February 26, 2025
Molesworth
It rained in the night, and the cold seeped into my sleeping bag, but a clear day at sunrise. It was a full campground with cars, camper vans and bicycles, and only some were about when I crawled backwards out of my small tent.
The route for today is across all of Molesworth Station, and then on to Hanmer Springs. It starts with a significant climb up to 1,145 metres (3,756 feet) at Wards Pass, the highest road in the reserve.
This is then followed by a remote 10km plain called ‘Isolated Flat’. After this there is another pass, imaginatively called ‘Isolated Saddle’.
The road then follows the path of the Acheron River for 40km, till the confluence with the Clarence River at the southern boundary of the farm.
After this there are a further 20km of gravel road ending with a precipitous 400m drop down to Hanmer Springs.
So that is the plan. My Good Samaritans of the previous day offered to carry my still excessive load of stuff in their car, which I was really pleased about because I knew I would never get up Ward pass with it on the bike. (I am still waiting to be transformed into a superhuman).
Ward Pass was slow going for me. I was able to ride some of it but not once the gradient got above 10%. The maximum grade I recorded was 13%. As I reached the top, two women arrived riding at a good clip. “Well done!” I said. “E-bikes” they replied.
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The view down to the Isolated Flat below, with mountains on all sides was spectacular.
Riding the flat was the best part of the day for me. A gentle down-slope, straight and mountains everywhere you look.
The next 40km could best be described as ‘rolling’ (up and down) all the way to the Acheron campground at the southern boundary of the farm. There was a close encounter with a group of beef cattle on the road, a wire strung across the road to stop cattle, think ‘cheese cutter’, and lunch at a shelter overlooking the river.
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Now you might think from these photos that it is very isolated indeed. However this is not the case. There was a constant steam of vehicles and cyclists in both directions. It was not uncommon to have to pull over to let a car, farm vehicle, motorbike or even a campervan go past. That said, you could see for many kilometres all around and there was no building or other sign of habitation.
A belligerent headwind made its feelings known after midday, but we managed to arrive at the southern boundary by mid afternoon. The Acheron campground has good access to the river and lots of flat campsites sheltered by trees. It is a beautiful spot to stay, and it even has mobile coverage (first time I’d had that in four days).
But we had to press on,there was a further 25km to go. The quality of the roads declined from ‘dubious’ to ‘awful’, potholes and streams running across the road. There were large ares of dead trees, the impact of control programmes for wilding exotic pine.
The final descent into Hanmer was long and challenging, five kilometres of steep gravel downhill, but I rolled into Hanmer at 5pm, ready for a shower. And finally an opportunity to make changes to my load.
Today's ride: 86 km (53 miles)
Total: 183 km (114 miles)
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3 weeks ago