Up to the Southern Alps

As Gareth said in the last blog we had a super big mountain to climb and climb it we did, it was our biggest mountain to date.  It was 1080m high which is higher than both Mt Snowdon and Scafell Pike so pretty hard core I think you’ll agree.  Anyway to see how we did you’ll have to read on as there are a few more days to cover first.

I’ll start by making a few small amendments to the entry for the 15^th that Gareth wrote at the end of the last blog.

15/18th January

Even though, as you read, we had made ourselves quite at home in The Kiwi camp in Te Anau (which we loved as it was clean and comfortable with nice showers), the time had come to move on.  We had our usual porridge and then packed up everything we needed to take to Milford Sound in the trailer bag and bundled the rest of our stuff into the little room made available for that purpose.

We had a little while to wait until the bus left so we popped to the library to check our e-mails etc, had some lunch then lugged the bag (which isn’t nearly as easy to move without the trailer itself) down to the Doc office by the lake.

The bus ride out to Milford took about 2 hours and we passed the time looking at the beautiful scenery, eating cheesy cheese balls and talking about how much Andrew likes cheesy cheese balls.  We were dropped off at Milford lodge and directed to a patch in the forest next to the lodge where we could pitch our tent.  It was then that we really began to appreciate the extra insect repellent we’d bought in Te Anau because the sandfies just kept coming!  There were hundreds of the little beggers and they’re pretty aggressive.

En route

We spent the next couple of days exploring Milford sound which is indeed beautiful but unfortunately, like so many other famous New Zealand tourist locations, isn’t really accessible to anyone without a car stuffed with money! We had thought we’d be able to do lots of walking tracks but the closest one’s were a 5km walk away and as they were at the bottom of the valley they were really muddy and wet.  The other, better walks were over 20km away back up the mountain.  Not to be put off though we did the Grave Talbot track which was a 5km walk away and it was nice but a bit of a challenge because it was very over grown.

Twig attack

On the way back though we did spot a Weka feeding off maggots on a dead possum!  Which may sound pretty disgusting and a bit weird to you but to me it was a very exciting photo opportunity that perked me up for the last 5km back to the lodge.

Weka

Another plus was that a place that attracts lots of wealthy people who don’t stay long means one awesome free food shelf! We ate pretty much for free for the whole weekend.  All in all it was a beautiful place to spend the weekend though, very wild!  At night it was pitch black and we kept forgetting the torch so when we left the lodge for the tent in the evening we often got very giggly stumbling about In the dark trying to find our tent again. Also, the tent next to us was exactly the same tent, so we could have accidentally got a bit too cosy with our neighbours.  The bird life was also very prolific which made it a bit difficult to sleep at night because of all the strange noises coming from the forest but it was great to get an idea of what New Zealand was once like before people came along and killed all the birds.

At the end of the weekend we caught the bus back to Te Anau and were re united with the bike.

19th – 26th January

We spent the day after our return from Milford chilling out and getting all our washing done in preparation for the next leg of the journey.  We wanted to get to Queenstown in two days but the campsites weren’t in the right places so we opted for three shorter days instead of one mega one!  We’ve learnt not to push ourselves too hard after burning ourselves out down the east coast.

So we packed up pretty slowly knowing we only had 60km to do and were pretty pleased that the rain that was forecast never really got going and gave way to sunshine.  Just before we left we got chatting to an Aussie couple called Ray and Emma who were also cycling, we ended up chatting to them for about an hour before pedalling off to Mossburn.  The road went gradually and then steeply up hill for the first 40km which did us in a bit then on the way down we got a puncture!  It was a very hot day so by the time we arrived in the Mossburn campsite we were ready to stop for the day.  The campsite was really nice and had freerange chickens which all ran up to us and clucked about the place while we unpacked.

Leaving Te Anau

First puncture of the South Island

The next day it was off to Kingston and, again, the rain that was forecast never showed up.  The scenery was lovely and we passed some really quaint little towns like Athol and Garston where we stopped for lunch.  Kingston is on the edge of Lake Wakatipu and was also very lovely.

G in Kingston

The next day was the first day in the week that rain hadn’t been forecast, so naturally, it rained all morning.  We had to pack up the tent all wet and set off to Queenstown anyway and luckily as we made our way round the lake the sun came out again.  We went the wrong way round to the campsite once we were in Queenstown and ended up having to go over some really steep hills unnecessarily but we got there in the end!  Queenstown is a hub of activity and a bit of a shock after our relative isolation of the last two nights but we soon got into the swing of things.  We pitched our tent in a mega campsite on the hill over looking Lake Wakatipu and the Remarkables which was beautiful but very very busy! 

We then walked back into town and treated ourselves to a few beers, fish and chips and a lovely Apple pie pudding.  The pub also gave out free hot dogs at hourly intervals which we eyed up a lot but the waitress who was handing them out had also served us dinner and assumed, wrongly, that we wouldn’t want a hot dog on top of fish and chips and a dessert.  Some people have no idea!  To console ourselves we wandered back to camp via the shop and bought a big bag of fudgy chocolates then scoffed the lot!  Tee hee hee.

The next day was a rest day in Queenstown so we generally took it easy, we had a wander round the place, ate an ice cream and had lunch at the campsite with the lovely view infront of us.  While we had enjoyed Queenstown we were looking forward to getting back to some peace and quiet! This is where we wrote our last blog and Gareth did karate and looked out for boz eyed dogs!

We woke up to a bit of rain so I gathered all the stuff up and packed up the tent while Gareth made porridge.  I got it all into the kitchen just as the downpour started which I was pretty pleased about but before we’d finished breakfast the sun came out and stayed out so there’d been no need to panick after all.  We’d planned on getting an early start as today was mountain day but we got chatting to another bike couple and generally faffed about until we eventually left at 11.30.  The sun was shining on us and we happily pedalled via Arrowtown to the base of the Crown Range then began our long ascent!  The first bit was really steep and consisted of about six switchbacks climbing to about 500m, we did it all in one go which made us feel pretty good about ourselves but that wasn’t all the mountain had to offer!

The next 5 1/2 km were gradually uphill which can be draining so we had a little break before we began the last bit.  The last 3 1/2 km were really tough, we had to have a few breaks but we didn’t push the bike, we kept pedalling! Eventually we made it up to the highest bit of sealed road in New Zealand at 1080m.  The views were absolutely stunning the whole way up and the feeling of achievement was really good.  We had lunch sitting on the top next to the cairn before starting the 40km of downhill all the way to Wanaka! Weeeeeee.

Third of the way up

Some of the switch-backs we had just climbed up

two thirds of the way up

At the top 1078m

Milk was a bad choice!

Luckily we had people to celebrate with on arrival as we’d arranged to meet up with Wouter, Vanessa and little Ella who we knew were staying in the town.  After getting settled we wandered down to their hostel, had fish and chip take away over looking Lake Wanaka and caught up on all the gossip since we last met in Wellington.

The next day the tiredness caught up with us and we were both pretty shattered so we just had a wander round Lake Wanaka, ate a hearty lunch and dinner and watched a film called ‘into the wild’ that we got off Wouter.  Wanaka is lovely and relaxed with beautiful scenery, a nice contrast to the hustle and bustle of Queenstown.

I'll leave you with this picture of Gareth after his nap.

We're not quite up to date but we will leave it here for now and hopefully get another blog on soon.

Missing you all.

Blog off.