Leaving Hanmer Springs and moving South

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Internet:

Ain’t good in NZ. Mostly dial up, very expensive and very slow. It is amazing that the technology is so far behind here. NZ is such a long way away from anywhere, that you would expect the internet to be booming and vital to commerce. But we have found maintaining the Blog really difficult. Everything has to be written online at slow expensive rates (anything up to 5 quid an hour). Apparently it is because NZ telecom still has the monopoly until June….

Diary:

We left St Arnaud looking forward to a few days of descent to Wesport following the Buller Gorge, however no sooner had we left St Arnaud, that we experienced our first headwind. I felt downhearted, but Ben true to form with a gradient barely in his favour decided that this too could be a training ride - so far dragging 40Kg of trailer up endless steep inclines has been preparation for a variety of Alpine cols (training for the Vaujanay). So head down he set a draining pace all the way to Murchison, and I had to tuck in behind and hang onto his rear wheel or fight the headwind alone. Thankfully there was tea and cake at the end to assist recovery. Thinking the worst was over, the next day looked promising, no headwind just a lovely descent down the Buller Gorge. Unfortunately, as is often the case when following rivers downstream, the road was actually a succession of uphills followed by a marginally longer downhills. However an ice-cream at Inanguhua Junction raised the spirits for the lask 20k to Berlins, where we planned to stop. But at Berlins we were faced with a predicament, the room rate had doubled as they wanted to charge full price for the girls, so it was either another 32k to Westport or to cough up. Disliking the owner we opted to slog on to Wesport - a full 96k day. The girls tolerated it by nodding off to sleep and were rewarded with fish and chips and a campsite with a playground. We spent a couple of days at Westport, visiting the beach, seal colony and walking the Cape Foulwind walkway. Then on the Monday we opted to take a bus back up the Buller Gorge to Mauria Springs. It cost an arm and a leg, but was worth it so as not to retrace our steps. It felt even more worth it when the day dawned overcast and rainy - we have been so lucky with the weather so far. We pitched our tent at the springs and enjoyed the thermal pools in the misty rain. By the afternoon we were enjoying full sunshine again, though the girls constantly opted to play in the indoor Japanese bath house. The following afternoon we climbed over the Lewis pass and camped just over the other side in preparation for a hard days cycling to Hanmer Springs. Another lovely stream side campsite where we built a roaring fire to sit by in the evening.
The journey to Hanmer Springs was undulating with a few tough climbs and a mild headwind. Both girls wearing all their clothes and waterproofs still looked quite blue when we stopped for lunch. However we made it to Hanmer Springs in good time and booked into the most expensive campsite (for the playground with trampoline) and spent a relaxed couple of days there, going to the hot springs and wandering in the woods. Charlie and Penny also came and met us, so Ben and Charlie went off mountain biking for an afternoon.
There was much excitement when we left Hanmer Springs as we were going to stay in a house in a bed for the night at the Waikiri cyclist resort - a wonderful B&B, with cyclist owners.
And the experience was everything we hoped it to be, great food, great beds and great fun for the girls, feeding the chickens and ducks, stroking the hand reared sheep and making cakes with Julie. We’ll definitely stay again on our way North - an absolute must for all cyclists. We were thoroughly spoilt.

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