Day 13: Wellington, our final day.

Our last full day in New Zealand before flying home tomorrow.

The weather forecast is for rain and wind. Got to love summer, sounds like a Tasmanian weather forecast.

We are staying at Rydges Wellington Airport. I had prevaricated with making a booking here being right at the airport, but there were advantages given we were arriving around midnight and the bike path to the ferry was around 10 km and flat.

More importantly they agreed to store our bike bags for our return.

When we left to start our ride, we were told to take the back lift that would take us to the carpark. On our return, press the buzzer and they will electronically open the door.

That did not work upon returning. No one answered. So we rang and were told we would have to enter the airport and wheel the bikes through the airport to the hotel.

That alarmed us. Seemed odd to us to wheel loaded bikes through. Nevertheless we did as requested, up two escalators in the process (not easy with the extra weight on the bike).

They did not blink with our bikes going to our room.

Today we went back down through the hotel and airport to do a short coffee ride into the city to meet up with friends, sisters Dale and Shona, who had been bushwalking and visiting family. Great to catch up and share adventure stories.

Headed back to our hotel via the coastline. The weather was forecast to deteriorate as the day went on.

Wellington is hilly and the hill elevators are quite common for transporting people and goods from the road level up to their homes with a view.

Couple of hill elevators ahead. Many have a garage at road level.

This bay had people swimming the previous day. In fact, there are a few to the left today. This bay was much calmer and sheltered, featuring boat houses.

I liked this boat house.

Nearly back at the airport, we swung right at this point, a Hollywood like Wellington sign on the hill.

This tunnel goes under the main Wellington airport runway.

We ride up to the airport main doors, walk in and up this escalator, turn right up a second escalator and we’re in our hotel.

Bikes can fit on escalators. Easier without the luggage to balance.

Off the second escalator and onto this long carpet strip to reception, turn right to head to the accomodation room lifts. super convenient.

Back in our room and it’s the part Tony hates. He is smiling here….for now 😁

Our Zwift friend Thomas kindly picked us up for dinner, just as a massive storm hit Wellington. Super strong winds and a huge amount of water streaming from the hills into the gutters.

We joined another Zwift cyclist Peter and enjoyed a lovely few hours together talking all things cycling.

I first ‘met’ Thomas and Peter via the Trek team rides I’ve been involved with on Zwift.

The opportunity to meet like minded cyclists is one of the greatest gifts our touring has given us.

Thomas, Peter, Tony and Sharron.

Our map loop has been completed. 12 days riding, 1,010km, 6986 m ascent. No injuries or mechanical issues.

Lots of good memories ❣️🚴

Thanks for reading. There is more to come, as I intend to do some various country highlight blogs leading into our next big adventure commencing in four months time.

Where? Well five countries, 3,000 km cycling and think Baltic and Scandinavia! ❣️❣️

Day 12: Blenheim to Picton to Wellington

To finish this trip, we needed to ride to Picton to catch the ferry, then once in Wellington, ride to Wellington Airport to the Rydges Hotel.

We had both slept well in our hosts Air BnB, and had a delightful breakfast awaiting us. Anyone needing accomodation in Blenheim, I can highly recommend Ella.

Leaving town we passed by Seymour Square and their town clock.

We started off on a mix of highway and gravel shared pathway adjacent to the highway which was quite busy with trucks and cars heading towards Picton and the two main companies that plough across Cook Strait.

The day was very overcast with low clouds hanging over the hills and ranges thereby limiting views.

Crossing the Wairau River (followed for much of the previous day), two things of note. Firstly the amount of timber debris caught up on the pylons of the railway bridge. One would presume similar underneath the bridge we were standing on.

Secondly, as part of the shared pathway, a bridge had been attached adjacent without the use if online but using the main bridge structure for support. It’s a great, safe crossing and well done to the regional council.

Looking back towards Blenheim

We noted signs for The Whale Trail and decided to follow it, given the calibre of signage.

Later research revealed that the Whale Trail inception was at 12.02 am on 14 November, 2016 when the magnitude 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake struck the region.

Sections of the state Highway and rail corridor were obliterated isolating communities.

The trail, upon completion, will be a 210 km cycling and walking trail from Picton to Kaikoura.

At one junction was this poignant reminder. The loss of a young persons life, and suffering friends and family. Unopened bottles and cans of beer, fruit juice, photos all serving those who loved him as a sad reminder of the tragic loss of a young life.

This section of pathway weaved through dense vegetation.

The signage continued with no warning of this…

There is a significant drop from this bridge. The track just ended. There is a 2-3 metre drop off the end.
The track has not continued as far as we could see forward.

