With the derailleur failure our cycling journey was over. However, we still had a few days left of our trip.

With the benefit of Toby’s Ford Ranger, we trotted off from Manapouri to Te Anau, only 19 km by road.

We were to ride this via a trail. It was a short day of around 35 km.

We did head off the main road to intersect the trail. The overnight heavy rain was evident, as the trail was flooded, and a jet boat prepares its next round of victims for a drenching.

We drove up to a viewpoint overlooking Lake Te Anau.

Volunteers were packing up barriers and banners from the previous day Kepler Track endurance run.

We arrived in Te Anau late morning, despite dragging our heels.

We checked out the Department of Conservation visitor centre, which provides a dearth of information on the region, plus pictorial history.

We have a big penguin at home, but here we have….a big deer.

I ended up in a bookstore, buying the latest Paullina Simmons book to read. Nearly 600 pages should keep me busy. I started to read it as we parked by Lake Te Anau chilling.

I read it in 24 hours, finishing it before we even left Te Anau. Not often I have such time to enjoy a book.

Te Anau is a busy town, the base for all travel via road to Milford Sound. Thousands upon thousands of people descend daily to the Sound, car after car, motor home after motor home, and the most incredible number of buses.

The following day we joined the convoy for some 20 km, heading to Lake Mistletoe. There is a circuit walk to the lake, through lovely forest.

A super easy walk, nice forest.

A pretty lake.

Back at the carpark looking to Lake Te Anau.

A little further up the road is Te Anau downs, site of a well known farm, as well as the departure point for walkers doing the Milford Track (transported by boat across the lake).

This is an old shearer’s shed, which is to be renovated. It is adjacent to the first historic mini hydro scheme in the area,now in ruins.

Another look before we head back to Te Anau for some lunch, then off to the cinema to watch the short feature film, Fiordland.

Good to watch, showing various aspects of the Fiordland National Park during the four seasons, with extensive use of drone photography.

Next day it was time to head back to Queenstown for our final two nights.

We would have been following the Mountain Trail to Walter Peaks, then ferry across Laka Wakatipu, then riding to our base. 125 km day riding.

We could see it was quite windy around the trail area, and wondered how the creeks would have been after the projected 200 mm in the mountains.

We stopped at this cafe just because of the bike pictures. Inside staff were busy cleaning up from a rogue customer who had used the tomato sauce bottle like a water pistol spraying sauce everywhere. Chairs, tables and carpet were all squirted. Idiots!

We stopped at the Honey shop which also had interesting old cars like this.

Driving back along the Devils Staircase, I note what a wonderful bike ride this would be heading in this direction. Just the issue of the cars and no verge though. We saw no cyclists.

Back in Queenstown we headed to Queenstown Park and back to this water edge cafe we are familiar with.

We returned Toby’s car up to Arthur’s Point, leaving it parked on the street with the keys sitting on the left wheel. That is a concept that I found difficult, hoping his car remained safe.

We cannot thank him enough for stepping in when he did. 😊❣️

Yesterday we finished cleaning the bikes and packed them up.

We then walked. Around 10 km but broken up as my knee is still complaining mainly downhill (slopes, steps).

We walked along the Kawarau river trail to the Hilton cafe, sitting in the sun for about 90 minutes, watching the boats, planes, people.

Walking back, great views of The Remarkables. I do enjoy looking at this majestic and rugged range.

What a holiday and adventure. Nearly 1,000 km ridden, over 14,000 m climbing and many memories created.

We are ready to go home, see Khaleesi and keep planning our next adventure.

To be sure, it is booked! It is a long one (3,200 km), six countries, and less climbing than we have just done, and I doubt very little dirt! Certainly nothing like we have experienced here on some of the trails.

One last view, out our door, as the sun starts to go down,

The Remarkables are just that. Quite remarkable and leave me in constant awe.

Thankyou to those who joined us virtually on this journey. We appreciate your thoughts and comments left here and on Facebook. 😊❣️

To keep doing the blog is something I toss around, but I thank Honu’s mum for its continuance for a further year.

Honu is a friend of mine from Zwift. He is my co captain on a weekly Trek ride we lead. He relocated from the west coast USA to east coast to care for his older parents, who have some health challenges.

Honu’s mum reads daily. I think Honu casts it onto a larger screen and he told me how much she likes to follow.

I was honoured and thought, another year at least. I contacted WordPress who ‘did a deal’ with me, saving me $.

To Honu’s mum, and everyone, thankyou. Over 8,600 views, over 5,000 visitors in 2025.

Ooroo 😊❣️

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 😊❣️

Today finish was very unplanned. We came to a crashing halt. Literally.

Before that for some 66 km we had a brilliant day.

