New Zealand - Molesworth/Rainbow passes & Horizons Unlimited meeting on Arthur’s pass

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New Zealand - Molesworth/Rainbow passes & Horizons Unlimited meeting on Arthur’s pass

10th - 19th February

New Zealand - Molesworth/Rainbow passes & Horizons Unlimited meeting on Arthur’s pass.

The following morning we woke up to rain, rain & more rain :tears and decided to stay put and use the time to decide our route and plans for the South Island and use the opportunity for me to visit a Church for the first time in a while. The day was pleasant and we managed to find a café serving a Sunday lunch which we both enjoyed. :grin We also bought a tarpaulin to use underneath the tents groundsheet to stop the water seeping in. In the afternoon we did our planning and horse trading of different rides and venues !!! In the evening I visited the Pentecostal Church in town which was very good.

It rained most of the night again and we didn’t sleep so well because of the noise of the rain on the tent. :tears After breakfast the packing was a bit of a nightmare as it kept showering as we were trying to put stuff away. :mad: Finally though, we were packed up and we went down to the petrol station for some more fuel and more air in the rear tyre (as it hadn‘t sealed properly against the wheel rim). Filled up, we left and headed towards Blenheim about 25km North of the Gravel Track :grin we intended to follow today. The gravel track is only open for around 2 months per year and runs through a wine and cattle area called Molesworth. It runs for just short of 200km to Hanmer Springs and we were told that the views were outstanding. We got onto the track and the first few k’s were fine as it was paved but after that we were soon in quite deep gravel which was like riding on marbles. :EEK I’d been on this type of surface before so was confident of the bike and myself but didn’t particularly enjoy it as I had to ride fairly slowly. :( The dislike was compounded after I’d caught up a campervan on a small section of paved road and he’d graciously let me pass :thumb2………..just as we were going back on to gravel again where he would have ordinarily been probably slightly quicker than me !! :rolleyes: So there I was being pressured to ride on the wrong side of the border of my comfort zone (by my own Pride ! :blast)-fortunately, about 10km’s later the gravel became much easier to ride on and we were able to travel at around 70km/hr for most of it, :D about 20km‘hr faster than the campervan. :D

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The Blenheim vineyards at the begining of the Molesworth track.

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The paved road lasted for about 15-20k's before we were in 'glorious' gravel.

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Some of the amazing scenery we saw from the Molesworth track.

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Sylvia opening/closing one of the stock/cattle control gates on the Molesworth.

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The views were beautiful and just kept coming. :grin The only downside was the number of electricity pylons we saw in some amazing scenes-such a shame !! :tears Anyway, the ride was great and I had a blast on my own at one point where I rode to my own one-up limits and I was hurtling through this gravel, leaving poor Sylvia in the dust as I went by BUT I had a very big smile on my face!! :hapybnce:

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A salute for Sylvia for her forebearance of my many many anctics !!

Despite our earlier understanding (from the forecast) the weather held up well for most of the day. However at around 5pm it gave in and gave us a good downpour which lasted the remainder of the way to Hanmer Springs. We'd packed the tent away soaking this morning and so decided that a backpackers would be a better option for this evening. We found one quite quickly and were pleased to learn that it was only $NZ54 per night for both of us. (Around £25) The Backpackers was excellent :thumb2 and reminded us both of an Alpine lodge. We met a number of people from around the world over a beautiful wooden dining table and exchanged our various stories in the evening and went to bed very happy to be in the dry and in a real bed for a change !! :D :sleep

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Our first view of Hanmer Springs.

As was forecast, it rained most of the night and was still raining hard in the morning so we decided to stay in Hanmer and go to their natural hot springs. We spent about 2 hours in the springs and set our hearts on having a Devonshire cream tea :grin (It’s called that in NZ too !!) in the afternoon so we rushed out of the springs BUT we were astonished and disappointed to discover the cafes close at 16:00 !!!! :spitfire :tears :spitfire We couldn’t believe it :confused: as this is a large tourist resort so we went to the Supermarket and bought some English muffins, jam & a huge pot of extra thick cream…….hmmmm. :hapybnce: We also decided that as we had all the facilities in the Backpackers to cook easily, and that it was wet & cold, that we’d have a nice beef stew. The cream tea far surpassed most that we’ve ever bought in a café and the stew was excellent. We were stuffed. :D

The following morning the weather had improved, and so after finishing off our muffins & cream for breakfast as the cream wouldn’t survive the day :rolleyes: :nod, we left for the Rainbow pass to Saint Anu.

