Fit to Live

It's funny how you look forward to something for so long and suddenly it arrives. The next two weeks were a flurry of adventures and catch ups. Kim came up to Nelson lakes the following day and we climbed Parachute rock, we then had an amazing weekend with Kim Sakkie and the kids tramping to Sylvester hut.

This was followed by three incredible days in the Abel Tasman

then a ride over the Mangatapu saddle to meet Ally, catch the ferry and drive to Taupo. We spent 2 days in Taupo tying up loose ends then cycled to rotorua to meet Debbie's mum and Dad, have a farewell dinner with Emma's parents and get our bikes serviced. We then had three fabulous days in waihi beach before the last leg of the journey to Auckland. Now it's time for the European adventure to begin! What a beautiful country we live in !

We left our airbnb at Waddington feeling a little sad. Lexie was turning left and we were turning right. Each of us was heading off on our own adventures. Lexie was bound for the alps to ocean and we were heading for Pegasus to meet Barb and spend a night with her cousin, Sally. The riding was pretty uneventful with back country roads zigzagging their way through to Oxford, Rangiora and our final destination Pegasus.

Sally loaded us in the car for a short drive to the beach for a refreshing swim in the ocean. Brr but exhilarating and wonderful to be at the ocean.
After a hot shower we were treated to a feast of roast chicken 🍗 and three delicious salads. This was followed by baked peaches and yoghurt for desert. We were in heaven.

The next day we set off for Hanmer.The route was a mixture of gravel and highway and took us through Culverden where to our delight we were served the biggest ice creams we'd ever seen. No complaints from us. The highway from Culverden to the Hanmer turn off was a headwind slog and a few trucks too many came far too close for our liking. It felt like a game of Russian roulette. It continues to amaze me that slowing down for cyclists seems to be a thing of the past for many drivers. I just don't get their mentality 😕 😪 All it takes is a few seconds to make sure it's clear to pass as they would for a tractor. It is such a sad world where drivers get so irate at cyclists on the road, that they would rather kill us than slow down! One touch from a vehicle is all it takes.
Anyway after what seemed like an eternity, we were finally at the turn off to Hamner and were soon at the top 10 holiday park pitching our tents and hoping the wind would drop.

Hanmer to St Arnaud
We woke to no wind but rain ! Barb had decided to give the Rainbow road a miss on her fully laden bike so we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. Luckily the rain was short lived and we were soon stripping off our wet weather gear as we climbed up Jack's pass. Unfortunately the wind returned 😑 and made our lives a little challenging, we were over the headwind so decided to break up the day and take a side trip up to Fowler pass. We rode in a wee way but the strong winds made it a little hairy so we decided to ditch the bikes and proceed on foot to Fowler pass. We then decided to head up toward Mt Seymour and do a loop back to the bikes. We were nearly blown off the tops but made it to the summit and down some pretty awesome scree slopes back to the bikes. Our cup was full, we were stoked. Being spontaneous is how we like to travel and we hope we take this philosophy over to Europe as its easy to become a slave to the road and not take time out for exploration and side trips. We headed back to the Rainbow road and were pleased to see the wind had dropped and we even had a slight tail wind. We were even happier when we discovered the Sedgemere sleep out was not a run down old building as expected but a comfy as eight bunk hut and it was empty. What a bonus. What a great day and what a beautiful location. 😍

After a great sleep 😴 we were excited to see what the rest of the Rainbow road had in store. We were not disappointed. What an incredibly beautiful ride it was. The scenery was ever changing and mind blowingly beautiful. Our ride was made even more special when the guy collecting our $5 each toll invited us in for a cup of coffee, some sweet slice and a chat. It's encounters like this that make travelling so rewarding. Stopping to listen to people's life stories is so enriching and restores your faith in the human race. Having time to chat and to be content doing so is something we cherish. We arrived in St Arnaud around 2pm and checked into the alpine lodge backpackers for a hot shower, a comfy bed and to do our washing. Bliss.

The day dawned cold and wet but it was forecast to clear so we decided to give the tramp to Angelus hut a go. Emma had talked a German guy into giving us a lift to the Mt Robert carpark. We met him at 7.30am and before long were making our way on the beautiful trail 👣 to Spear grass hut. We decided to go up Speargrass track to Angelus hut wait there until 1pm for the weather to clear then head back along Robert Ridge. The weather gods must have been listening to our plans as that is exactly what happened. We got to the hut in pretty poor visibility slightly wet, we fad lunch put all our gear on and just before 1pm theclohd cleared the wind dropped and we were treated to a beautiful walk along Robert Ridge. Feeling pretty lucky we decided to head off the main track climb a highpoint, then dropped down to the old Mt Robert ski field area. It was sad to see the old huts in disrepair but we were happy to read that they are being taken care of as historic buildings.