Follow you, follow me

Leaving town to head up the Haast valley felt like deja vu all over again. The wide valley, the straight road, the gradual climb, the headwind... Very reminiscent of the Tadmor Valley, except rather different scenery. As soon as we are in bush, the headwind magically disappears.

Now, I could have titled today's effort 'Sunshine after the rain', but that would be a bit cliched don't you think? And far be it from me to use cliche... It's dry but cloudy, ideal for what our route holds in store. Unfortunately Marg's nausea is back: the smoking gun appears to be alcohol, after two 'handles' of cider with dinner last night! So for a while I lead and she tucks in behind. Today's profile is more hacksaw than bowsaw, but there's still a fair bit of up and down as the road slowly climbs to the Gates of Haast bridge. Sadly we don't know how much as Map My Ride packed a sad, and stopped recording only 4 minutes after it was started. Still not completely confident about power consumption we're in conservation mode pending the big climb. As it turns out, we needn't have worried, but there's 50km to go before that bit...

The rain has made the waterfalls spectacular and we regularly stop to take photos, far too many to include here (you'll be pleased to note!). In particular, the Trickles (1 & 2) are anything but... One huge advantage of cycling these roads is that you can stop virtually anywhere, so there's none of those 'Look at that! That would make a lovely photo!' 'But there's nowhere to stop.' conversations. The downside can be the other road users... Shortly after our first 'waterfall' stop, we had our worst, and most bizarre, traffic experience yet. On a fairly open stretch of road with excellent visibility a truck passed each of us within 50cm at most, barely putting a wheel over the centre line. What we'd interpreted as a friendly toot of warning of approach was actually a toot of 'Get off the road and out of my way'. Marg says she swore (I know. You didn't think she was capable...) while I hoped for a stream of oncoming traffic at the incipient one lane bridge so I could catch up and ask the incompetent just wtf he thought he was doing. Sadly he just sailed on through and I had to settle for a cheery one-finger wave.

Not all (in fact no other) traffic was like this; in fact some was positively delightful. As we ascended we were met with a steady procession of descending vintage Bentleys, out on The Bentley Tour 2023 according to their event plates. If any of you see Mr Kos, demand to know why he wasn't among them (though for all I know, he was: I would not have recognized him nor he us in the 'appropriate' gear all were wearing).

Onward and upward, to Thunder Creek falls, for a brief off-road excursion to the viewing point, then a stiff climb away from the bridge which saw me using power for the first time. And so to the Gates of Haast bridge, in time for lunch. Lots of vehicles stopping on the bridge for a glimpse of the river and mountain views. More Bentleys, captured on video this time. And many photos of the raging torrent of blue water.

Eventually we moved on, to 'start climbing properly' as the Kennett's put it. Yes, it's a grind, but with Marg on 'Boost' and me on 'Trail', mercifully brief. To be honest, and with apologies to all h-bikers, I found it a bit anticlimactic. The further 8km or so to the summit proper passed, with only one event of note. Just before the Fantail Falls pull-off I had to stop to be sure I wasn't hallucinating... Yes, that was a human playing around on a wire suspended above the 'falls on the other side of the valley!! And fall he did, dropping a couple of metres off the wire on a safety line, before climbing back up. Who he is, how he got there, and just why there's a highwire there we may never know.

After the checkpoint photo at the summit sign (which I swear we had descended to...), It was time for the blast downhill. After clocking nearly 60kph, the realization dawned that one unseen pothole, one badly placed front wheel and it would be curtains. So we set ourselves a (flexible) limit of 40kph for the remainder of the all too brief fast descent. A more gradual descent, and one vicious, short ascent, brought us to the Blue Pools parking. We decided to walk the 1.6km to view this natural phenomenon, along with a lot of other people and countless sandflies. Slightly disappointed that they were more green than blue, still very clear but just too turbulent to refract the light. A number of young people were jumping the 15 or so metres from the viewing bridge into the water: I hope someone's keeping tabs on the water deth.

The muscles you use for walking are not the same as those for cycling! When we got back on our bikes for the final few kms to Makarora our legs refused to cooperate. They eased up eventually and we pedalled our way to Wonderland amid stunning views of range upon range, the low sun providing suitably dramatic lighting effects at their peaks.