Whilst it’s a great track, there should have been a reroute sign nearby 2 km cycling back tracking cyclists back onto the highway.

We rode part way back until we found a spot we could push the bikes back up a hill to the highway.

On we continued. Still low clouds but pleasant views.

Still the vineyards continue

Then just as the track had suddenly stopped, we noted its reappearance, again with no signs to take you from the highway.

We hopped across just after Picton Airport as there had been a fenced railway in between.

An example of the signage, however you cannot ride to Blenheim as it suggests. Once completed it will be a fantastic and safer route for cyclists.

Back on the trail, this section gradually climbed around a hill, and was quite soft to ride on. It will compact more with time.

Arriving in Picton we decided against the additional 15 km planned along an adjacent hill to a lookout. The clouds were still low, rain threatened.

We found a cafe and had a coffee, then moving across the road to the picturesque park to start cleaning our bikes, as we had a few hours to kill.

Cafe view
In the park, a ferry us just departing
Kayakers ready to head out
Bike cleaning in progress.
That is our ferry arriving

We have been on many ferries now with our bikes. Procedures are different everywhere. Sometimes we line up with the cars, others have a lane for motorbikes and cyclists.

Once our bikes were strapped to trailers and we went aboard as a foot passenger.

Here, we were to wait until the luggage truck headed to the ferry after all passengers transferred in shuttle buses. It was a bit eerie being the last passengers so far away from the ferry wondering where that luggage truck was.

Just as I was chatting with a Maori, donning a very heavy backpack, wearing gumboots, with a sign saying Wellington (he was hoping to hitch a lift with a car going on the ferry obviously not realising that he needed a ticket) the truck appeared and waved at us to follow.

Before I could get a photo, off we sprinted to catch up with the truck and follow it across the dock. Onto the very back of the ferry we tied our bikes up and headed to our cabin.

There we remained as we both felt seedy with the ferry rocking and rolling a bit more.

Last on, first off.

There are multiple vehicle levels. We are on the lowest deck, which is last to load, first off.

The door is still locked.

We were warned that the noise would be super loud as the hydraulics kicked in. They did not underestimate this!

The guys are waiting with their barriers. We are not that silly….

Anyhow it was a mere 10 km or so back to our accomodation following the coastline.

At one spot we debated which way to go and a cyclist passing by says ‘ Hi, I’m Thomas’.

Wow! Thomas is a Wellington based cyclist I know from Zwift ( but not previously met in person) who came out to find us! He found us and led us to our finishing line.

We were both very humbled by his kind gesture and will be having dinner with him and another Zwifter tomorrow night.

Thomas caption from his ride to find us.

So here we are. Wellington. One day remains and it will be social and practical. Thankyou for reading today’s blog. 😊❣️

Day 11: St Arnaud to Blenheim

Packed up and ready to roll, we enjoyed a wholesome breakfast (large bowl porridge, granola, fresh fruits including strawberries, raspberries and blueberries) and the ubiquitous ‘Sharron cannot ride without’ coffee.

Great view from our table. We watched the melodious honey eaters searching for nectar in the flax flowers.

The front of our accomodation after forking out $1,025 NZ for two nights, two dinners, two breakfasts….gulp. I don’t feel quite so guilty for breaking the glass in the unit that shattered into so many pieces as we were leaving.

The accomodation itself is a common motel presentation but it is the location at this time of year that has driven the nightly price up. The meals were excellent too, with the porridge with add ons (fresh fruit and granola) being $32 each.

On paper today our ride into Blenheim would be an easier ride, despite its 103 km length.

There was a gently 5 km uphill section before a very gradual downhill run, which would have a few undulations.

The first half was wind free. We thought we were on easy street and then bang, just like that, there it was, as ubiquitous as my morning coffee. I like my coffee strong, and so it seems, wind too 🤣🙈. Happy New Year Sharron and Tony, love from the Weather Gods 🤣

View from the top of our climb.

We were in the Wairau Valley, following the river of the same name, ridges and mountains including Mount Richmond either side.

Enjoying the ride, I’m quite layered up here as it was quite cool.

We crossed over the Wairau River, which is very wide and silted in places but you can see that gravel is removed regularly, similarly to what we see with European alpine river systems.

New Zealand does not have venomous creatures like Australia. You can go for a bush pee without fear!

However, they more than make up for it with geology. This valley forms part of the Alpine fault and is moving at 30 metres per 1,000 years. That is considered to be significant.

South Island is also overdue for a major earthquake. There is a 75% chance of major earthquake happening in the next 50 years. There is an 80% chance it will be a magnitude 8+ event.

