Ebike Hum

Hari Hari to Franz Josef 63km Slept late this morning (after our late night in Hokitika watching the tennis final) so only on the road at 8:48. Made it less than 5min down the road before being distracted by the display commemorating Guy Menzie's ignominious arrival at Harihari after his ground-breaking (literally) solo flight from Oz in 1931. Who knew? The weather was more like what was forecast on Sunday for today, rather than what was forecast yesterday. Following so far..? Dry, cloudy, humid, warm... Reasonable for cycling, great for some atmospheric mountain photos. Particularly from high on the Mount Hercules ridge. Although this is less than 200m high, the ups and downs of the day added up to 941m in ascent, albeit mostly fairly gradual. My concentration lapsed on one climb, and we were passed by a truck & trailer on a blind bend, solid yellow line, traffic coming the other way; scary! Normally if I can't see round a corner or over a brow I move out to prevent anythi

Hokitika to Hari Hari 76km Metservice says rain heavy at first, easing later, which is what appears to be happening... Slightly different from the other two apps I use, so what to do, what to do??? We're getting wet, it's just a question of degree. It is the West Coast after all, though it would have been great if the rain gods had held fire for another few days. Maybe Rob McKenna's here on holiday! At least it's not cold and any breeze is consistently forecast from the Northeast. One thing, it will be a fast trip as, apart from the obligatory Lake Ianthe photo, there will be no call for photo stops. Jane provides a typical Kiwi host breakfast: cereal, peaches, homemade yoghurt followed by bacon, eggs & tomato and toast. No hurry to get away, for obvious reasons... First stop is Hokitika Cycles & Sportsworld and the legendary (to NZ cyclists at least) Gary. More in hope than expectation I hold up my ebike computer and say 'You don't happen to have one of

Kumara to Hokitika 71km Out of the backpackers, first right, right at the end, and we're on the WCWT. As always in a backpacker place lots of interesting conversation with other guests in the kichen, including a motorcycling family who sailed to NZ from South Africa and a Dutch guy cycling around NZ. Away just before 8 after a false start when we both forgot our backpacks; fortunately realized before we'd gone more than a hundred metres... Oddly, I can't think of much to say about today. The trail is wonderfully made and stunningly scenic, in all its different personas from intimate, tree-lined single track to wide-open vistas. None of the grades are particularly demanding, the much warned about weir crossings a mere trickle, but the myriad switchbacks demand concentration. The kilometres ticked by with satisfying regularity and we both really enjoyed the ride. The first of the two lakes above Kumara is very picturesque, but with a very low water level. The higher lake is e

Ikamatua to Kumara 84.6km (or thereabouts) Self-serve Weetbix, toast, tea for breakfast courtesy of the hotel. On the road at 7:45; we're getting better at this. Feels like a big day ahead but from here to Greymouth is all seal. Onto the back road, no traffic, easy riding, just get into a cadence and you feel like you can go all day. You can't of course, we're all delusional! Using power on the steeper bits as we're no longer victims of range anxiety. Many  photos taken of the distant snow-capped peaks of the Southern Alps. About 15km in, and the Pike River mine memorial is on the right. We stopped of course, for a while, trying to make sense of some of the information about the disaster. The memorial? skip this bit if you don't like controversy,: the concept and generosity of the donors is stunning. IMO it's just a shame that it's so tacky: tinsel and gaudy plastic 'sunflowers' and beer cans and bottles surrounding the 29 carefully placed rocks. Nuf

Big River Hut to Ikamatua 31km ride/walk/scramble Another beautiful day with the early inversion fog burning off by the minute. Awake at 6:15, nothing much to pack, bars and coffee for breakfast, so why did we only get on the road at 8:15?? Partly mopping the hut floor of someone else's muddy footprints, partly walking the long way down to the bikes to find the Waiuta Track sign: lucky we didn't just assume it was the boardwalk off to the left near the gate! Initially the track was very rideable, pretty much as far as the boardwalk. This is narrow and unnecessarily, though picturesquely, windiing. We stopped and stepped off (reassuringly dry, not boggy...) for the obligatory selfie, this being a TA checkpoint. So I was concentrating hard on where my front wheel was pointing when I heard two exclamations from Marg: not screams or squeals or squalks, more anguished cries of inevitability. I looked up just in time to see she and her stationary bike tumble off the boardwalk. Fortun