Ignorance really is bliss

Day 7. The whim awakens 

Kaiteriteri to Totaranui
Daily total: 92.42km Running total: 383.54km

To get over to the top end of the Able Tasmine trail, it is just a short skip,hop,jump over the Takaka ranges. The steep, steep long,curve happy Takaka Ranges. You climb 791 meters over 13 km. It takes ages to ride up but by Joove, I was going to make it!

The route is constantly hidden by vegetation, so no way of judging the lengh and steepness of it all. Just pure ignorance to the mission at hand! Switchback after switchback, km after km,it is all worth it. Once reaching the top, you feel that you have earnt the right to enjoy the downhill! There was whooping as I plummeted down the hill. 

He there moments on the aayway, from the kid offering encouragement I the form of hanging out the. At window and clapping to the truck driver flashing a 'slow down' at me as I fought my way up the hill. These little acts of encouraged me to keep going. Its the little things that can make a difference! 

On the other side a pass a fence of shoes, come across a load of free plums (with I ended up busting a few open. Not a pretty sight! 

Later in the day,despite being on the South Island, I was traveling north! At some point very soon,I would be further north than Wellington! Good work whim, good work.

The wino trail...aka The Great Taste Trail

Day 6. No tasting but the whim is back... 

Nelson to Kaiteriteri
Daily total: 80km Running total: 291.12km

Today's cycling buddy today was Julia. Was heading roughly in the same direction as I found out a friend of mine was in the area. So went along apart of the Great Taste Trail which snakes around various cafes and vine yards (hence the name). It is a really sedate ride, nice and flat with the occasional hill. Just like a prolonged Sunday bike ride. It goes over a place called Rabbit Island but I did not see a single rabbit. Did see some cows. 

 On the way to Kaiteriteri, the bike path cuts out a hilly, narrow, section of the road by taking you through a mountain bike park! Damned good fun with all the gear on the bike but cannot see the winos enjoying it too much. Or maybe enjoying way toooo much. 

Did not manage to catch up with my friend so I carried on cycling on with Julia towards the Able Tasmine Great Walk. A man we met on the ferry mentioned a really good campsite at one end of the Trail whilst Julia was starting from the much closer end. So I tossed a coin to decide what end to embark on and that is how I parted ways with Julia. I was heading further North up the South Island and how I ended up in Kaiteriteri at a campsite with free golf...well putters and tennis balls. The place I was heading to the next day was called Totaranui and it was over some hill...

I love hills!

Day 4. Seriously, I love hills... 

Rai Valley to Nelson
Daily total: 48km Running total: 185.12km 

Skipped the early morning swim. Reason: freezing. 

That is actually me!

Early morning mist

Continued the ride with Lizzy as still heading the same direction. We were warned about the big hills. 3 of them according to some, 2 according to others with a few going with 2.5. That confused me. Did it used to be a full hill then one day half it just vanished? How can you have half a hill? 

The second hill we encountered had the power of 10 hills. It was proper gurt but we did collect a bunch of cyclists like we were collecting Pokemon. Picked a tourer called Julia and a couple of racer types. They kept themselves hermetic, not wishing to pollute their bubble with the cool kids with panniers! We climbed for ages, passing a fully decorated Christmas Tree on the way. Then climbed more and then some. We climbed for ages but the decent...wow the decent...it lasted forever and as there were logging trucks up ahead, no one could over take, the pack filled the road. The decent was grin inducing. As was the sight of the diary with it's formidable selection of ice cream at bottom. Everyone turned up (sans the racers) with massive grins. The decent made up for accent and the general heavy (by NZ standards) traffic on the road. 

Just chilling being a Christmas Tree in the middle of nowhere.

So happy to see these after I entered the Diary.

We hit Nelson, chilled in the park. I brought the tone of the place down by drying out my tent in the middle of this really nice park. Felt like a proper vagabond, until a couple I was briefly talking to, emerged from the public toilets together with a look of just being busy about them. They won the bringing the tone down stakes. 

My lack of phone coverage and general access to communication meant I had not sorted any accommodation out for Nelson. Julia was meeting her host, Philip from Warmshowers in the park. Philip turned up and inquired if anyone else needed a place to stay! Accommodation sorted and he was cool for me to stay two nights so I could go on the Dun Mountain Trail. Happy days. 

Day 5. Dun Mountain Trail, mainly photos so rest bite from the words... 

Dun Mountain Trail (round trip)
Daily total: 26km Running total: 211.12km

Scenes from morning walk

Bench with a view

Hill top view. better than the bench.