The Alpine Fault has a regular history of producing large earthquakes. Over the last 8,000 years the Alpine Fault has ruptured 27 times.on average, every 300 years. The last significant quake being in 1717.

The valley is also famous for wine growing. 30 km or so, both sides of the road, were dedicated to grapes. the word Wairau in Maori means ‘river garden’ and today could see why. Fertile soils, multitude of labels and vineyards to visit.

The road was incredibly long and straight. The last 50 km was headwind.

Look at the wind map. Seems common. The wind comes up the east side of South Island, swings west, then south across Nelson and bang into our faces riding.

More views!

There were no places we could stop to grab a drink or food today for 90 km. It is a public holiday today here, but even on a business day, it would be necessary to be self sufficient for the ride.

We stopped here at a small cemetery as there were toilets.

Our route took us through Renwick with only 13 km remaining. It had started to sprinkle rain. We found a supermarket open and grabbed a banana and roll and put the two together!

Rain jackets on it got heavier as we approached Blenheim, some two hours before we could check in to an Airbnb home.

We took shelter in a covered bus stop. By chance, our Airbnb just wrote to us confirming 4 pm. I let her know we were in town sheltering and she said we could check in at 3 pm. We were super grateful ❣️

So here we are. Last full day of riding completed. here is our riding route to date. The blue lines are from our comp,eyed riding data. We will join that line from Blenheim to Picton tomorrow.

Todays route

Thanks for reading….two half days if riding remain.

😊❣️🚴

Day 10: Nelson Lakes National Park

Today we were set to explore a section of the Nelson Lakes National Park, home to the beginning of the Southern Alps.

Our base is the town of St Arnaud that we arrived in last night.

Looking around at the other guests at our accomodation, many are here to do walks, mountain biking and boating.

Unlike Tasmanian National Parks, we have been able to access the parks here free of charge.

Two alpine lakes, Rotoroa and Rotoiti form the heart of this 102,000 hectares park.

Both lakes are surrounded by steep mountains, and surrounded at shore level by honeydew beech forests.

We had a great breakfast and set off.

Here is today’s route. essentially only three roads were ridden on.

St Arnaud-Kawatiri Highway, turning into the Kawatiri-Murchison Highway, then turning left onto Gowan Valley Road. Hard to get lost today.

The roads were all good quality but the middle 6 km (each way) section on the Kawatiri-Murchison Highway was busy, narrow, little to no verge. The other two roads were quiet and far more enjoyable.

Essentially riding three valleys today

The gradient replicated the three roads. The down is the first two roads, then the up to the lake and opposite to return. Whilst it looks steep it wasn’t. The average gradient climbing was mostly 2-3%.

We had a headwind on the first downhill hoping it would not change direction for our return journey. Of course, it did and we did the climb home into a growing intensity headwind.

Our graph a mirror image being an out and back route.

Weather wise, it started overcast with a small probability of rain.

We left well rugged up. I pulled out my long sleeve thermal base to wear, then my cycling jersey, then my wind gilet, then my Assos wind jacket, then my Assos visibility vest. Legs were bare but they do all the work. I had leggings on the bike I could put on if need be.

Layering is what gets you through inclement weather…taking layers on and off, having somewhere to store them too as you ride.

By the time we returned I was down to my more usual kit with the thermal and jacket both off and stored away.

Looking back towards St Arnauds
Looking forward
Looking ahead
We crossed many nice rivers. This is the Buller River.

Reaching the junction of our second road, the Kawatiri-Murchison Highway there is a pleasant roadside stop, toilets, historical information.

The Great Taste rail trail that has featured heavily earlier in our trip used to connect with the former station here.

Turning towards Lake Rotoroa we see the mountains again forming the St Arnaud Ranges.

Finally after 43 km we arrived at the lake. Superbly majestic.

This is looking towards the St Arnaud Ranges
Popular with boaters

A family were preparing to launch their boat.

We had planned to spend time sitting by the lake. Little black biting insects had other plans and we stood there slapping our legs silly.

New takeaway? Find a small insect repellant to add to the first aid kit I carry. Preferably flat sachets!

As we ate some food, slapped our legs like a crazy Finland Fish Song Dancer we read about Peter Johanson, a Swedish immigrant and early pioneer of the area.

This is the remnant of one of his hand cut canoes.

An interesting story. Click the photo to enlarge the writing.

Heading out from the lake we crossed this bridge where the Gowan River flows into the lake.

The road out was still quiet. Mostly the traffic was heading towards the lake.

The Gowan River flows adjacent to the road.

An interesting scar. Forestry to the left, native to the right. Very steep banks with evidence of little soil to replant the pines.

