Stunning scenery! First of all, I want to buy one of the cute historic cottages in Arrowtown. Let me know if you have one for sale in my price bracket.

We shot into the village for a quick look before jumping on the trail. It is a very scenic ride. I can definitely recommend doing it.

Once past the alpacas, we collided with a group from an ebike hire place. Some could bike, but 80% of them were very wobbly and probably haven’t cycled in years. After getting around them and trying to stay out of their way, we were off. Luckily, they looked like they went to Gibbston Valley as we didn’t see them again. We carried on along the trail where we got to the top and had a rest. A lady asked for tissues or toilet paper for her friend who has a runny nose. Lucky for her, we are prepared.

After the uphill, there was the most spectacular downhill. It just kept coming. I felt bad for the cyclists in the other direction, but most of them are on ebikes, so I don’t feel that bad. We have three ups to do after this. At the shotover bridge, we get over taken by some ebikers. Making the hills look piss easy. Rude! Haha

We head off track a bit because we are going into the Frankton shops. Somehow we managed to damage the Kindle screen (he blames me, of course) now we need to replace it. Yes, this will be his third Kindle of the trip! Everyone is out of stock. We get to the warehouse and they only have the display model. One of the staff members happily sells it to us for $50! It’s much cheaper than $279 for the full price. Happy days!

Sushi for lunch and off again to get back on the track. It is reasonably flat the rest of the way into the main centre.

We head straight to the holiday park to set up before heading back downhill to the 4square. We can’t help but get a Ferg Burger to share on the way back. The line is so short it seemed mad not too!

The struggle is real!

I don’t know why but today was really hard. It started well. Foggy and cold, but the kitchen was still warm from last night. Time disappeared in the fog and it was after 10am when we hit the road. The first part all the way to Roaring Meg was really good. The traffic gets on your nerves after a while. Not because anyone was dangerous but the noise and being on edge gets to you after a while.

After Roaring Meg it was uphill and it felt really hard when it shouldn’t have. From then on I really struggled. It was just mentally taxing. We arrived at Gibbston Valley and jumped on the track. But I got annoyed that we were going slow and it was harder than the road. Especially because we followed the road. So we hoped back off and only got back on when we saw the track leave the main road.

It has some pretty moments but it didn’t feel worth it to me. I just wanted to get back on the road and get to Arrowtown. Once we struggled a bit more past the bungy and again followed the road. Rowan made the decision we should get off. My knees are aching and I am miserable. I keep crying, getting frustrated and making silly mistakes. The road is hard and we have a good 10km to go. When we finally reach Arrowtown I am exhausted. I do perk up. It is around 3.30pm but it feels like 6pm. The sun has gone and it feels like a big day!

Goodbye Wānaka! We are heading for Cromwell today. There is a very important breakfast to have before we get out of town. Adam & Eve Bakery, a very good Mince & cheese pie! But first it is a lovely crisp cold morning. It is hard to get out of the tent since it is covered in ice!

It got us fueled up as we headed towards Luggate. It felt like no time at all and we had done 16km. Today was rather easy, I mean don’t get me wrong, it had some moments. I definitely got sore knees, butt and wrists. But it wasn’t gruelling.

Before long it was lunchtime at Subway in Cromwell. We arrived about 2pm, got some kai and went op shopping. There is only one now in Cromwell but hey it is always worth a look!

A trip to New World for dinner ingredients and we set off for another 8.5km to the holiday park. Unfortunately the main holiday park in town was closed down and turned into town houses. This park is a little off track but that is okay. It is older but the owners are really lovely. They have a great fireplace that makes a toasty warm kitchen.

A lady at the camp found a chestnut tree and showed us where to get them. Before we set off we grabbed a few to try ourselves.

Today, we are not going far, just to Wānaka. There is a trail that follows the river. It is really scenic. One upside I wasn’t expecting was a free breakfast while on the trail. There were just swarms of bugs to ride through it made breathing and seeing very hard for a while.

We still did close to 30km for the day. By the time we got to all the op shops and had a nosy through town after we settled at the campground.

The campground wasn’t that busy but they only had one of their kitchens open and one set of bathrooms. This made the place incredibly noisy and busy. We got out as soon as we could and retreated to our tent.

We ended up taking two rest days here in Wānaka. The first one we needed the second one because why not. We hardly ever stay in Wānaka. It is normally a thoroughfare for us. We ate some delicious food and enjoyed the cold evenings and warm sunny days.

Wahoo we are in the Lake District!

Expect lots of photos as I can’t help but take a load of them. We got moving and decided to miss the Blue Pools. We have been there before and although it is beautiful, it is Sunday on a long weekend. We reach Makarora West and continued on another 4km to the cafe.

