We have made it to Queenstown, but not by the form of intended transport.

No luck anywhere with the derailleur. Everyone needs to order it in from the distributor.

Kind thanks to friends with their offers including posting from Australia and ‘can it be 3D printed’. No, it can’t.

A derailleur is quite complex. Mine was a SRAM Force AXS, 12 speed, wireless electronic. Uses eTap (how I change my gears), so not a standard, off the shelf item, and not cheap either.

After failing to secure one, Tony has ordered one in Australia, on sale, circa $600. Will likely beat us home.

This is the stuffed derailleur.

As to the cause, after the crash, upon inspection there was a chunk of grass caught in the mechanisms that likely caused the catastrophic failure.

If I had noticed that grass earlier likely could have resolved. Not sure where I acquired the grass as neither of us recalled a grassy patch we’d ridden through so must have been some overhanging bad luck.

Anyhow, even if we’d been able to acquire a new one, I do not think I was physically capable of riding.

I slept badly, very uncomfortable and woke aching all over, still feeling a bit nauseous. That alone, I could have ridden but it is both my knees that are giving me the most grief.

As an example, getting on and off the loo is very hard and painful. Climbing up the Crown range would likely have been impossible.

Walking up and down stairs I am walking like a crippled old lady. Tony teases me, but he has been very supportive as I deal with the guilt of it all.

Our taxi driver Eric rolled up at 9 am, maxi van with a trailer!

Tony dropped the front wheels off the bike and stored them in the back of the van, we tossed our bike bags in and off we went.

Eric was delighted to drop the trailer back to home base as it was very noisy, clunky and bouncing around.

Then we started off on what would also have been our cycle route, heading to the Crown Ranges, and New Zealand’s highest road peaking just over 1,000 m asl.

As can be seen, a solid climb.

It was interesting viewing it from the van.

The town of Cadrona is nice, with the famous hotel of the same name being one of New Zealand’s oldest pubs.

Then we climbed and climbed, but not hard on the knees or lungs or heart at all in the van.

For Eric it is slow going as it winds up, and then we find all the cycling tourists with panniers. Maybe 20 or so.

Some were more comfortable than others, but there were quite a few pushing their bikes up. I felt for them.

Some even had road cleats, making the walk even harder. We use mtb cleats touring. They are recessed meaning we can walk vs waddle.

There was nowhere obvious for them to pull over to rest either.

Not the safest climb for a cyclist but a challenge many undertake as it is there to be done, plus a lack of alternative routes unless you take the longer route via Cromwell. I think that may be a better option safety wise.

At the top there is a lookout. You can see the airport runway at Frankton.

The descent is steeper.

We arrive at our Queenstown accommodation at 10.15 am. Check in is 3 pm, but our room is ready and they hand over the key.

I have a nanna nap as I am seriously wiped out.

We then get another taxi to pick up a loan car from a Tassie friend Tony worked with at Simplot.

An extraordinary gesture. Tony said he’d had support from friends overseas before when needed, and he likes to ‘play it forward’. ❣️

Arthur’s Point is high up above the Shotover River. We grab the car, complete with its Sex Wax dangle off the rear view mirror 🤣.

We stop at the Arthur’s Point activity area, near the bridge to watch the action.

Every 15 minutes two boats take new passengers from this point. firstly upstream, then turn around screaming past us and under the bridge heading downstream.

A video of the boats in action if you click play.

Back to our room, I had another nanna nap and then we walked down to the lake edge.

A lovely cafe with this view. We think we might wander down for breakfast there tomorrow.

It is so gloriously beautiful here.

You can see a steam boat crossing the lake. it is heading to Walter Peak station, where there is a farm.

We were to cross tomorrow at 7.30 with bikes. We were then riding 115 km along and through that mountain range to Manapouri.

With that ride out of contention, I rang the ferry operators. Given the first trip was less than 24 hours away they said bad luck but would look at the return.

They came back to me and fully refunded the whole $278. Super kind and that covered our extra $260 from Wanaka.

Our initial Air BNB host (where we stayed upon arrival, have our bike bags, due there next week) agreed to take our bikes.

So we drove up to Frankton (near airport) and deposited the bikes, all our cycling gear.

We have very minimal casual clothes for the next week as we were to wear cycle clothes daily. It is what it is.

So there we have it, the DNF is confirmed.

The stats. We rode 989 km, climbed a solid 10,341 m. I think that climbing is more than we did over 35 days in Europe earlier this year over 35 days.

It is certainly more than our next scheduled 35 day trip next year, so we have done ok still.

So our intention is to stay at our remaining booked accommodation, do Doubtful Sound.

We have lost four days cycling, as we had two days off the bike in the next six.

Such is life.

Thanks for reading 😊❣️