I have read before that it was a Tasmanian who introduced possums to New Zealand. Whilst regarded as a pest, there are others who make products from their fur.

Living in Possum Lane, Turners Beach, we have two types of possum (brush tail and ringtail) that visit (as seen on our security cameras at night and evidenced by Khaleesi carrying on when they walk along the fence).

The only time they have annoyed us, or should I say me, is when one destroyed my zucchini’s last year. I was unimpressed.

Quirky and someone with a sense of humour set this up in a paddock.

Heading back along that final road was the steady climb and the most annoying wind direction had swung around to be a headwind with increased gusty intensity.

It is a cyclists curse when that happens as you hope you will benefit one way at least. Not today….again!!

We made slow you going of the last 20 km. At times the wind was so strong I could not even do 12 kmh.

Here is our speed graph for the ride. you can see how the speed dropped from just before 60 km. That is the wind factor.

We had great views looking back towards St Arnaud’s. This is a great road for cycling, despite the wind. cars were considerate and the road was quite wide.

Buller River
Getting closer

After 85 km and 734 m climbing we were back at our accomodation

After dinner we went on a 3 km walk down the road to Lake Rotoiti.

A local resident had this natural weather indicator in their front yard. Click the photo to enlarge the writing.

No dogs, not even in your car!

Lovely views along the lake. It was quite windy and cool down by the lake, nevertheless there were a group of kids swimming as their well rugged up parents watched.

Views around the lake.

Various watercraft hidden under bushes around the lake

It’s been great visiting the alpine lakes and seeing the northern mountains of the Southern Alps. Quite the contrast after our predominantly sea view trip.

Tomorrow is a new year, 2025.

We’ve had a great 2024 with our cycling adventures, visiting Italy, Switzerland, Slovenia, San Marino, New Zealand completing over 4,000 km outside of Australia.

My strava data tells me I did over 21,000 km in total for the year.

Whilst that sounds pretty ok, a lot of that is on Zwift, an easier way of amassing training km than outdoors as there are no weather elements and cars to contend with and the cycling speeds are higher, draft benefits are strong. It keeps me fit though for what we do touring wise.

I want to pay homage to our friend Kat Secteur in the Czech Republic.

Kat has done over 55,000 km for the year and it is all outside. 100%. She does not have a trainer. What’s more, the weather whilst she rides now is winter, so lots of snow and her ride a few days ago was minus 1c.

Well done Kat. I had the pleasure of doing a day ride with Kat back in 2018 of about 235 km. We rode out towards the border of Czech Republic, Poland and Germany. That is my biggest outside ride and it was with a wonderful group.

Well done Kat, inspiring women globally.

Happy New Year readers. Thankyou for your continued support and may 2025 be happy and healthy. 😊❣️

Day 9: Motueka to St Arnaud

Today was an interesting day on the bike. Challenges to meet as we rode 112 km, climbed 1081 metres, heading from the Golden Bay coast to the mountains around St Arnaud.

We started off with a light breakfast at our accomodation, keen to start cycling as the weather forecast clearly showed rain was due in St Arnaud early to mid afternoon.

We were to climb most of the day as can be seen from our graph. Within that climbing, there were nine registered climbs on our Hammerhead computer. The hardest climb was that little one you can see around the 50 km mark. Seriously tested us. We had a headwind nearly all day.

Leaving Motueka we headed out along the Motueka Valley Highway, following the Motueka river. The day was crisp with only a few clouds, sun was beaming.

Motueka River
Motueka River

The plan was to follow as much of the Great Taste Trail as possible, in dry weather. The trail is predominantly gravel, of varying widths and quality. We had completed the section from Nelson to Kohatu the previous week.

Good signage

We liked this sign. The bridge ahead was in better condition than the sign indicated with beautiful views as we crossed.

Quirky art

The trail incorporates numerous suspension bridges. This one is quite narrow and had a lot of swing! Neither of us had gotten off our bike, but straddled over as we walked across. That is not recommended. Get off and push it!

Our method resulted in greater swing! I ended up waiting for Tony to get to the other side as it was always swinging contrary to my leg movements.

We demonstrated how not to cross a swing bridge today.
Great views though!

The trail does follow roads at times, and this section was quiet as it went through dense vegetation providing a nice canopy from the now warm sun.

This was the start of a 31 km gravel section. At this point we could have turned left to follow the Highway and saved 14 km overall. However, we had decided to follow the trail despite the weather we knew was coming.

3 km along that road we turned back to this same spot. The road was not in good condition. It was heavily corrugated, loose, dusty and it was shaking the teeth out of our mouth, rattling our brains and reminding me I should have peed earlier!

