We started the day a bit later than usual (about 10am) but well rested after our 1-day stay in Hanmer Springs. Our plan was to bike 50km. to Waiau, then decide whether it made sense to keep on cycling to Mount Lyford through the Pacific Alpine Triangle Road, an extra 20km. of hilly terrain.
We were incredibly lucky, and we did our first 50km. helped by a powerful tailwind that allowed us to arrive to Waiau in less than 2 hours!
We daydreamed about continuing to Kaikoura so that we could stay two days there, but we decided it would be too much (it would make a 130km. stage) and that it would be wisest to stay at a lodge in Mount Lyford. We started the ascent to the Mt. Lyford, a total climb of 350 meters, with several annoying 6-7% slopes and arrived at the lodge very tired... Unfortunately for us, the lodge was closed! It turned out it opens mainly during the ski season... The choice had been made for us: we should reach Kaikoura (there was no bar, shop or village between Waiau and Kaikoura except Mt. Lyford)... Fortunately, it was only 2:30pm and, according to our map, we were "only" 61km. from Kaikoura, mostly downhill...
The road was beautiful, full of gentle curves through wooded hills, creeks, and the most terrible predator of the New Zealand wild lands: the sheep!! (insert ominous music here). We had an interesting encounter with a swarm of them:
After 20+ km. (by then we had already biked around 90km.) of legbreaking biking, I started to be annoyed with every short or long uphill section of the road... I would start every climb thinking I would not be able to do it, cursing every single meter of the road, only to grind my teeth and push to my energy limit (probably a similar sensation to what the marathon runners call "The Wall")... The going was slow and painful, the views magnificent and inspiring...
In km. 115 we both stopped exhausted and tried to regain some energy (we had no food and no water by then)... another uphill section loomed on the road, and we felt we would need another hour to finish the trip... Then, after that uphill section, the road went downhill, and downhill, and downhill!!! It was 13km. of joyful ride, at 30kph speeds, so we reached the outskirts of Kaikoura in only 30 minutes... At the entrance of Kaikoura from the south, you have to climb a small 50m. hill... the toughest climb of my life!
We soon found the best Lodge in town, with spa bathtub and great views over the Kaikoura bay; it was drizzling in the distance, and I was able to catch a bit of the rainbow with the last rays of the sun at my back... the amazing Kaikoura is awaiting us... but that's for a future blog entry:
My god man , the sheep , the sheep !!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you boys were lucky, those sheep were obviously returning to The Hive after a night of gorging on fresh souls so you were left unharmed...
It could have gone very wrong indeed if they hadn't of fed already. ;o)
It could have been dangerous, yes.
ReplyDeleteLuckily they did never look back to see who was shouting at them. If they had, they would have realized it was just us and not a huge army of monsters and immediately eaten us alive.
We narrowly avoided the danger, yes...