The cafe was so cosy with a fire going. I really didn’t want to leave. We found our friend the fisherman from last night. Looks like he owns the place. How funny. I had a good amount of food not too much. Rowan had more and regretted it until we got to The Neck.

When we took off again we were racing the weather. A light bit of rain got us but not much. The uphill was easier than I thought it would be and I was happy to see Lake Hawea. Now to get to the township end.

Two blips in the map means two ups. I walked them both. My legs were burning by then. 65km day and I am pooped.

On Friday the weather wasn’t great and with a few hard days ahead it made sense to have a rest day. We got a lot of stuff sorted. I spent a good hour on the bikes cleaning them. Then another hour fidling around and adjusting them. Rowan was sorting rocks he had found. I sent another two post bags of stuff to my dad (sorry dad, thank you). It has made our lives significantly lighter with these bikes. The gear we need to carry is much less and resupply options are more frequent. Rowan posted a box of rocks to our old neighbours as that is where all our rocks are. Thanks Liz & Rick for keeping them safe.

Here we go, let’s take on the Haast! Our plan is to stay at Pleasant flat 45km in. This will give us a fresh day to tackle the worst part of the Haast. We took off making good time. I really enjoyed this ride. It was up and down but nothing too hard. It was a rewarding ride with beautiful views. We had a quick bite at Roaring Billy before taking off again. When we arrived at Pleasant flat for the second part of lunch it was 1pm. I was getting tired but it seemed silly to stop here. We carried on and regretted it once we got to Thunder Creek.

Just past there we started pushing our bikes. The sweat and the unhappiness was pouring out of us. We nearly made it to the top when I joked that an SUV with a speedboat could have picked us up. We got up some more and we had that exact car pull in front of us. Extremely lovely couple. Pauline said, “Put your bikes in the boat, and we will take you to the top.” She told us how she felt bad for us and made John turn around to help us. We were very thankful and tired by then. At the top of the hill they dropped us off and we had a mostly downhill run from there. We got to a spot we could access the Makarora River around 4pm. We thought this is as good of a place as any.

This must have been the coldest swim we have endured so far on this trip. The snow melt made it pretty cold. I was brave, I am getting much better at these cold swims. 🥶

We made a friend with a cute puppy that came to do a little fishing. He said we could stay here, but I am not sure if we were really allowed to camp there.

Tuesday we had a rest day. The weather was pants and our bodies were needing it. It was also my Dad’s birthday. Happy birthday dad!

Wednesday is lovely, we have never travelled down to Jacksons Bay. The weather has always been bad. We decided to take the opportunity to spend the night down that way. There is a lovely bush track called Kokako Cycle/Walk track. 5.5km of scenic riding, the stones were large and made a bumpy ride. We made it to the ocean. We ended up there for an hour. The stones are incredible here.

We set off again, the journey is rather flat which makes for easy riding. I still got a good workout trying to keep up with Rowan. It was a really enjoyable ride the forests are beautiful.

We got to the Arawhata River by 3.30pm and planned to sleep there. We haven’t seen anywhere we are allowed to camp so stuff it we will stay here. We will leave no trace per usual and if someone asks us to move on we will ask them to take us somewhere to camp.

Today (Thursday), I woke to what sounded like rain. No that is not rain that in sandflies, hundreds of them. They swarmed us. Rowan opened the zip to get his clothes and let 20 in. It was a bit of a dance getting ready inside the safe tent. We packed up quickly and headed further down the road towards Lake Ellery.

We didn’t leave until 11am and started making our way back to Haast. The day was holding up but you can see the clouds coming from the south. The ride back was quite pleasant. About halfway, my legs started complaining. We got back to the beach and took a break before going on the forest track back to Haast.

We went straight to the pub for a pint and some food. Feeling better with a good meal in my tummy but now also tired. Back to the same campground and set up the tent. Feeling sleepy now, thinking I may have an early night.

Yes, you may be shocked to see we are in Haast. How we did it? A good tail wind! In all seriousness, we aimed for Fox Glacier today. We woke early and as soon as I got out of the tent, three cheeky Keas surrounded me. It took a bit of chasing in order to be able to go to the loo. Rowan kept an eye on them. They got onto the campervans and did what they love the most. They would distract us and try to sneak up behind us. Very clever parrots. I didn’t get great photos as it was still quite dark, my phone had trouble capturing them. We ate our meseli and packed up as fast as we could. Making sure we wouldn’t be the only target. My sandals did get a chomp and our underwear did go missing. I found in two different spots in the carpark.

We arrived in Franz Joseph around 9.30am. My legs are definitely struggling today, but we don’t have many kilometres to do. There are just 3 big saddles between here and Fox. We will be walking them, haha.

