Take the long way home

'Are you asleep?' No: possibly a bit chill with an open window and only a sheet covering I've been dozing for a while. 'It's raining...' B*****r. If there's a particular day we don't want rain the only worse one would be tomorrow. The gurgling I'd earlier, irrationally, put down to water circulating in the heating pipes is water running down the drain, louder now as the rain intensifies. Still dark, find my phone, 4:47... Check the three weather apps I use; sailors' habit, look at them all and choose the one you like! Yr.no looks a bit weird till I realize I've got Reefton NSW. Depressingly, all are very consistent: 8mm of rain in 24 hours easing later in the day.

'Cup of tea?' Silly question. In the kitchen Robin & Guyon are prepping for their regular 6AM start (lucky for them I pulled some shorts on over my skivvies!). We discuss the forecasts; like us they've not looked at one till now. Seems a bit odd to be heading out early into the rain 'to avoid the heat'. Just saying...

Back to bed with the tea and discuss some options. Turn out the light and continue to discuss options... Finally land on Plan A: leave late, start up the track and if it's too tough bail back here and see if we can push Ikamatua and Kumara back a day. If we can't change Ikamatua, plan B is a road ride through, tomorrow. Disappointing, but... Whatever we do will be guided by a visit to the Tourist Information office for advice about the stream crossing at Big River. Now 7:30; in the meantime, slept a bit more, rain has just about stopped, I've found Marg some puzzles to do, and of course another cup of tea!

Plan A... A leisurely start as even if all goes to plan we 'only' have 25km to go to Big River Hut. Batch processing of 6 ham, cheese, salad and pesto rolls for today's breakfast and lunch, and tomorrow's lunch causes comment in the kitchen: people threatening to add theirs to the line! As soon as Shantelle arrives we deposit 3 panniers and a tent into her car. Still drizzling so decide to break out the rain jackets over long sleeve shirt, and so to the iSite office for the latest Intel on state of track after rain. Reassured the creek crossing (note singular) is only bad after heavy rain and should be no problem today...

As we leave town we pass a sign: Ikamatua 26km; so just why are we going 56?? Turn left, a short climb and it's time to disrobe, back into t-shirt and hi-vis gilet. Long may our wet weather gear remain untroubled. A steady climb, the seal soon turns to gravel. First experience riding on wet gravel; just like dry gravel, but quieter!

At the Alborn Mine carpark we're a bit confused until we realise the 4WD track we see is officially still gravel road! The track proper is everything we've been warned about: smooth river rocks, now made slick by the continuing drizzle. And of course puddles: small, large or enormous, they're universally, opaquely mud brown. No way of knowing if they're bike-swallowing and rock-strewn, just have to avoid if possible, or plough through in hope. The track does improve and is nearly always rideable. Brushing against the manuka scrub lining the route, Marg finds something prickly; not gorse, but a disgruntled wasp, stinging her twice through her glove. Stopped to administer antihistamine, were enjoying a brief break when I say 'I can hear a car coming.' 'No, you're hearing things.' 'Yes, I can see lights ...' And a convoy of three Utes loaded with families and camping gear eases its way past! Even more surreally a little later we catch up with one, reversing lights on: I hope he's looking behind if he comes much further... Turns out they've met a 4 car 4WD train coming the other way. Somehow they find room to pass each other while we wait for the outbound vehicles to pass. The weather forecast proves to be annoyingly accurate as the drizzle starts again at noon; debate whether to don waterproofs but still climbing steeply and decide shelter of the forest is sufficient.

Further on, after Marg's two off-bike excursions, the second of which ripped the ebike control computer off it's mount, we pass 'our' three Utes stopped off on a side track for lunch. We carried on to the summit of the penultimate climb for ours. As they passed a comment from me about fixing the bike with cable ties resulted in the donation of 8 more, on the very reasonable grounds that 'you can never have too many cable ties!' The offered beer at the hut never materialised though...

As promised, the stream crossing was not at all challenging, but caution dictated wheeling the bikes rather than risking more than wet feet. The second and third were much the same... We got to the old Big River gold processing plant just before 3:30. We then detoured on foot to visit the old mine engine and Poppet Head winding gear: got back to the bikes more than 2 hours later!

A short pedal to the hut access track, and after lifting bikes over the stupidly designed track access gate decided to leave them there rather than push them another 150m up to the hut. Just as we were locking them up it started to rain, intensifying after we reached shelter.

A 'serviced' DOC hut it is not (though they charge as if it is), but we had it to ourselves. And what a location ... Hot soup is the first priority, then a surprisingly good beef teriyaki and a very mediocre beef curry courtesy of D. Hydrator. And so too bed...at 7:30, lulled by the sounds of the 4WD campers far below!qz