Life on the road

And our first few days cycling down the West Coast

It's hard to believe we are now more than half way through our South Island tour. We have well and truly settled into the ride and are absolutely loving it. I suspect I will want to keep riding when we get to Bluff (but Chris baulked at my idea to ride back to Christchurch via a different route).

The work put into planning the ride has paid off. We feel we are more or less riding the right distance each day - taking into account hills and available services. And it's great having accommodation pre-arranged so we don't have to find somewhere to sleep for the night (or carry camping gear).

Some days we feel we could ride a bit longer but we find that stopping early/mid afternoon gives us a chance to sort out laundry and get supplies, and have a look around wherever we are for the night. Often, we’ll go for a walk.

Finding food hasn't been too much of a hassle, although we have to plan ahead and the quality of our meals varies. One day our lunch consisted of a protein bar and a packet of crisps. Other days we’ve been able to stock up on yummy mini-quiches or get a filled roll on the way. We’ve eaten more hot chips than I’d like for dinner, but some of the pubs we’ve dined at have offered really good meals.

Staying hydrated is a priority for us. Some people only carry a couple of water bottles, and some days that's all we need too if there are cafes along the way. But there are other days where there is nowhere to stock up so we then carry a third water bottle in our panniers along with an electrolyte drink (Powerade), which we inevitably guzzle down at lunchtime.

I am carrying about 10 kilograms more on my bike than if I was doing a day ride. Chris is carrying a little more (maybe 12kg) - but he is stronger and I am doing a bit more work riding out front. (Well maybe. Now that we are on the open road, he has started cycling a bit further back in case we come a cropper - the theory being that our sons will still have one parent if the worst happens!)

However, I am pleased to say that we are still finding drivers to be very considerate and they usually leave us plenty of room when they pass. (If anything, we are a bit concerned that sometimes they put themselves at risk by going out into the other lane when there are yellow ‘no passing’ lines and limited visibility of oncoming traffic.) We have flashing rear lights and bright cycle tops so drivers can easily see us, and a couple of drivers have thanked us for that.

I am enjoying meeting other cyclists (and tourists) on the road. There aren't a lot of us at any one spot, and some are going in the opposite direction, but we always smile and wave at each other and stop for a chat when we can.

The Tour Aotearoa is popular with overseas cyclists. We came across a great group of young American guys, who are riding touring bikes with panniers, but decided to give the Big River track a go despite all advice not to. They were positively fizzing about how great it was, and identified it as the highlight of their trip - after having cycled all the way down the country from Cape Reinga.

Yesterday we met a couple of Dutch cyclists who are spending seven weeks travelling around South Island - crossing through the mountains from one side of the island to the other and back multiple times so they can do as many cycle trails as possible. Sometimes they follow the Tour Aotearoa route, sometimes they find their own way. They have a very good bike set-up, with belt drives instead of chains and a small charging system to run their lights and provide USB charging for their phones.

We have been extremely lucky with the weather. For the first ten days, we had warm, mostly sunny weather, with just 30 minutes of light rain when we left Tapawera. It hasn't even been too windy, with just a couple of days when the wind came up in the afternoon, making us work a bit harder.

Things have changed a bit with heavy rain overnight and more rain on the way. But it temporarily cleared up for us today so we didn't get wet at all (the rain returned within minutes of us arriving at our accommodation). Unfortunately I don't think we will be so lucky tomorrow.

We are currently at Franz Josef (glacier country) and will continue down the West Coast to Haast before heading inland. Here's a quick rundown on the last few days’ cycling.

West Coast Wilderness Trail

We had an awesome ride from Greymouth to Hokitika on the West Coast Wilderness Trail. We did three of the four trail sections (99 kilometres) in one day, much as we did when I first wrote about the trail two years ago.

That time, we had mixed feelings about the trail and found it a bit hard-going in places. This time, despite carrying extra weight, we really enjoyed it. It's probably our best day on the bike yet. We loved being off-road, we loved the native bush, we loved the narrow winding sections along old mining water races, and we just loved being on our bikes.

I put the difference down to a combination of pacing ourselves better (we took an extra half hour) and more favourable conditions for cycling (temperatures in the low 20s for most of the day and partial cloud cover). We also benefited from our rest day in Greymouth, and I think that our bike fitness has stepped up a notch since we've been away.

Regardless, it was a fantastic day, and you can clink on the links above if you want to find out more about the trail.

Hokitika to Franz Josef

For the past two days we’ve been on the Touring the West Coast heartland ride, which goes from Ross to Wanaka, mostly on the scenic highway 6.

We started with the final section of the West Coast Wilderness Trail that goes from Hokitika to Ross (enjoying more off-road cycling through the bush), but the closure of an old rail bridge meant we had to connect to the highway sooner than expected.

After Ross, the route takes a short (12 kilometre) diversion along a quiet gravel road, before returning to the highway. Despite limited shoulder for cycling, and several long one-way bridges to negotiate, the riding was pretty easy. We had a few ups (but nothing too onerous) and one magnificent down as we approached Lake Ianthe for our lunch break.

The scenery was magnificent too - native bush, huge mountains, braided rivers, occasional views over the bush and out to sea.

The first day on the road was beautiful and sunny, but got quite hot, so we were happy to stop for the night at Hari Hari (described in our guidebook as a “one street town”). It’s a nice wee place, and we enjoyed a short bush walk along the edge of the hill in the shade, and a classic pub meal of steak, egg and chips for dinner. (Chips really are hard to avoid.)

Today, we cycled through Whataroa (a small town with excellent coffee) and took advantage of the break in the weather to detour off the main road to Okarito. This is a coastal settlement with a large lagoon area, good for kayaking and bird spotting. It's a remote place, with a campground, a smattering of holiday houses and a handful of permanent residents.

The whole area is surrounded by beautiful native bush, and there are lots of shorts walk, including one through a kiwi area (no dogs allowed). We enjoyed cycling there on the peaceful access road, with just the odd campervan pottering past us occasionally.

The cycling today was a mix of ups, downs, and taking advantage of a tail wind to cycle hard and fast along the less hilly bits. We had one big climb early in our ride (over a hill known as Mt Hercules), with a steep descent that made us thankful we weren't cycling in the other direction. We enjoyed lots more great scenery, cycling close to the base of some very imposing mountains, and passing two lakes on the way. An 86 kilometre day.

Franz Josef is a popular tourist base and is very busy. We cancelled plans for a bush walk this afternoon due to the rain but, happily, the wildlife came to us. This kea turned up near our room - they are notorious for ripping rubber off car windows and wiper blades so it's a good thing our bikes are safely stored in the garage for the night.