Another Milestone: The Mainland ☑️

The bike creaked its way into Picton today to complete the circuit of Te Waipounamu / The South Island. I say creaked because things are not happy up front in the pedal department. Not the GOTF. After an estimated 1.43 million revolutions of the pedals, his legs are still pumping away but the machinery that he is pumping has, over the last few days, started to grumble and creak. I will need to see if I can get someone better qualified than me to check it out on my reserve day in Upper Hutt. So now, in addition to wearing out the RA and scaring off the guest stoker, I can add the bike to my list of casualties. It is still rideable but a noisy bike is not a healthy one.

We cannot complain. Those 1.43 million pedal revolutions have carried us 5,738km involving 340 hours of cycling, not to mention pushing it up 56,000 meters of ascent. That is the equivalent of climbing Mt Everest 6.32 times, from sea level. Someone asked me “how do you do it”? Well, I get up each morning and get on the bike and ride it. The secret is to not think too much about the big goal, just focus on the day ahead.

Bob even started to be a bit naughty today and ripped his helmet off refusing to wear it. Fortunately we didn’t see any law enforcement officers on the road. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen too many at all on the trip north from Bluff. The cynical side of me would put that down to public service cuts but the more rational side puts it down to the rather isolated areas that I have been riding through.

On the good news front, it looks as though the weather will not be an issue for getting back across Cook Strait. In fact, since those bleak couple of days in Southland, the weather has been brilliant. Not too hot (until yesterday) and dry with little wind. Will it last through the North Island? Stay tuned!

Yesterday’s ride from Nelson to Havelock was one of those rides that I had identified as requiring my ‘ride to survive’ technique. I took an extra day in Nelson so that I could tackle this busy road on a Saturday on the assumption that even truck drivers need a break at the weekend. Well I can confirm that most truck drivers take the day off but not all of them. I suspect that the ones that did take the day off decided to venture out in their car or campervan. Yes the road was very busy but it had a shoulder of sorts in many places and the drivers were very bike friendly. No close shaves, just the fumes and noise to contend with. Today’s ride was much more pleasant, a short jaunt along the Sounds from Havelock to Picton.

I preferred my rides earlier in the week over the Maruia Saddle and Braeburn tracks. In the 120km covered on these two rides I could count on one hand the number of vehicles that I encountered. Riding through beech forest, over a couple of reasonable saddles and a bit of spinning of the back wheel on the steeper gravel sections. This latter issue highlighted another important role that the RA was playing on the trip south, keeping the back of the bike stable on steep gravel. Then it was onto the Tadmor Saddle and Valley ending up in Tapawera. Hop country. I have to say that their Hop Farm Kahurangi Pilsner was the best I have ever tasted. But then again I was thirsty and have even been know to drink a Speights after a long ride. In fact I was drinking so many Speights for a while that I started to feel like a real southern man. One observation was, that most of the hop acreage I rode past was not in production. I assume that this is a reflection of the hard times that craft beers are facing which flows on to the demand for local hops.

Anyway, all this talk of beer is making me thirsty. Moving on. It was on these rides that I had another 10 river crossings. Given the dry weather, I decided that they should not be a problem and committed to riding the remote tracks rather than the busier roads. Once you make that commitment turning back is not a great option, as we found out on the ride south. Neither tracks and their rivers posed a problem, didn’t even get my feet wet which is great as I always managed to get wet feet on my mountain bike. But with the rough tracks came the first hints that all is not well in the pedal department.

I have to say that Nelson gets the award so far as having the best bike infrastructure. Really great place to cycle around and there are heaps of trails around the area as well. I might suggest to the RA that it is time to rethink where we live. The supermarket even had a covered bike parking area that I could tether the tandem to while I went shopping. Guess what, people actually use their bikes because they can get around safely on their connected network. There was plenty of bike stands and most were occupied. The cafes were doing a roaring trade from cyclists who, from my observations, mostly looked to be retired. It was certainly easier to park a bike outside a cafe than it was to find a place to park a car.

Getting to Picton (again) represents another key milestone on the journey. We have now completed a 3,198km circuit of Te Waipounamu. To give the RA the credit that she deserves, she rode the hardest leg by a long shot. Not only was our meandering route south 500km longer, it was much harder as we, at times, ground out each metre over those mountain saddles and passes that she came to hate, along with those pesky norwesters. By comparison, the ride north has been a bit of a doddle. Calm and dry apart from those two very wet days early on in the Deep South.

It has been a bit lonely travelling with just a mute bear but the days pass by quickly. As I have said on many occasions, the challenges and discomfort that we have temporarily endured are nothing when compared to the struggles that vulnerable kids face, through no fault on their part. Help us celebrate our milestone by donating to The Bald Angels via our give-a-little page. You can read another of the Angels heartbreaking stories below.