The weather was cool at 7 degrees C. We rode 5 km up the road to go to the brilliant cafe we had stopped at yesterday to grab breakfast.

A paddock of male deer belonging to the trophy shooters farm. The antlers on these boys are like works of art.

At our now favourite coffee haunt the resident pooch looked like he had a hard night. At the other end of the couch, a log fire was roaring, and he looked super cosy.

The staff here are amazing. Their service and friendly chit chat is exemplary.

Back on the road with full tummies, whilst the clouds were much lower than the previous day, we soaked up the desolate beauty.

There were more cars heading to the west coast than our way so traffic not as busy.

Of course, we climbed but all were reasonable, with just one tougher hill with an extended 10% section.

Looking towards Lake Hawea, we have climbed over The Neck.

Lake Hawea is beautiful and really is these colours. the sediment seems to have settled from the recent rains.

Another climb

We had been looking for the cows and calves from yesterday. Here they are chilling in a lovely paddock with a view, far more relaxed than their long highway walk the previous day.

More climbing and views.

We stop at the lookout and remove our rain over booties. Our feet are sweating.

A group of German motorcyclists stop, along with their support van. There were about 15 or so riders all up.

We stopped in Lake Hawea township to grab lunch, bumping into a cyclist we had met a few days ago.

We then chatted with two young lads on their roadies, and one wearing a Nice jersey, telling us he rides Pro Continental for the same named team.

We crossed paths about 30 minutes later as we crossed the road for the Lake Hawea river track and they sped up the roadway at lightening speed, so light on their pedals.

We rode this path a few days ago. Overall quite a nice track that ends at the suspension bridge.

Heading this way I realise that the bridge has a decline so I crossed it far quicker, with less wobble.

From Albert Town we follow the track named Upper Clutha! Again? WT? We thought we had finished with Upper Clutha tracks but no, it said welcome back, let me finish you off.

The waters were clear and beautiful.

There was a lengthy flooded section. We could see tyre marks where other intrepid cyclists had headed slightly inland to detour.

Ah the serenity.

Then shit happened. I was pedalling along a nice section adjacent to the river and felt my gears were not right. I pushed my right foot down to pedal and the whole bike locked up.

I fell left, fortunately on a smoother piece of track.

My legs….oh they hurt, my front handlebar bag had opened and stuff went everywhere.

When I eventually composed myself enough to sit up, I checked my legs, and despite the pain, felt nothing broken.

When Tony returned wondering where I had got to, he picked up the bike and cussed along the lines of ‘oh, it is stuffed’ , but stronger language.

Aside from pain, I felt a rush of guilt and disappointment.

The rear derailleur had a catastrophic failure twisting and jamming between the wheel spokes. The chain twisted and was stuffed too. The wheel seems ok.

Grass had got caught in my cogs likely causing this.

He removed the derailleur and the hanger was still ok. Usually they are the sacrificial lamb, and break to protect the far more expensive replacement derailleur.

We were out of mobile range, still 10 km from our destination. We had to push the bikes a few km to the nearest road and there we had mobile reception.

First taxi company would not assist. I cried.

Second one would, but about 45 minutes time.

This is the view we had as we sat and reflected. We also contacted all bike shops in Wanaka but none had the right part. It would need to be shipped to them.

Lots of scenarios played through our heads.

The taxi arrived and this is it. Not what we planned but at least no broken bones. This taxi driver was very kind, and we saw him a bit later in Wanaka, and went over and thanked him again.

Now at our hotel in Wanaka, offers and ideas have come through from supportive and sympathetic friends.

A well timed face time from my daughter Hannah and granddaughter Willow was perfect timing. Little kids always make you smile.

I need to see how I pull up overnight as my left leg hurts a bit when I stand up and not sure how it will go pedalling even if we can get the part.

This is the part. Not a cheap part. likely cost around $600 plus to replace.

Today’s route 67 km, we nearly made it falling 8 km short. Still managed over 700 m climbing in what was otherwise, another brilliant day.

What’s next? Need to sleep on it.

Thanks for reading 😊❣️

We woke up in a peaceful setting surrounded by olive trees. Over 200 olive trees in fact.

We lazed about a bit thinking today was ‘easier’.

We chatted with the owner about the additional bike trails being constructed, and she expressed the positivity and local economic impact for the region.

Tasmania, this is what we can do too, more of! We do not need everything to be sealed, good compact gravel for a fraction of the cost will suffice. Come and visit New Zealand!

The olive oil is ready to be purchased. Next door, they sell honey and we had some with our breakfast. Super nice.

Down the hill we rolled, and what a pleasure that was to start the day with. I had noted this sign when we climbed the hill the previous night.