Let’s fuel up! At The Landing Cafe, cooked breakfast and coffee. Yummy, we let it settle a bit before jumping on our bikes. A fairly easy ride up to the saddles. I think today is as much riding as walking.

Pushing our bikes, sweating profusely. Cold in the shade hot in the sun, no wind whatsoever. Near the top, I was going around a steep corner and had to get off my bike to push the rest of the corner. A ute came past and stopped above me closer to Rowan. I thought she was just checking on us. Next thing I can see, she pulls out a bike rack. Lisa said to Rowan, “it looks like your partner is going to leave you. Put your bike in the tray and hers on the rack.” Rowan thanked her and started loading in his bike. I was surprised, she told me to get into the car and that she would take us to Fox.

Lisa is on her way from Ross to pick up her husband, who is cycling stranded and tired in Haast. “He is having a mid-life crisis and trying to prove his body can still work.” They have done quite a few bike packing tours pre children in many countries. Even gone from Alaska to Argentina. We get chatting and she offers to drop us in Haast. “It will make this journey less wasteful if I get to rescue 3 people instead of just my silly husband.” We had planned to take two days to Haast. Also planned an off day at Fox Glacier because of weather. It is an offer we couldn’t refuse. “It’s not exactly a pretty part to cycle anyway.” Lisa keeps telling me.

Not a tailwind, I am afraid. A vehicle got us a two day advantage. We arrived in Haast after an amazing tour. Lisa makes quite the tour guide and knows a lot of people around here. We get dropped off and meet her husband, he can do 250-300km a day

We left Lake Ianthe and the day started hard. No real warm up of the legs straight into up. The 18km ride to Harihari was quite difficult. I just couldn’t get my head off the pain and it was all just too much effort. We stopped at the cafe in Harihari and had a sausage roll. There are these natural hot springs near by but no time to stop and use them 😞. Well we really want to make the most of the weather as we have bad weather on the way.

Off we go, it is rather flat but we are coming up to a saddle soon, which will be the worst up of the day. We get near the top and take a break. We are not long there before we get a car pull in near us. It takes me a minute to realise it is my Aunty Sue and Uncle Paul! How cool, I thought we may cross paths but I wasn’t really sure. We had a roadside hug and chat. It was nice having a quick hello with some friendly faces. Once we set off again I realised I lost my earbud so we turned around to look for it. Then it was a last slog up the hill. We must have looked buggered because a lovely lady stopped to check on us and offered us water.

We got a fun down hill and then slogged the rest of the way to Whataroa. We made it there just after 2pm and thankfully got some food before they shut. A quick break there and now only 18km to go. Much like getting to Harihari this morning it is a constant up most of the way going up river until you finally get over a bridge and then it is mostly down hill. Relieved to be at the campsite after 70km of slog, I was quite happy to be off my bike.

A guy came up to us and strated chatting as we were attempting to pitch. It was nice chatting to him but I was also thinking would you just go away. It has been a long day, it is late and I have a hundred things to do before I can relax. We got our very wet tent out and our sleeping bags on a table to dry out. Rowan’s was worse than mine. The dew hit us hard last night and we slept with the doors open. We won’t do that again. We had a quick naked dip in the lake. There was an angler far away enough he shouldn’t see any details and we wouldn’t scare his fish. Lasts nights lake was too exposed to get in naked. Tonight’s lake was nice and private. We convinced a foreigner to hop into the lake. He didn’t last long but he did get in! There are a bunch of juvenile Keas here. They haven’t come down to camp but we will see in the morning.

Once we got moving for the day, we jumped onto the wilderness trail. It took up through some beautiful bush. As you can see I took heaps of photos!

The trail was very fun, I really enjoyed it. The best thing about it was we cycled right near Lake Mahinapua and we never got see it. We got to see the awesome blue mushrooms! An old sawmills area. We went on a skinny boardwalk that wouldn’t be fun if you fell off into the water. Howeve, once out of the bus, we had a road section. Then a really boring straight 10km road with a slight incline because it was an old railway. We finally got to this cool bridge from 1909. We went down and under to take a good look. There were these signs saying only ….km to go with a picture of all these happy cyclists in a picture frame. Well I don’t get to do that, do I. I get to carry on and skip Ross.

We have a few kilometres on highway 6 before we turn off onto a dirt road. It looks like we will get to the beach but it doesn’t reach. We rejoin the road again and cross a small bridge and then an up to highway 6 again. At the top we can see a long one way bridge that we go down to and a straight up on the otherside. We catch our breath and wait for traffic. We don’t get far up the hill and we push our bikes. We have done about 40km now so the ups are much harder as they day wears on. It is a slog all the way until the last 3km to our campsite.

We did it 59km for the day! Lake Ianthe is lovely, we have been here before and DOC has just put in new bathrooms. We had our usual swim while the foreigners looked at us like we are crazy.