Picton to Hanmer Springs: Exceeding expectations

When planning this bikepacking expedition (sounds impressive), the first four days looked challenging. It is wise to try and ease yourself into a longer ride but with this one the geography was not going to oblige.

Our first outing on the bikes was to ride them from Seatoun, an eastern burb of Wellywood, to the ferry terminal. Easy peasy! However, having negotiated the dangerous waters of Cook Strait, the real work began.

We chose to ride to Blenheim via remote Port Underwood, BIG MISTAKE! It may have been a part of the country that neither of us had visited before but in hindsight it should have stayed that way. A pretty ride but with 1,450m of climbing over a mere 48km, it was the most gruelling ride I have ever undertaken. Steep gradients combined with a 21km stretch of sandy gravel resulted in it being challenging to even push the bike when it became to steep to pedal. The only redeeming factors were; pretty scenery, good weather and a lack of any motorised traffic – be warned, you do not want to drive your car along this road unless you absolutely have to.

As you can see from this post, we lived to tell the tale (just),

After some welcome hospitality from Chris and Karen in Blenheim, the promised rain arrived in ‘Ark building’ volumes. Dawn on Saturday did not deliver the promised easing and we were in no hurry to throw our battered bodies out into the deluge. We headed down to the supermarket to pick up some supplies for the next three days ride through the remote and mountainous Inland Kaikōura route via Molesworth Station.

Our patience was rewarded and the rain eased off. Howard was having a few challenges with his luggage setup. Big red, his massive carrier bag, is like Santa’s sack and needs careful packing to get the weight distribution right. He was in the learning stage and our brains were a bit scrambled from the corrugated roads so I cut him plenty of slack as we ate into the break in the weather while he repacked the beast on the Taylor river trail.

By the time we started our ascent of Taylor’s Pass, yet another deserted goat track, the rain was beating down. The Pass, at around 400m, had much more gentle gradients and we got a bonus as the rain stopped as we hit the summit.

When we got to the lower Awatere Valley, the road had a sealed surface, the weather continued to improve and we enjoyed some tasty lunch that we had picked up in Blenheim, this was much more up to expectations. The scenery got better as we headed up the valley but the road deteriorated. The seal was replaced with corrugated gravel and the flat valley and vineyards became high country merino sheep stations. We were suddenly climbing into the mountains. It was a tough day but the bar had been set high by that first day.

For the second day in a row Howard’s battery ran dry just short of our destination. My c-bike (powered by energy food and rehydration fluid) was going better than the previous day but I was pleased to see Camden Cookshop appear. We stayed in shearer’s quarters for the night. It had been another 1300m of climbing.

There was a pattern developing as the next morning dawned with heavy rain falling again. It had cleared by the time we hit the pedals and we were soon climbing to yet another elevation record. Unfortunately, our stay that night at Cobb required camping. Howard bathed in the mountain stream while I pitched the little tent. An uninspiring meal was followed by an uncomfortable night roughing it.

The next morning delivered an early warm up exercise as we ground our way over Wards Pass at 1,145m. The road got rougher and our bums grew more painful. We were starting to get ‘over’ the high country and were happy to see Jacks Pass which was a 500m screamer down to Hanmer, our overnight stop providing a much needed hot shower and decent food.

We knew it was going to be tough and our expectations were well and truly exceeded.