Apparently the area is a very dry region.

From the sign looking across the hills, the clouds were still low.

Heading out of Cromwell, they have some large fruit.

We followed a lake trail alongside Lake Dunstan. Gentle and well formed.

It winds its way through a place called Pisa Moorings, a quiet area with nice homes and meandering lakeside paths and vistas.

The clouds were lifting as we neared the end of the trail.

The trail ended and we climbed a steady hill up to the state highway. A large vineyard with an interesting roadside stall.

The vineyard also has two domes, presumably used for visitor accommodation.

It was with some trepidation we headed off on the busy road. I do think more traffic was heading to Cromwell than our direction.

At times there was a good verge, at others, it did not exist and at other times, we had those bumpy side lines to contend with when cars passed by. No consistency.

Nice views as we head to the mountains.

The headwinds started on the road and we made slow progress.

Hard to tell in the photo vs the clouds, but we could clearly see the snow capped mountains now.

After 28 km of highway, we reached the town of Luggate. Our first option for a food stop, and food timing was great as it was lunchtime.

Turns out we stopped at the wrong place, the local general store with limited options. Soon thereafter we found the far nicer area with pop up vans, nicer seating…

Leaving town just before we hit the Upper Clutha River trail.

We held a lot of optimism for this trail, high above the river. Despite being very wind exposed, it offered nice vistas.

Nice path, what could go wrong?

Great views…

Then the trail started to become a bit sketchy. By that I mean, loose, rutted, ill formed and not maintained.

The first photo it’s hard to get the descent angle across, but that is fairly steep, and I walked it. It winds, larger rocks just ‘pop up’ and a recipe for a fall.

The really really shitty sections, I do not stop.

Back on nice path, this pulled me up too! So I called out, asking if he had ridden through it? He laughed and pointed up the creek.

So off I went, pushing my bike further inland and over.

We thought maybe this is a one off. More like hoping!

Nope here I at the next one. The Clutha River is in flood it seems.

Hiked a bike around on semi firm ground.

And again….there were multiple flooded sections of the track requiring us to head away from the river and push.

The flooding is extensive, and we headed up onto higher ground that we could see was reasonably accessible.

Pushed through the paddock.

Track improved.

Getting a bit narrow, but the base is ok. I remember riding through this longer grass being thankful that there are no snakes in New Zealand. I’d be freaked out doing this in Australia for any extended length.

We came to a flooded area not pictured. There were no inland options here, and after listening to a few cuss words come out of Tony’s mouth, in essence he said…we need to walk this one…( polite interpretation).

It was knee deep water, and you could feel the strength of the current. Fortunately the track underneath was a solid gravel with no obstacles.

It was refreshing and my leather bike shoes will take some drying later on.

I walked very carefully as I have an iPad and passports in my front handlebar bag that need protecting.

No evidence of this section though as we concentrated on getting through it.

Finally the trail ends by which time, Tony has renamed the trail.

Neither of us believe the trail should be open when the river is in flood. There are no options for alternative exits.

I thought Roxburgh Gorge was tough. Upper Clutha laughed and said hold my drink!

This is the hardest trail I have ever been on. It is not suitable for touring bikes in any weather.

We headed off to meet our next trail to Lake Hawea , but Clutha wanted one last revenge after our unkind words.

We contemplated jumping onto the sealed road, but thought, it cannot be worse surely.

A good decision not to, as the Lake Hawea track is lovely, following the Hawea River, that flows from Lake Hawea into the Clutha River.

This is a long suspension bridge. That is me walking my bike, again, as if I find it quite disturbing to ride with a sway from side to side, three planks wide.

I got about half way across but it was still swaying from Tony’s crossing.

Lovely views across the fields towards the mountains and our destination Lake Hawea.

Well formed path, lovely views.

Waves appear in the water, and note that yellow sign.

A note for surfers! I’d like to see them in action, as a former surf life saver, I’d not be keen to do a rescue there for my own safety concerns.

There is a canal of very clear water around the outskirts of the Lake Hawea township.

Finally, here we are.

Elements of Lake Garda, Italy here.

Our overnight is a distance down the lake frontage and we are so happy to have a nice warm shower, wash our clothes, hang them on the windy clothes line and head off to dinner.

It was a tough, challenging day. I estimate I hiked my bike maybe 1.5-2 km today. Safety first.

Sealed road for about 29 km, gravel 53 km. Climbed over 650 m.

This trip is by far the most physically challenging trip we have done. We have ridden further, we have climbed higher, but never been as physically and mentally challenged as we have here.

But we are intact, with tenacity and resilience that comes from numerous adventure holidays.

Today will be a day we remember.

Thanks for reading. 😊❣️