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One of the few shots of Sylvia and I on the bike - taken outside the backpackers the morning we left for the Rainbow pass.

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The now much drier Hanmer Springs as we start for the Rainbow pass.

The Rainbow pass was to take us through similar scenery to the Molesworth but was only about 100 km’s long. We were a bit disappointed initially as the scenery just wasn’t that spectacular and there were far too many electricity pylons. I was really miffed and sad about the number of Pylons and their positions right next to the river. (I later discovered that the only reason the track was there that we were driving on is because it was created to enable the Pylons to be erected.:blast :rolleyes:) However, around half way, the scenery changed and really opened up, not only that but I had a lot of fun driving across some rivers and streams & some technically challenging gravel. A great afternoon. :hapybnce:

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Some of the first good views we got on the Rainbow pass track.

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The point where the Rainbow pass really opened up.....and our lunch-time :D

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The procedure and process of river crossings.

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You will have of course noted that I used two different rivers :augie

After arriving at Saint Anu, we rode to Westport on a paved road which also had beautiful scenery and great riding roads. As the weather had changed again and we’d had to ride in the rain again we took a small cabin for the night. I was really tired, the track was great but tough enough and an extra 150k’s on the windy roads at the end of the day really finished me off. We got some food and watched Amazing Grace in the evening in our little cabin. :sleep

The following morning we left for Greymouth via the Pancake rocks & a fur seal colony not far from Westport. We had a nice lunch in a bar where the people were really friendly :thumb2 but it rained again really hard on the way to the seals. By the time we reached Greymouth the rain had stopped and we pitched our tent, for the first time using the tarpaulin we’d bought in Picton. By 8pm the rain was torrential and we were looking forward to a dry night and our stuff remaining dry. :nod

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Pancake rocks made for an unusual geological sight.

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The fur seal colony.

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The rain was torrential all night and I woke up feeling like I had a wet hip. :eek Thinking I was imagining it, I rolled over only to finally discover that the bedding was wet, in fact everything was wet. :yikes The tarpaulin had acted as a funnel to the rain coming off the fly sheet and pooled all the water right under our porous ground sheet. We then spent 4 hours + drying everything, and I mean everything (excluding our electrical stuff) as even the pannier had water in it.:eek We were very grateful to the ’Top Ten’ campsite for allowing us to stay far later than the normal exit time so we could dry our stuff out. :thumb2

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The huge drying process we had to undertake before we could leave Greymouth.

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When we finally were ready to leave, we went to try and find new tent in town but nothing was either worthy of the price it commanded or looked as though it would last more than a week or so. In the end we decided to continue to a Horizons Unlimited bike rally being held on Arthur’s Pass but resolving to put the tarpaulin inside the tent and our possessions on top of it so they were contained in a dry area. Before leaving though for the meeting we needed some food for the weekend so we went shopping for ultra light low volume food stuffs. Despite us both having the miseries initially, our shopping was quite a laugh in the end as it became quite scientific and budget conscious. :D

We rode up to Arthur’s Pass and could only see one of two bikes. I hadn’t properly noted down the address (as there is just the one Arthur’s Pass) and was now wondering where the heck everybody was ! It was cold, Sylvia had the beginnings of a cold and we started to worry as the day was fast drawing to a close. Finally, after our third trip through town, Dave Milligan of ’Get Routed’ came out of a restaurant and explained what everybody else was doing in terms of accommodation and dinner :thumb2. Phew ! In the end we stayed in an expensive (for us) Hotel on Arthur’s Pass and had dinner with Dave, Maggie & the rest of the meetings riders in the local pub.

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The venue for the Horizions Unlimited week-end.

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The Organisers, Nigel & Lee

After a warm nights rest we met up in the venue for the HU weekend. On Saturday there was a comprehensive demonstration of tyre and wheel bearing replacement, some interesting general chats, a slide show, and a time to share our various packing experiences. In the evening we had dinner and free beer. :beer:

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Nigel(HU organiser), Dave Milligan(Get Routed), myself and another helping out with the kitchen duties.

It turns out that the $NZ20 each (about £8) we'd paid for the week-end included lunch, dinner, as much tea/coffee as you could drink, one nights accommodation, as much good quality beer as you wanted & breakfast on Sunday. :thumb2 :eek: :D Phenomenal. :thumb2 However, it turned out that as approximately 6 people hadn’t showed :( :mad: that the organisers were running at a loss. We didn’t know that until nearly half of the riders had left on the Sunday. None-the-less, the remainder of us had a quick collection which made up for most, if not all of the shortfall in the end. (I wish to make it clear that neither Nigel or Lee hadn let us know about this voluntarily-I’d pretty well had to prize it out of them to find out.)