We felt we had nothing to gain of possibly 31 km of these conditions at the very slow speeds we were doing.

This road is best tackled with an mtb bike with suspension.

Back to the highway and off we went heading to the next town of Tapawera where we needed to find food. The taste trail also looped back to this town so we would be back on our original planned route at that point.

More nice river vistas and interesting sights.

The New Zealand rivers are really nice, very clean looking.
Some historical characters in the paddock.
Land usage varied. Predominantly agricultural including hops, dairy, berries and forestry with other areas still scrubby.

In Tapawera we were surprised to hear a cyclist call out to us. It was Anne, whom we had meet one week before at Spooner’s tunnel and then had lunch with at Kohatu.

Anne had been cycling in the area whilst Greg had a massage for a pesky back. Greg turned up and we all sat down and chatted as Tony and I had some food, Anne sharing some lovely blueberries she had purchased close by.

It amazes me these random catch ups…if you had tried to plan this, we could not have achieved a better timing result. I had only been thinking about them as we arrived in town as the cafe we met at was only a further 8 km away.

The selfie with Greg and Anne

As they drove past us, Anne snapped a few more photos and sent them to us. Rare for us to have a photo of both of us riding together.

Lovely backdrop here
Waving in unison.

We headed back onto the Taste trail and rode up through the Maniaroa cutting. This part of the trail is an old rail trail.

The clouds are starting to build. We are heading to the mountains.

We stopped to look at these three sculptures, promoting a private adjacent sculpture park. Looks like lollipops on sticks.

The great scenery continues, and we were cloud watching too.
Back at the cafe we’d lunched at the previous week we purchased more drink for our ride.

The next section was on state highway and not very pleasant. The traffic was super heavy and that headwind that had been omnipresent all day was strengthening.

After 15 km or so, we were pleased to deviate onto a quieter road, little traffic, just the headwind.

It was warm, and given we were climbing all day and into a headwind, we were consuming more fluid than usual. We were running low again, and Tony headed off to this stream hoping the water would be ok to drink.

Whilst he was under the bridge, the farmer drove out, and I did ask him if the water was drinkable, and he told us we’d be fine.

With 20 km to go, we had six registered climbs to complete, with two around three km in length. They were all on a busier connector road.

The further we went, we could see that down to our right, the weather was closing in,and we knew we were highly unlikely to not get wet.

It has started raining down towards St Arnaud

With only 9.5 km remaining we stopped to don our wet weather gear and bang the skies opened. The camera stayed firmly tucked away in the dry for the rest of our ride.

We had hail and decent sized hail stones smacking onto our face with the headwind. We took cover under a forest of trees as the thunder boomed.

Each boom of thunder seemed to shake more hail from the skies, like it loosened it up. I have never been out in a hail storm before and found that interesting although wishing it would stop!

It eased up just a tad and we really needed to get moving. The temperature had dropped significantly and our legs were starting to get cold. The best way to warm our body was to pedal.

The weather gods had more tricks up their sleeves. They introduced lightning! Thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening indeed! 🎶

I was counting between the lightning bolts and thunder. One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three….boom!

We kept pedalling. I was thinking of the final two km climb in May climbing Passo Gardena in Italy, where we had a dry thunderstorm (the gods waited until we got to the top before sending down the rain, plus there was no lightning).

20-30 metres separated Tony and I and flash, a lightning bolt in between us! I only got to one missi…and boom the loudest clap of thunder I have ever heard above my head.

I screeched out telling it to ‘go away’ (perhaps said less politely) and we headed to some trees but they provided no shelter in this case so we got back on the road, as we still had one km left in this final climb.

By the time we made the intersection to St Arnaud’s it was just absolutely bucketing down rain. The hail stopped.

Fortunately it was downhill to St Arnaud, little traffic (they were more sensible) and we just concentrated on getting there as safely and quickly as possible.

We are staying in the Alpine Lodge and have our Chinese laundry set up nicely. A warm shower and lovely dinner to end a memorable day on the bike.

Days like this are memorable for the variety and the tenacity required to get through the difficult parts. It was not an easy day with the constant climbing and headwind let alone the hail, thunder, lightning and rain.

There is something very satisfying in achieving this under your own steam successfully and we were on a high.

This is the radar as we arrived in St Arnaud’s. St Arnaud’s is around that bright red blob, South Island.

Thanks for reading and following our adventures vicariously. For those who send us messages via the various means, a huge thanks as your support and encouragement is appreciated. 😊❣️🚴

Today’s route

Day 8: Collingwood to Motueka via Abel Tasman National Park

Another beautiful day and a highlight on this trip visiting the Abel Tasman National Park.

