Extreme Exploration An Elbow Extended To Extremes
It’s always great when you can plan a few days of solid, fun mountain biking with good friends that goes somewhere new and also doubles as training for a race you have coming up, in our case, XPD. Hard to think of a better way to spend Easter!
So on the Thursday night before Easter Debbie, Anne and myself, along with a couple of friends, met in Taumarunui. After the usual gear sort out and planning for the next few days ahead, we drove down to Raetihi and left our vehicles at the Raetihi Motor Camp. Good Friday was always going to be the easiest day. From Raetihi we biked north up to National Park, the majority on the main road, with a bit of an explore of a rail road bridge by one of our party and some exploring off-road just south of National Park.
Conveniently our arrival route into National Park passed a cafe (theme 1 of weekend an uncanny ability to always come across cafes at opportune times!) so a good stop for lunch. After lunch we got permission from a local farmer and went for a trek for a few hours with topo maps, making sure we made it back just in time for our spa pool soak.
Theme 2 of weekend was noisy nights and/or poor sleeps. Unfortunately our fellow residents at our accommodation needed a lesson in hostel etiquette and I still can’t understand why you need to get up at 5.30am and make as much noise as possible to get ready for a Tongariro Crossing bus which departs at 8am.
Day 2 was our longest day kilometre-wise. From National Park we biked along SHW47 to the start of the 42nd Traverse. I seem to find this ride progressively easier over the years but it still has some good uphills and fun downhills, and it was great to see others out enjoying the awesome ride as well. We made it back to the Owhango pub for a late lunch. After lunch we headed west on the Oio Road. Overall it was downhill following a river, but we were starting to feel the last 20kms on gravel. It felt like we were getting more and more isolated as the scenery got more and more rugged and by the end of the day we had done over 100kms.
Saturday night we stayed at the Blue Duck Lodge at Whakahoro (www.blueducklodge.co.nz), but there is also a DOC camping ground in the vicinity. Our host Dan and all the locals were occupied with the annual local fair (gymkhana, wood chopping, raffles, dance, general piss up etc.) so we made ourselves at home in a dorm room out the back of someone’s house doing their dishes, tampering with their TV etc. after being resupplied with food and clean clothes by a later addition to our party.
Easter Sunday was awesome... until about 5pm.
We started the day with a birthday cake for Debbie and a 100m bike down to Dan’s cafe. While anyone who needed it got their caffeine fix, Dan told us about the area and his interests and initiatives. He has been restoring a lot of the historic buildings and en route we also went down a small track and borrowed some kayaks he has set up to explore a stunning waterfall and stream. Just magic!
For those of you that don’t know the Mangaparua Valley that we were biking through that day was opened as a Government scheme in 1919 to provide land for farming for returned soldiers from WWI. The Bridge to Nowhere was built near the bottom of this isolated valley in 1936 to improve vehicle access to connect with the steamer jetty on the Whanganui River. Unfortunately the soils of the valley were not fertile enough for farming and the valley was closed in 1942.
After crossing through Dan’s farmland we entered the Whanganui National Park. There was a bit of a bike push for a few kilometres, which Dan had psyched us up for. There were a few little gullys and streams which required a bit of team work to get up and over with our bikes loaded up with camping gear. All along the way, and for the rest of the day, we would come across signs naming the different families who had farmed in a particular area.
We stopped for lunch in a clearing (the only privately farmed piece remaining in the National Park). After this we climbed up a fantastically gradual hill (an old bullock trail) and at the top we took in the spectacular views all the way to the mountains at the trig. To note the last place of mobile coverage!
It was basically all downhill from the trig. It started off with a fast gravel road and then changed into a track, with kilometre after kilometre of awesome single track at the end through the bush, round spectacular bluffs, over rivers, all the time passing signs and remnants of the old farms. Then suddenly you come across the solid, relatively large, concrete structure of the Bridge to Nowhere, spanning the river 40 metres below, and such a contrast to the surrounding bush and rugged terrain. We spent a bit of time taking it all in, taking photos and thinking about the history.
It’s only about 15 minutes from the Bridge Nowhere to Mangaparua Landing. About half way along there is a very innocent looking pedestrian bridge with a lip on it of about 20cm. Tired and not concentrating as much as I should have been I parted company with said bridge, falling into the gully it was spanning headfirst. Using my arms to stop my fall, I dislocated my elbow.
I always say in adventure racing, or anything involving teams, that the measure of a good team is how they deal with things when they go wrong. I was lucky to be with some very capable and sensible people at the time when I injured myself and I was looked after very well over the next few hours. Although not very palatable to me at the time, the decision was made to camp where I fell off, rather than try and head back up the track in the dark to get mobile coverage – about 4 or so hours if you remember. We spent the night in tents on the track and the next morning we walked down to Mangaparua Landing and caught a jet boat down to Pipriki (thank goodness 1000 times we had this booked!). The others biked from Pipiriki to Raetihi and collected the vehicles, while I went by ambulance and car via Taumarunui Hospital and then onto Waikato Hospital to get my arm put back into place.
For me personally it was a bad end to an otherwise spectacular trip. I learnt my lesson, and I have probably been a bit lax in past, that I would always take an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicator Radio Beacon) when going somewhere so isolated. We could have set if off on Sunday night and I could have been helicoptered out and had my arm sorted that night, which would have severely reduced recovery time. I wouldn’t wish sitting in a tent for 14 hours with a dislocated elbow on anyone.
That aside the biking that we did was superb and I myself, and I know the others would as well, thoroughly recommend the Whakahoro to Mangaparua Landing ride to anyone who wants a good adventure. You need to be reasonably confident on a bike and up for the adventure but I’d hate my experience to put anyone else off. It sounds naff but just be prepared!
Erin Roberts (Team Macpac GOT)