On the Sunday about 5 of us went on a ride out to Mt White. It was a great ride on gravel on a gloriously Sunny day(if a trifle windy !!). We finally left for Christchurch with an ex-pat, Sam, and stayed at a nice ‘Kiwi’ campsite not far from centre of the city.

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Sylvia and I just before the ride-out to Mt White.


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Sunday's ride out 'team' to Mt White - Another beautiful ride.

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Scenes from the ride-out itself.

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Pip, of Saffron (Motorcycle) tours on the rideout.

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The rides on the Molesworth, Rainbow & Arthur’s passes were the best rides we enjoyed anywhere in New Zealand or Australia. They really were something exceptional. :nod :grin

On the Monday we went into the city and I managed to get my money back on the failed Kathmandu air bed :thumb2 & get my Exped bed exchanged :thumb2. In the end, the Exped dealer in Christchurch didn’t have a comparable sized Exped bed so the Manager agreed to exchange it for the same model Thermorest as Sylvia’s. :thumb2 We haggled briefly about a cash difference and settled with me paying $NZ10 which was fine. :thumb2 I was very grateful to Exped for their assistance, understanding and trust of the bed failing, and for ‘Bivouac‘(of Christchurch) in their assistance in helping to come to a satisfactory conclusion. :thumb2 After all, all I showed them was the original stuff sack and a cut-out section of the air bed which had the highest concentrations of punctures. (Not sure I would have got such a result in the UK !!) It was a legitimate problem, but as I say, I can’t imagine such help being offered in the UK.

In the evening we met up with Dave & Maggie and an Australian couple who were considering touring with their bike in Europe. Dave had thought that meeting us might be helpful. In the end they didn’t seem that interested in ‘using us’ but we had a really nice evening with them anyway.

Whilst in Christchurch I also had our friend Phil put an inner tube in our superb rear Czech made rear knobbly as it kept loosing air around the beading at the rate of all air gone in 3 days. (The grip on and off road, and the wear were excellent.) The rack had also cracked on 2 main stay points :eek, no doubt as a result of all the excessive weight in and on the top box and the rough roads we’d ridden to and from Hanmer Springs. Phil recommended us a good local welder which I rode the bike over to. I removed the rack at the welders and explained that I wanted the cracks welded & the areas around the break-points re-enforced by an additional two strengthening plates. The welding couldn’t be finished on the same day so I agreed to collect first thing the following morning.

Whilst in Christchurch we also looked for a replacement tent, however in the end we found nothing suitable for the volume, weight, quality & price and so decided to stick with our North Face with the tarp on the inside.

We needed a quick off the following morning as we had a lot to do and planned to ride down to Dunedin, about 350k’s South which wasn’t helped by over-sleeping a bit which put pressure on us straight away.

After a quick breakfast I took off to get the rack back & a new wet suit for myself as I was fed up being and getting wet. Once I got the rack, I re-fitted it to the bike in a few minutes, managed to get a new wetsuit and shot back to help Sylvia in the final stages of packing our gear together.

Poor Sylvia had had a right morning of fit with her broken arm giving her a lot of trouble. Finally we were packed and set off to Dunedin at around 11:15. The ride was pretty uninteresting for the first 150 or so K’s but we had around 350 to do so it was knuckle down and knock ’em out today. Soon we’d done around 150 k‘s and stopped for Burger King after concluding that there wasn’t any other viable choices. The Burgers were only just warm enough and we were left disappointed about the re-heating microwave policy that Burger King and McDonalds restaurants in OZ & NZ seem to have adopted. :mad: We probably won’t bother eating at Mc’Ds’ or BK again down here. :nono

We press on and bang out another 100 or so K’s and stop for a coffee as we were both a bit cold and tired. After the bowl of coffee (something unique to NZ as I‘ve said elsewhere) & ‘obligatory’ cake we were back on the road again and finish the ride to Dunedin which perked up a bit nearer the end.

Originally we’d planned to stay at a ‘Top Ten’ or ‘Kiwi’ campsite but by good fortune we ended up stumbling upon a ‘Family Parks’ campsite which was in a quiet location by a river just outside of town. We pitched up on what was a spacious spot, got dinner together and settled down for the night. :sleep

Mike
 


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