2011 Winter South Island – Part 1

This is a brief write-up of my 3 week ride around the top of the South Island in July/August.

Two years ago, I spent 3 weeks in winter riding the length of the South Island on State Highway 6 (SH6). This went down the West Coast, and the write-up can be read at Crazy Guy on a Bike here.

I felt it was time for another ride, this time with a more flexible route plan (while rewarding, I found the SH6 ride quite restrictive). There were several places in the upper South Island that I wanted to cycle, and tried to find a route to combine them all.

So, I started by taking the ferry from Wellington to Picton, then biking to Blenheim- a short ride, so I was set up at the campsite pretty early but it let me visit the supermarket to stock up.. The first important lesson of the trip occurred here- don’t go shopping while on a bike trip while hungry. I ended up buying over a weeks worth of food, even though there were heaps of shops on the way! So yes, it was quite a banquet session that night when I realised I couldn’t fit it all in my panniers!

The next day was a long, straight, flat ride up the Wairau Valley, nothing to report really, except that it’s much nicer riding the other way (downhill) with a tailwind like I did on a ride last December when I covered the 130km from St Arnaud to Picton in a day.. Anyway, this evening I stayed at the DOC Kowhai Point Campsite beside the upper Wairau River, very nice. Had the place to myself and it was generally quiet except for the odd truck heading up the highway. It was made more annoying due to a couple of slow corners causing vehicles to slow down then accelerate again nearby.

It was a cold start the next morning, waking to ice on my tent. It took a bit of riding to warm up, and it wasn’t until after the final climb up to the Wairau Saddle (past the Rainbow Road turnoff) that I felt warmed up. The climb to the saddle goes through a forested area, and there was a heap of grit, and in some places ice on the road, so i had to have my wits about me. Once out of the bush I was suddenly riding past fields which had 5-10cm of snow covering them. Luckily the road had been well cleared, and there was even a bit of shoulder. I had some lunch down by the lake in the snow. St Arnaud is one of the main entry points to the Nelson Lakes National Park, and I’ve done quite a few tramping (/hiking) trips up here. It definitely would’ve been a mission plugging through the snow that weekend!

From St Arnaud I followed the start of the Buller River through the Upper Buller Gorge to Murchison. Here I spent a couple of nights to let the body recover from the shock of being on the bike again! This rest day was largely spent reading, wandering around the small town, and doing some minor maintenance to the bike.

Up until arriving in Murchison the weather had been nice and sunny for the ride. Leaving it however it was cloudy and misty- typical weather in this part of the world in winter. I continued down the Buller River, before following the West Coast railway line up to one of NZ’s main mining towns, Reefton. Not a whole heap happens in Reefton, and seeing as none of the backpacker buses or normal bus lines seem to go through it, the backpackers was full of guys who work in the mines!

The next day took me down the Grey River, along the northern bank to the town of Blackball. This town is well known for a couple of things: the very tasty Blackball Salami, and a certain hotel- the “Formerly the Blackball Hilton“. I was hoping to stay here (and therefore bummed around having a beer at the pub etc) until I found out that they charged about 3 times what i was willing to pay for a night!!! So I jumped back on the bike and quickly rode my unfit-ass another 25km to Greymouth, arriving just on dark.

The next few days were amazing, perfect West Coast riding – the reason i go cycle-touring. The first two headed SE towards Arthurs Pass, past Lake Brunner to an awesome camping ground at Jacksons where you could watch the west coast coal trains trundling across the river. It was a windy night and I had to put all the guy’s out on my tent so it didn’t blow away! I then headed back towards the coast via Kumara to Greymouth. One of my favourite roads to ride is from Greymouth to Westport through Punakaiki. It’s best split into two shorter days, stopping at Punakaiki for the night, which also gives you time to check out the Pancake Rocks there. This is an amazing coastline, especially if you’ve got a bit of a storm coming through creating interesting lighting for photographs like I did.

I had a time constraint on my trip as I had to fly back to Wellington for a day in the middle of the ride. I timed this so that I would be in Westport as there are direct flights. Infuriatingly, the appointment I was returning for got postponed the day before, so I didn’t have to return. I therefore had a couple of rest days in Westport, staying at the nice Bazil’s Hostel, where i’ve stayed before and really recommend.

I did a quick ride out to Cape Foulwind in really nice weather. It was a great day for it- fine and relatively warm, at least compared to the rest of the South Island who got covered in one of the biggest snowfalls in years!

The rest of the trip is covered in Part 2, more photos can be seen here.