First things first, breakfast back at the Courthouse Cafe, our go to cafe in this area. Ok the pickings are slim, but this cafe is excellent and would shine anywhere.

Goodbye Collingwood as we climbed up and over a few hills heading back towards Motueka.

The views towards the Aorere Valley were clear. This is the valley we cycled to get to Langfords store.

Riding back through Takaka and Motupipi we headed to Pohara and the coastline.

We stopped at these toilets, cutely painted.
Warning to drivers
Pohara

Ligar Bay was next as we followed the coast road.

Beautiful waters
Ride through the gap up and around the Abel Tasman lookout memorial
Looking back, the white beacon is the memorial

This shack is on a slither of land that juts out from the beach on one side and a tidal inlet on the other. Perfectly positioned.

The tidal inlet very popular with boards

Above Tata Beach we climbed sharply. Quite a hard little climb too and it was getting quite warm.

At the top the views were those within the national park.

Looks like a mussel farm? Mussels are certainly popular locally.

Just beautiful
View towards Anatimo
Descending towards Anatimo
Beautifully clear waters

Then the fun began. looking at our climbing graph, that nasty climb to 300 metres was all on gravel, loose and slippery in parts due to no recent rain dampening it down.

I knew this would be a challenge for me in addition to the gravel dust from other users.

I did it. Up and down! In fact, I prefer up to the slippery down. We dud get passed by two blokes on mtb e-bikes and a plethora of cars, some towing boats.

Climbing ….
Distant views, nice vegetation.
Nearly there…

What a place. Totaranui Beach is my new favourite place in New Zealand. It’s magnificent.

You can camp here but there were no caravans as the road is not suitable.

We arrived 2 hours before our ferry shuttle was due so we did enjoy chilling on the beach.

Popular with boats, campers and bushwalkers, the area is serviced by a few water taxi and ferry shuttles. They drop bush walkers off and collect. We saw many walkers leave with their backpacks.

Route taken to Totaranui
Chilling

We booked with Wilson’s and can highly recommend them to cyclists. We needed to remove our rear panniers, pedals front bags. The bikes were strapped to the railings at the front of the boat.

We are a bit ‘precious’ about our bikes but have nothing but compliments for the crew.

The ferry shuttle made about five stops along the coastline picking up a variety of people. We sat with a Dutch couple who had spent 4 hours walking a particular trail and were heading back to their hire car in Kaiteriteri.

There was commentary provided by the crew about the local history including granite mining, forestry, maritime reserve efforts and fur seal colonies.

Lots of wonderful looking beaches and rugged coastline. The only way in is by boat or walking.

Kayaking popular along the coast

The route our ferry took.

Once in Kaiteriteri the ferry beached itself and off we all piled.

We put our luggage and pedals back on and high tailed it to Motueka climbing and winding out way out and eventually dropping back into the Great Taste Trail.

We are in Motueka overnight and enjoyed a nice meal at the Sprig and Fern, having given up on the Motueka Hotel when after one hour they’d not started cooking our dinner, and we were one of the early orders.

Totaranui is a definite highlight, plus the effort taken to actually get there!

Getting ready for another day, thanks for reading 😊❣️🚴

Day 7: Cape Farewell reconnaissance

Cape Farewell the most northerly point on the South Island mapped by Abel Tasman and named by Captain Cook. It’s Maori history is a lot older and if more significance.

Today the area houses an eco sanctuary enclosed by a predator proof fence.

Today we were heading back up towards the Cape and the Spit to explore more.

Unlike yesterday it was very overcast with low cloud.

Humans can be scary as we had found out the previous day.

It was back onto gravel roads at Port Puponga, heading in a generally westerly direction. The signpost indicated it was 6 km to a camp ground that also had a coffee shop.

It was also the base for many walks in the area.

There was a consistent flow of tourist traffic heading in, but they drove at a far more considerate pace, and many were 2wd vehicles and a variety of camper vans.

There is some farmland.

The road has two climbs, was a well compacted base with some looser gravel on top.

Once we arrived at the end of the road, Tony took the camera and walked in to Whaririki Beach as we deemed it unsuitable for me with my knee and lack of appropriate footwear.

Photos from Whaririki Beach and walk back out.

The cafe is a quirky place, well sited for walkers.

We then rode back out the 6 km gravel road, with increasingly heavy inward bound traffic including three 4wd buses.

We then took another gravel road to Farewell Spit, which consists of 25 of stable land and 5 km of mobile sand spit. It is the longest sand spit in New Zealand.

You can walk to the outer spit, facing the Tasman Sea.

