Advertisement
Published: March 21st 2018
Edit Blog Post
Day 23: Wanaka to Queenstown, 95km. The Donkey conquers the Crown Range
The next morning the donkey woke up very early in quite a state. He had looked at the weather forecast the evening before and although the weather forecast for day 23 from Wanaka to Queenstown was still favourable it was going to turn to custard, or shit, the day after. The donkey preferred custard over shit, he liked custard but he had learned that as the weather was concerned it was all the same. On that day, day 24, the Donkey had to tackle one of the more difficult routes of the Tour, 103km of gravel roads and bike trails, between Walter Peak Station and Mossburn, with the 600m high Von Hill smack bang in the middle. To get from Queenstown to Walter Peak Station the tour riders were advised to take the Earnslaw which should have been called the Earnslow as it was very slow indeed as it would not get to Walter Peak Station till mid morning for the start of the ride. The predicted change to a Southerly meant that the wind was going to blow straight from Antarctica, across the Southern Ocean, into the
Von Valley and the poor Donkey’s face. Headwind was not only going to be accompanied by Rain but also by Cold. The Donkey had a healthy respect for Cold as he did not have much body fat, some donkeys just don’t and the Donkey was one of those, he gets cold quickly especially since he has become a bit older.
The Donkey had put the long term weather forecast out of his head when he went to bed, but early in the morning it was back in his brain with a vengeance and he could not get rid of it, what to do? He would get to Queenstown o.k. today but what then? He made himself a strong coffee and did some administration to take his mind of it all till daylight broke. Then the Donkey called Tahr for advice. Tahr is a free spirited mountain goat who lives in the mountains around Queenstown. The Donkey could not always get hold of Tahr, probably because Tahr spent a lot of time outside cellphone range, but this time he did. That was lucky. Even luckier was that Tahr has a small speedboat and when he heard about the Donkeys plans
and the upcoming Southerly, he offered to bring him across Lake Wakatipu with his jetboat early the next morning so the Donkey could make an early start to try and stay ahead of the change in weather for as long as possible as the Southerly was not expected to hit till midday. Good plan, thought the Donkey, and he was a bit happier when he left Wanaka to head to Queenstown.
The Donkey had heard that another mate, a grey weka, was in Wanaka for a holiday and keen to ride with him for a bit so the Donkey gave him a call before he departed and they met at the foreshore of Lake Wanaka to ride together up the Cardrona Valley. Unbeknown to the Donkey the grey weka had been looking for the Donkey on the road between Haast and Makarora the previous day but had not seen him. The Donkey thought this a bit strange as how can you miss a donkey on a bike in the pouring rain, but anyway the grey weka was here now and he suggested he would pull the Donkey up the Cardrona Valley. The idea appealed to the donkey. The road
gradually rises for the first 24 km to the Cardrona Hotel where the two friends were going to have a coffee before tackling the Crown Range Pass, the highest point of the Tour at just over 1000 meters high.
Riding up the valley the Donkey was in the lead, the grey weka sat on his wheel and they had a good chat but the grey weka never took the lead to do some of the work as promised. The Donkey concluded that perhaps the grey weka had turned up just to get his name in the story, but that is a bit unkind so the donkey decided that the grey weka wanted to make sure the Donkey was doing o.k. and keep him company for a bit. Tailwind was there to help out anyway.
They had their coffee at the Cardrona hotel when the grey weka suddenly announced he was going to return to Wanaka. The grey weka is married to a beautiful Rose who was waiting for him back in Wanaka so the Donkey did not blame him and got ready to tackle the Crown Range by himself. He had done the climb a number of times
when he was younger and he was looking forward to it but when the climb started in all earnest he realised that he had never done it on a heavily laden mountain bike with ….There he stopped himself just in time as he nearly said ‘with big fat tires’, and that would have been the end of his beautiful friendship with Spot. Spot had an inkling what his master was thinking but fortunately ignored it. He was in a good mood and wanted to assist the Donkey as much as possible to get to the top, which they did, albeit very slowly.
From there they took a turn off the main road onto more gravel roads and bike trails, all very scenic, the Donkey tried to take it all in but had to watch where he was going as the gravel and stones and rock he encountered tried to throw him off-balance. They were definitely not his friends. Queenstown is situated on the shores of Lake Wakatipu and is surrounded by pristine mountains, so pristine that even the Swiss Mountains pale in comparison (not really but it sounds good) and it has become the busiest and most expensive tourist town in New Zealand. The Donkey stayed with Tahr that night, in the mountains, not far away from Queenstown. They went out for dinner and had a good catch up. The Donkey admires Tahr and his free spirit and independence. Tahr is very smart. He can take a motor of a car, or motorbike, or boat or any motor for that matter, except perhaps for a weed eater as he wouldn't bother with that, apart and put it back together again in less than an hour. The Donkey could not do that sort of thing in a lifetime. Tahr is also a bit of a speed devil, hence the speedboat. Tahr has his own private orthopaedic surgeon who puts him back together again after his speed related crashes, and Tahr has had a few, but the Donkey knows that Tahr will never change his ways.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0397s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb