing that Aussie-garble day-after-day. :)

Incredible luck with the weather, only 1.5 days of rain out of 3 weeks...on the South Island this time of year?....is exceptional!
(despite those 1.5days of rain "wiping out the WestCoast and various other routes" for us).

The tyre-choice by Greg/ RideabikeNZ was absolutely spot on, I did not expect the Pirelli MT21-fronts nor the Dunlop D606 rears to last that well...or provide that much grip onroad.
Lesson learned, I'll start looking for those for my own DR next.

Picking the Nelson Rigg Sierra soft-panniers (welded PVC rolltops) over the tried+trusted Andy Strapz (waxed canvas rolltops) had been a last minute snap decision, looking at both sets on the garage shelves while packing up for this trip.
Req's for this trip were: dust+waterPROOF!! as much as possible!, capable to deal with 2 lots of airline travel as checked in luggage, available space, weight of bags, overall toughness etc.
3 weeks of dust, HEAVY rain (140mm in 3hrs) later and seeing the Nelson Riggs underwater for nearly 10 mins with the bike resting on it (as a ROLLTOP!!) and finding 2 cups of water in the bottom as a result has prompted me to put my set of Andy Straps Expeditions up for sale.

The DR's...."why the hell didn't you pick anything else?"
Facts:
1) there is not much choice for finding a rental fleet of 5-6 identical bikes (for carrying ONE set/size/type of spares/ tubes/levers etc. for roadside repairs)
1.1) In fact, there's hardly any rental mobs (pretty much globally!) that even allow gravel/ offroad riding on their "ADV-bikes" of any sort/size.
2) while not "exciting" as a bike, the DR is a plugger and makes for steady progress at relatively low effort, whatever you throw at it. Exactly what's needed for this sort of terrain, day after day, week after week.
 

glipschitz

Long Timer
It would be great to know what you took equipment wise, and what you took but you didn't actually use. (Clearly the lawn mower wasn't needed :bs )
 
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