A borrowed aerial photo showing the spit extent.

Our view from the inner spit, forming part of Golden Bay. Very shallow waters, lots of drift wood. This is on the stable land part.

Local board with walks

A more alarming sign!

A very pleasant 25 km ride back to Collingwood where we were able to get into a nice groove of around 25-26 km per hour to arrive at our favourite cafe, Collingwood Court House.

I was keen to try the mussel chowder and it was the best chowder I have ever had !

The other cafe? This art work sign appeared on the window the previous day. Doors were shut so I had peered at the art work through the windows. However, as we headed back to shower guess who was standing out the front? NgAngA himself. Fish can’t be biting!

Collingwood is worth visiting! We really like the little village and area. Great waterways, mountains, vistas, cafe, quirkiness and bike rides.

Tomorrow we move onwards on our little cycle tour.

Thanks for reading.

Day 6: Whanganui Inlet

We are spending three nights in Collingwood and today was our first full day. There are not many food options here but the Courthouse is delightful and we decided to have breakfast there.

Tony enjoying his scrambled egg, panini and hot chocolate lined up.

On the wall was art by a local ceramicist. I would pay a visit later in the day and acquire a seagull! These are albatross heads which are quite large and heavy and $580 each.. I took a fancy to the shags, but decided their beaks were going to be awkward to cycle tour with but would love a few!

Shags

The plan today was to head up further north, then turning to the west to Whanganui inlet.

Leaving Collingwood it was glorious morning.

View from the jetty
The jetty
On the road again
Inlet views
More inlet views
Looking back towards Collingwood

We followed the main road (the only road!) north towards Farewell Spit. Traffic was intermittent and predominantly tourists in camper vans.

We pulled off the road to check this part of the beach out. There was a lady on the beach with her young daughter. She said they were from Wellington and have a bach( shack) close by. They are spending one month here. Beautiful.

This is our route today and you can see where we rode towards Whanganui Inlet. The road becomes white gravel after the first climb.

We had planned to continue further along the inlet, possibly reaching the coast.

The gravel was mostly well compacted with loose sections on the cambers and bends.

There were some lovely beaches along the inlet.

Lovely views across the inlet.

We turned around short of our destination as it was injurious to our lungs, eyes, mouth and noses. There were numerous 4wd on the road, mainly travelling fast past us, many with trailers towing buggies to hoon around the tracks and sand dunes in.

Whilst some of the drivers were considerate of us on the gravel, many were not and did not adjust their speed. They knew what they were doing and the dust bath impact.

As there was no wind, the dust just hung around and we were obviously breathing it in.

So we turned around and headed out and up towards Farewell Spit.

We stopped short of the Spit as we will leave that for tomorrow, stopping beside a creek and wading in the refreshing water.

The water was lovely to walk in

We were low on water so I went and spoke to two blokes putting up a tent outside a home and got top ups.

After our return to Collingwood we showered and went for a walk .

Painted on a wall adjacent to NgAngA’s.
By the beach
The beach, the tide goes out a long way
Looking towards where we had ridden today.

Another day done and dusted, quite literally as it turned out.

The weather was perfect, and we enjoyed our ride, bar the 4WD dust baths.

Thanks for reading 😊❣️🚴💪

Day 5: Motupipi to Collingwood

We left our little caboose accomodation after demolishing the last of our food leaving behind the very unripened avocados I’d bought but had not been able to enjoy. I thought they were riper!!

The day was slightly overcast but conditions for riding were pleasant. Not too warm, not too cold and wind was not a factor.

Leaving Motupipi looking back towards the hills behind our accomodation

The roads were fairly quiet, and we headed back past the turnoff for the springs we’d visited yesterday.

A very large and clear sign. As you can see in the photo above no verge for us to ride on for much of the day.

Some rolling hill climbs but none were too long. More distant views.

Part of Golden Bay juts in behind Collingwood, a town known to many in Australia as a suburb of Melbourne, famous for its AFL football team, and a Yaxley family favourite. However this Collingwood is much smaller and it does appear to boast a rugby team.

The view from the back of our accomodation looking back towards the first two photos.

We looked for a coffee and the only thing open on Boxing Day here was this MAD site. Certainly they sold coffee, certainly the owner is a super clever and talented artist BUT full of divisive signs and commentary, preaching his beliefs re the tyranny of government to all and sundry.

I had $20 in my hand and I asked him what I owed, $20 will be fine he responded. Quick mental add up and it didn’t add up….and I looked at him….in essence, he does not keep books, he does not pay any kind of taxes or rates as that is theft, he is wanted by both Australian and NZ government’s for a variety of reasons.