It was awesome! You get to climb about 800m over 13km then drop about the same over 9km. Arms ached from going down hill and yes, there was some terrible sign posting going on. That is it with the words. Photo time!!!

On route to the summit.

The summit

Summit bench

The decent

Dont worry. Not fallen off. Just dumped.

Day of RAGE!!!

Day 3. Grr... 

Davies Bay Campsite to Rai Valley
Daily total: 55.53km Running total: 137.12km 

I finally made my planned early start...ha ha bollocks did I! It was all going well, everything going to schedule then somehow I fell into some form of time crack in reality and I was suddenly 2 hours later and had stuff spread out over 3 different locations. 

I make it to a town called Havelock with the grand old, simple intention of uploading a single photo for Portraits by strangers. A simple task that turned into a horrific experience. The tourist info place had misplaced their internet vochers so no internet there, a hostle wanted $6 for 45min and the Vodaphone network decided to cut out. Then there was the issue of trying to transfer the image from one device to another. My normally calm demeanour was shattered and I basically had a full on hissy fit. It has been a constant battle between me and technology on this journey. So Havelock is shite for Internet but good for green muscles (hence photo below).
 

Ah...purpose

In the midst of my techno rage, a pannier laden bike turns up with a lass called Lizzy turns up. Turns out both heading in the same direction. First cycle buddy of the South Island and first since the first week of the North Island. 

Stopped at Pelourus campsite, they wanted $15 for the night and $4 for a bar of soap. I'm not spending $4 on a bar of soap that I will loose in no time (if anyone has any tips on not losing soap, let me know). There was a free campsite 10km up the road at Rai Valley, at a site called Brown Creek Reserve (something like that). So free campsite wins. There is a river there (cold), a toilet and nowt else. Fresh water can be collected from the hose outside the fire station in town. The campsite has no camping signs but everyone camps there and the locals point you in the direction of the place. You can cross the river to explore the woods or turn right out the campsite, over the bridge and turn right at the next bridge to access the woods the dry way. 

Check out my gash. Healing up good. Need gloves.

Near the campsite in Rai Valley

Spot the Gav part 1

Spot the Gav part 2

Filthy lens

 

Gavbo: First Blood!!!

Day 2. Tape is a must... 

Davies Bay Campsite to Black Rock Campsite (Queen Charlotte Track) back to Davies Bay
Daily total: 43.24km Running total: 81.59km Walked: 15km

The track is good for touring up to Mistletoe Bay, from there onwards the riding gets pretty hard if you do not have a full on mountain bike and experience. A German couple could testify to this as they were told the track was good for tourers. Not true. If you have all your gear on the bike then the track is impossible to cycle (both up and down hill) and you will end up pushing your bike the whole way. The wife did mention that her husband had to get help to push the bike up the hill. He did not speak much English, so he just nodded and smiled, oblivious to his wife's comments. 

I pushed on the mountain bike. I finally manged to push the bike to the top of the steep hill. Now it was time to moutain bike it down the steep, steep, rocky path...which I started but half way down I knew what was coming next, the question was 'how am I going to make this less painful for myself?' There was a choice, risk falling unknown into the bushes to the left or fall right in the rocks. Left wins. All those previous times of falling off my bike has taught me how to fall and I fell good! Just a couple of scratches and a gash in the palm of my hand. 

Post crash. Tape is amazing! It is now part of my first aid kit!!!

The crash was good, it put me my place when it comes to mountain biking, I was getting too cocky in my own abilities. Lessons learned. 

After the bike incident, I decided that going it on foot was going to be the way forward (until the point that I had to turn back). So stomped up to Black Rock Camp, whilst in full road ninja garb (no idea what I am on about? That means you ain't been following my exploits! Shame on you. Just kidding. You have better ways to spend your time but if you want to know, then you will have to sift through all the previous posts. Thats how to create more page views (I'm desperate). 

Noisy buggers with musical notes in their wings.

I went up 'Hill Top Lookout'. One side was aqua blue waters whilst the other was dark blue waters. When I was done soaking in the views I turned around on my table top perch and all I could say was 'Fuck!'...the view behind me was spectacular. Hills and mountains just rolling off in to the distance. Slowly fading away. A panoramic feast for the eyes. I kept spinning around, soaking in the view with Broken Social Scene's 'Song for a 17 Year Old' acting as the sound track. I felt like crying. 

 Top and bottom: Panoramic from 'Hill Top Lookout'