Project VELAIA

Update 16th of April: Added movie of incredible Motueka BMXers!

The heavy showers during the night transformed the soil under and in front of the tent into mud and all the gear got pretty brown this morning.

But nonetheless after I had finished reading “Codex” nothing and nobody could hold me back, I wanted to cycle again. So I set out, leaving the gravel and pebbles of the river behind me, getting really angry with the passing cars as they disturbed my Spanish lessons with their monotone, loud and intruding noise from the engines and tires. I usually don’t have any problems with traffic but when you’re trying to listen to the new Spanish vocabulary and can’t understand it because of the passing cars you get really annoyed, you get dissatisfied.

All that kept me from taking the right turn to Hanmer Springs in Waipara, so I continued cycling for almost another 20km until I realized that this railway crossing was not in the map – or I had come further than I’d thought already.

The last time I’ve cycled wrong like this was together with Marc from the Netherlands (“Itchy Wheels” link in the right sidebar under “otherTours”) somewhere in the west of China near YeCheng. And it shouldn’t be the last time as I found out soon …

But first I cycled along the HighWay 7 to Waka Pass, stopped before the “pass” and slept in a nice cattle grazing field next to the road on a little creek.

Many cars with bikes mounted on top or behind the trunk passed me again, coming from the front. Almost all of them had passed me during my hard escape from Christchurch, and again I suspected correctly that there must have been a race somewhere ahead: The “Ground Effect 12 Hour Day / Nighter Mountain Bike”, explained online as:

“The Ground Effect 12 hour Day/Nighter is a not to be missed event, great mountain biking combined with the atmosphere created when several hundred like minded mountain bikers get together. The concept of a 12 hour race is very basic, simply ride as many laps of the 9km course as you can in 12 hours. You can ride either as a solo rider or in a team, be competitive or be relaxed.
Contact: Rod (021) 288 6908 blue.dog@clear.net.nz”

I only made it to Hanmer in the afternoon, went to the i-Site information office and got information about the Rainbow Rage trail, where I could get the permit to ride it and so on … Doris from the office told me that the season was over and I couldn’t get permission on the spot but had to fill out a form, fax it in, get response and so on which would take several days. But I didn’t give up that easy: I phoned the number I had from the Mountainbiking New Zealand Book, the Brahams in Nelson and the friendly woman on the other side of the line said she would fax the form through in a minute and it was no problem if I was prepared for bad weather. Lucky me!

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(drive through Hanmer Springs with a short introduction of the town)

 

So half an hour later I was officially allowed to cross the Island Saddle, the highest point of the Rainbow Rage. After some short grocery shopping I left Hanmer and went up the wrong way into a valley. I already suspected the trail to be the wrong one as it was extremely steep and I had to cross many creeks already after the first few kilometres. Then it came to an end and my suspicions were proofed right. At least did I have a nice view on Hanmer and the plain in the evening sun

I turned around and arrived at the holiday park just before it got dark. There I met Oliver and Martina (Lang!), two Austrian globetrotters and Oliver immediately invited me for dinner … probably he saw that I was hungry like a wolf! I afterwards decided to stay on the caravan park for the night – a novelty for me as I had never stayed on one since I left home almost a year ago! But without Oliver and Martina it would have probably been more boring than my usual campsites.

We had a lot to talk about and as a more ambitioned photographer Oliver taught me quite something about digital photography. The two invited me for a yummy breakfast the next morning (and still have to send me the pictures Oliver took with his wonderful Canon Digital EOS 400D (Rebel XTi)) – check out their website and the wonderful pictures from their tour.

(Matthias, Peter, Martina, Oliver and Daniel)

And finally I found it: the right way. Up to the Jacks Pass on 869m altitude I had a lot of rain, a lot of grey mud but still in a positive mood. On top the rain even stopped and I went down to the Clarence River, turned left and slowly cycled my way up.

With winds blowing from behind the ride was pleasant and not too steep. The gravel road was empty, I only met two motorcyclists but they didn’t stop. I passed Lake Tennyson on the east side and found myself in a steep climb up to the Island Saddle on 1372m only half an hour later.

The road was often bad wash board, but nothing compared to the really really bad road in parts of Tibet with big stones and sand in parts. Downhill I went and soon, after one or two creek crossings arrived at a Department of Conservation Hut.

The Hut turned out to be empty, probably had been empty for weeks as at this time of the year nearly nobody’s travelling in the area – I lighted the candles within, put the wet clothes to dry and spent a comfortable night in the loneliness.

Still with tailwinds and now downhill I raced down towards St Arnaud through a totally different landscape than the uphill. The valley was narrower, was steeper and the road had quite some short but often steep climbs which was of course much more interesting than the monotonous uphill the day before.

Additionally the frequent creeks I had to pass presented nice challenges and wetted my socks. But the sunshine and generally much better weather than the day before dried them again in no time.

The last 15km in the Dip Flat even brought a sealed road and a lot of possum traps.

 

Then I reached the HighWay 63, turned west (left) and after a few km, just before reaching St Arnaud right again, cycling downhill through Kikiwa, Korere and Motupiko to Tapawera, the end for this adventurous day.

This was the last stage before I could rest again for 2 days. I had emailed a CouchSurfing family in Tapu Bay near Motueka from Christchurch and was now about to come in. In an easy ride I followed the Motueka Valley down to the town of Motueka. I passed a lot of fruit farms, with kiwis, apples, pears and even more exotic and delicious fruits and vegetables growing to my left and right. I had never been to Woodstock and the 1969 Festival of the hippies was way before me in time, but at least I’ve been to the place now: the Woodstock village in New Zealand

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In the early afternoon I reached Motueka, took the time for a short lunch and then left to reach Tapu Bay by 4 o’clock.

 

David, Pania and little Vincent welcomed me and together we went out for a walk along the Motueka River …

 

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