Rain fell on the iron roof of my little cabin much of the night; a slow start to the day was in order with a cooked breakfast and plenty of tea. The rain was consistent, but at least it was light as I rode a few miles of highway before turning off and heading up the Mangles Valley. The pleasant and gradual climbed steepened as my route (the first part of the day was on the Kiwi Brevet route I remember from 2015) headed up the good gravel to Braeburn Saddle. The wetting continued from above, the multiple large stream crossings thankfully were all rideable.
With nothing in the distance but clouds, there was plenty of time and attention to focus on the immediate surroundings – which I thoroughly enjoyed. After an hour, I was over the pass and concentrating on the descent to Lake Rotoroa. With the extra speed and spray, I was fair soaked through and barely comfortable from the air movement. I found a shelter at the lake (no sandflies today!), had some food and pondered whether I should take the much higher option of the Porika Track and put myself in the clouds for a couple of hours.
Eventually I figured an hour of pushing my bike three kilometres up a rugged track would probably warm me up a fair bit – and really, it wasn’t raining heavily and there was little wind. Perfect day to take my bike for a walk up a hill. It was not unpleasant and the rain never worsened, I kept a steady pace and finally got back on my bike at 1000 m high for the slightly mellower descent. Going the reverse direction in February will be interesting, will be a wild drop down to the lake.
Lake Rotoroa. Oh.
Out onto the minor highway to St Arnaud, it was much busier than usual as the main road from the Buller to Nelson was closed in part. The traffic wasn’t too bad on a Saturday afternoon, but with the spray and low visibility it wasn’t particularly fun. Also, it was one big false flat; I’m surprised now to check and see that there was almost two hundred metres of climbing in that seemingly flat stretch of road. In no real rush, it was just a case of continuing to move through the moisture – of course, most of it came with me as I was wet through. In town I found a cafe, sat outside and enjoyed a pie, tea and cheesecake – a strange mix looking back, but any combination of desirable food makes sense at such moments.
Rejoining all the rerouted traffic heading back to the city, I was now at the point of the return to sea level that almost any climb I now did would take me to the highest point I would be on for the rest of the trip. Which is a rather long way of saying, it was almost all downhill from there. At Golden Downs I was surprised to be reading history boards about a once thriving timber town, obviously that wasn’t only a thing closer to my North Island home. Here I turned off for a longer route home, leaving the traffic behind, and heading for a section of the Great Taste Trail I’d not ridden (even more has since opened in the month since).
The attraction on this part of the trail is Spooners Tunnel – it’s certainly not any tasty treats, I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything great on the trail; I may be missing the point. At over 1300 m long, it’s the longest disused tunnel in New Zealand and has only in the last few years been accessible. At the carpark nearby it was cool to stop and chat to a family with young kids going for a ride in the tunnel; I was impressed that this is their go-to rainy day activity. “It’s dry in there and we can ride our bikes!” – can’t fault that logic.
Back into the rain and gloom after the darkness of the tunnel, the long gradual rail-gradient descent to sea level commenced. Of course, decades since the railway closed, it is not as simple as following the rail corridor; things change. But it wasn’t too tortuous and the main road was mostly avoided. Somewhere around seven o’clock the rain began to back off and it finally stopped! Twelve hours after setting off I somehow found a way to add a large order of Indian takeout to my luggage and was on the final stretch of my little tour, looking forward to a big meal and getting dry.
What a fantastic two weeks! My first solo tour of more than a long weekend in years was thoroughly enjoyable. While the weather delayed and changed plans a little, it was such a luxury to have the time up my sleeve to change plans around the storms and it meant I had many excellent days riding in the areas I really wanted to ride – most excellent to spend time with friends old and new too. I certainly hope it’s not another five years before I’m back biking on the West Coast – so much to offer.