November 19, 1991
To Haast
A huge day by our standrds - 148k, under very challenging conditions, through spectacular country. We started early, about 7:30, after another amazingly sound sleep. Life on this tour has been so exotic; everything is so different from anything we've experienced before.
After the first 15k we arrived at Lake Hawea, where we stopped at a store for beverages, and then attacked a fierce headwind which beleaguered us all the way to Makarora. Lake Hawea is beautiful, rimmed by steep, rugged ranges. Along the way, we enjoyed watching a man and his three dogs walking off into the fields to work his sheep.
After a lakeside picnic, we entered 'The Neck' and soon discovered that our information was correct - there remain long unpaved stretches of highway (or unsealed, as they term them down here) - about 30k altogheter of awful, dusty road, riding into a fierce wind. Today at least, we were traveling in the wrong direction. We saw 13 bikers happily breezing along in the other direction throughout the day.
We finally battled our way to Makarora by about noon. The only 'town' we found was a combined service station/cafe, where we had a couple of pies and tea while we regrouped. We were visited by the owner's dog and cat (which napped on my sweatshirt on the floor while we ate).
North of Makarora the winds gradually weakened, leaving the ride up to the pass much more manageable. After this morning's ordeal the trip through the pass itself seemed much easier, even though it ended with another 4k of uphill gravel. We stopped on the way up to visit the 'blue grotto' and walk across a very shaky suspension bridge. The Alps were beautiful from the east side of the pass, near the head of the lake - Mout Aspiring a slate/steel faced peak, and several others white with ice and snow.
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The ride down the pass was fabulous - the Haast River looked ice-blue against the rocks - the cliffs shot straight up on either side to peaks thousands of feet up in the snow - the streams entering from the sides had cloven deeep narrow slots through the rocks - many waterfalls tumbled from all heights out of the peaks. I don't recall ever being in such a deep, narrow canyon. Along the roadside the vegetation was amazingly lush, thick and impenetrable, alive with an endless variety of exotic plants and birdsong.
It was 40 miles from the summit to Haast on the coast. Most of the route is buried deep, deep between the peaks of the Southern Alps. It was very satisfying to watch the scale of the peaks diminish as the road snaked through them until suddenly it broke through to the coast.
The native rainforest is thoroughly remarkable - extremely dense vegetation - it looks impossible to penetrate. The predominant hardwood is the silver beech - large trunked, tall, sprawling - the oldest specimens have great character. As we neared the coast, tree ferns became more and more prevalent - broad, palm-like fronds; the largest here have 25-30 foot trunks.
We reached the motel at Haast just before 8 - in time, barely, to order fish and chips. While I waited with a beer for our order and for Rachael to check out lodging possibilities, I was confronted by Spacey, a long-time SW resident (actually, a native of Otago). He invited me over to his table to meet his drinking comrades and discuss travel and the preservation movement. He claimed to have 'a bit of green' in him, but it was only reently obtained; like most of the west coasters, he held on hard to the extraction industries as a way of life - but he has come to seeing the merits of preserving the rainforests.
Rachael and I stayed at the motel, even though it was $56AZ, after learning that our only other option was at the motor camp another 15k to the south. After 150k already today, neither of us was keen on more road, much less in the wrong direction!
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1 year ago
Today's ride: 92 miles (148 km)
Total: 307 miles (494 km)
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