It’s time for the rubber to hit the gravel

For the last few “training” rides I have been plodding along on with all of my gear loaded onto the bike. Yesterday, after grinding up the same set of hills, noting the same bits of rubbish as I crawled past at a snail’s pace, I decided that I had enough. I came home and after washing a drying the last of the gear, I packed it all into my bags so that I was not tempted to venture out again today. The fresh scenery will hopefully take my mind off the serious climbing (and tiring muscles) that we have to undertake over the first four days of riding. In fact, looking at some of the terrain, I have probably not focussed enough on walking and pushing the bike so I have embarked on some last minute brisk walks to make sure that the walking part of my legs are functioning ok.

The promised ‘end of the rains’ in my last post proved to be a false dawn. Spring has been only slightly less damp than winter and I suspect we are on track for a record annual rainfall. It is about now that I start pouring over weather maps to see what weather conditions we will encounter over the coming days. I have found forecasts for the next two days to be reasonably accurate but beyond that find them to be a dubious gauge. I am certainly hoping that proves true as the current outlook for later in the week is a bit soggy looking. Not that we mind a little moisture. In February when Howard joined me in Arapuni for the ride through the rugged central North Island, he arrived with some very wet and humid conditions. To make sure that we had not forgotten what it like to ride in serious rain, during a ride last week, one of the occasional showers that were forecast followed us for the entire 60km.

I have gone through the usual ritual of ‘what bike setup to use’ and have finally settled on two configurations. I am dusting off the panniers for the first four days from Picton to Hamner Springs as these will accommodate the additional food and camping gear we need to carry for this remote section of the ride. At Hamner, the camping gear and panniers get boxed up and sent home and I will use a lighter carrier bag for the rest of the journey.

We have some interesting times ahead. Howard is on an e-bike and we have a number of river crossings which will entail me going through first. If I get washed away, Howard will retrace his steps and pass the bad news onto Ruth when he gets home. If I survive, we will gauge how deep the river is. If it looks threatening to his motor, I will cross back over the river and we will carry the bike over so that it is clear of the water. If it is over my waist we may need a plan B. To compensate for all of these ‘lab rat’ heroics on my part, Howard will have to wait for quite long periods at the top of hills for me to catch up. I guess he will be nice and rested by the time I collapse on the ground.

I will endeavour to put some regular posts up on our progress, hopefully not too many trials and tribulations but more enjoyable commentary. If you are interested in seeing a pictorial account of each day I will post pictures to Instagram and Facebook

The map of our route is below. We start in Seatoun in Wellington on Thursday, 17 November and all going well, arrive in Queenstown on 8 December (hopefully in 2022). We are roughly following the Sounds to Sounds route but with a few modifications. We are replacing the Queen Charlotte track with ride that takes us to Blenhiem via remote Port Underwood. Due to 30 river crossings (probably not e-bike friendly due to river volume in Spring) we are going to trek further east and access central Otago via Danseys Pass. Rather that bike through to Milford Sound, after Mossburn we are heading through the mountains to Walter Peak Station where we will catch a boat to Queenstown.