His sermon was getting more emotive and angry as I stood silently listening, wondering how to extract myself as he said what he would do to any government official who tried to arrest him…thankfully an English guy waiting behind me joined in to give his experiences in support and I edged out.

The coffee was good.

I later googled the guy and lots of hits. He’s from Australia, a sand groper ( WA) and known for everything I witnessed. He has changed his name to NgAngA ( capitals as typed), meaning Peacemaker.

I would really like to go and look at his art more . He has an ultraviolet light section with art too. Maybe I need to get braver!! I’ll let you know if I put my big girl pants on….

He does also preach love. A very curious character and person indeed.

Having plenty of time we headed off to visit the famous Langford store at Blainham. It was a superb 32 km return ride from Collingwood along a fairly quiet road.

We really enjoyed this section.

No verge but great quality road
Quirky house with objects d’art or junk?
Superb views

Langford store is an institution in this part of New Zealand. It was established in 1928 by the current owners great great grandfather. He ran it as a general store and post office.

His granddaughter Lorna took it over in 1947 who made it famous by never changing a thing as the world changed around her.

In 2008 the business was taken over by her granddaughter Sukhita Langford. Now a tourist hub featuring history, antiques, arts and craft and a cafe.

We got to meet Sukhita, a vibrant and happy lady. She has resilience and tenacity having survived breast cancer in 2023 with the local community rallying around raising $ to keep the store open during her treatment and recovery.

The store front
The old postal boxes

Sukhita hand makes a range of hats and aprons and I purchased one of each.

We had a good laugh…in New Zealand these are called jandles. In Australia it depends which state you are from but in my state these are thongs. Other states, they are flip flops.
A very NZ apron…now to wear it as I’ve never worn an apron but now I’m getting closer to retirement and a granny, maybe I should start.
An interesting story about aprons tucked away in the apron pocket

Back to Collingwood after a total ride day of 70 km. Super enjoyable.

We wandered to the beach. Nice distant views of where we would ride the next few days.

We liked this driftwood tree. There was a metal pole in the centre holding it together.

Dinner was at the local pub. This is where you leave your gumboots arriving at the pub on a fine, no rain day. Another curiosity in New Zealand. I guess they wandering around in bare feet now.

Todays route

Another day comes to a close. A super interesting day meeting two characters of the area with totally different perspectives but both passionate about what they are doing.

The scenery was great, the weather perfect for riding.

Thanks for reading 😊❣️🚴💪

Day 4: Christmas Day

A slower start to the day planned as active recovery….spin the legs a bit faster but easier gears.

This is our fourth Christmas in New Zealand and with nothing open, very quiet. We did not even hear peep from our hosts.

Heading out of Motupipi we skirted around Takaka heading to the local springs.

Takaka River

Te Waikoropupu Springs are the largest freshwater springs in New Zealand and the the largest coldwater springs in the Southern Hemisphere.

The colour and clarity of the springs is extraordinary.

Water is discharged at around 14,000 litres per second (40 bathtubs).

The Springs are regarded by the Maori’s as a place held in high cultural and spiritual legend. In Maori tradition the springs are waiora, the purest form of water and provide water for healing. It was a place of ceremonial blessings at time of birth and death and the leaving and returning of travellers.

Entering the springs

It is a short walk to the springs. The track was very rideable but out of respect we pushed our bikes.

The water looked amazing. With no direct sun the photographs do not show that depth but with our naked eye it was apparent. Ona sunny day I imagine it would be magical.

A borrowed image from New Zealand.com on a sunny day showing the water clarity.

Heading back through Takaka township, everything was closed and very quiet so we decided to head to the Labyrinth Rock Park.

Labyrinth Rock Park features natural maze like pathways weaving through limestone canyons and outcrops. Certain features have been named including the Witches Cauldron, The Kissing Pigs, The Glacier and The Alligator!

Dave Whittaker, an English geologist and mining engineer arrived in the area in 1994. He soon discovered this area of karst limestone rock and leased the area from Council.

He cleared weeds and soil, creating tracks to attract locals and tourists.

The site is free to visit and we were able to wheel our bikes through most sections, leaving them briefly to check out various smaller tracks. With no one around we felt fairly safe within the Labyrinth.

We then rode up to Pohara beach arriving just as it started to drizzle. A few quick photos and we headed back to our little caboose to contemplate our navels.

Today’s out and back route was fairly flat.

Merry Christmas to all. I hope you’ve have been able to share it with your loved ones. It is not an easy day for many accentuating issues many can experience. I hope that 2025 is happy and healthy and full of positive new memories. 😊❣️