We stayed at a small campsite just a few kilometers before Haast Pass and we knew we had to climb it during the day. On our way there we came by the Blue Pools, a pretty deep basin of water that comes right down a mountain stream. The depth of the water makes the blueish water appear to have a intense deep blue color. When we walked there, Vroni decided that she just had to jump into it from the visitor bridge about 7m above. Back on our bikes she got changed and we were back on track and reached the 564m Haast Pass shortly after. From there we had a nice downhill ride towards the West Coast which took us along some large waterfalls and mountain streams. In the evening we almost reached Haast and decided to ask another local whether we could pitch our tent and were lucky with the first guy we asked. The night was pretty rough, we had a lot of rain and some strong winds as well.
On the next morning we thought about just going the a campsite in Haast to wait out the rainy day but once we arrived there, we found out that the next three or four days would all be rainy and we did not want to stay there that long. So we decided to cycle despite the forecast and just get as many kilometers done as possible. The rain got stronger and stronger during the day and at some point we were just all wet, even though we were wearing rain jackets, rain pants and shoe covers. After 55km we reached the first possible campsite for the day but it was just 2pm and we thought that it does not really matter anyway whether we biked on or not, being that wet already. In the end we reached a small motel after almost 6h of cycling and 96km altogether, making it the longest and furthest day on our whole tour yet. The motel did not have any free camping spots left but we were offered a small cabin for just $55 for two people (camping would have been $30 already) and we gladly took the cabin. We put up our clothes line in our cabin, turned the heating to maximum and hung all our wet clothes and our wet tent to dry. At some point our room felt (and smelled) more like a mix of a sauna and a gym locker room rather than a bedroom but we managed to dry everything eventually. We made some nice rice bake with tomato sauce and finished all our sweets because we felt we just earned it during this very long and annoying day of biking.
With another day of heavy rain predicted by the forecast, we decided to only make a short day trip of 35km to Fox Glacier (name of both the glacier and the town) and wait out the rain there. We arrived at the campsite before noon, could pitch our tent even without rain and then spent the rest of the day in the community kitchen. There we got to know Baptiste, a French guy driving around the island. Together with him we set off to explore the Fox Glacier on the next morning as it was finally open for visitors again after the heavy rain. It rained on our walk to the glacier but when we arrived at the viewpoint, it stopped and gave us quite a nice view of the blue ice of the glacier. At noon we finally got on the road to go further North in direction of Franz Josef Glacier which is the more touristy glacier, so we decided to skip it and leave it for our next visit of NZ ;). After the hills to Franz Josef the ride was mainly flat in beautiful sunny weather. In the evening we finished after almost 80km and just wild camped in a small forest on top of a hill. There were no sandflies for once but instead we were invaded by mosquitoes and at some point there were about 50 of the sitting in front of our mosquito net.
Our next day lead us onto the West Coast Wilderness Cycle Trail that was recommended to us by a few people we met before. In the beginning the trail just got us off the highway 6 along a nice gravel road close to the sea and later it went along an old railway line that they converted into a really nice cycle trail through the bush. Our day ended in Hokitika where Kevin hosted us over WarmShowers. Before ending our day we wanted to visit Hokitika Gorge which was said to be a really nice river in the mountains with stunningly blue water. As it was 30km there we decided to try to hitchhike there, ignoring the fact that it was already 5pm already. This worked even better than expected and a German couple gave us a ride both there and back to the city and we had a nice chat with them on the ride. Back at Kevin's place we made some pizza and spent the evening talking to our host. He was a lovely man at around 60 years old who has been hosting bikers and other travelers for years. All the stories he could share were interesting and our conversation with him was amazing as he was very knowledgeable about god and the world.
The West Coast Wilderness Trail took up our next whole day then. It lead us up into the mountains along some small canals, through and over a couple of creeks and rivers and through some stunning scenery in general. It is really hard to describe the experience, our video does a better job sharing about that I guess. In the evening we reached a small free campsite right at a lake where we pitched our tent, went for a swim and enjoyed a nice dinner of pasta with garlic sauce. The sunset turned out to be of a nice red and yellow and once it was dark we could see so many stars that it was almost unreal – just perfect!
Our next day's ride was just 30km to Felippe and Mariana, our WarmShowers hosts in Greymouth. Unfortunately they had to go to work in the afternoon but we already had some nice conversations and a great lunch together. It is their place where I am currently sitting, writing this post and editing the video and photos for it! :-)
Tomorrow we will keep on cycling up the coast towards Westport which will mean a hilly but beautiful coast with great views.
All the best from NZ,
Keep cycling,
Vroni, Droni & Joni
