Pioneer Trail - Friday 12 July and Saturday

Having built up enough annual leave to appear as a liability on the financial spread sheet, a bit of a mid-winter get away is in order to get the Corporate Director off my case. There's some nice landscape in the top half of the South Island so the plan is a rough loop encompassing a chunk of back country South and West of St Arnaud.  The Kennett Bro's Classic New Zealand Cycle Trails book section on the Pioneer Trail provides the bones of the plan but not being particularly enamoured with the idea of ending up in Greymouth I have things worked out as far as Inangahua and figure to make it up from there.

However, [spoiler alert] below is a link to a Google map with (hopefully) most of the ground covered marked.  It's a horrible map package to use i.e. the map insists it knows best and refuses to listen to what I actually did and keeps getting corrupted, or maybe I just can't find my way around it properly.  Anyway, there are a few deviations from what actually happened e.g. I never travelled the road between Inangahua and Lyell despite what it shows.  The route

Bike set-up

Most of the trip will be on the road but with a fair bit of gravel and a couple of rougher off road sections (Maungatapu Saddle and the Porika track); on balance I plump for my hard tail Giant XTC2 MTB with road slicks and aero bars.  Gear consists of a medium size Vaude back pack, a single seat post mounted dry bag, two drink bottles, and a tent and seat bag strapped to the aero bars.  The intention is to carry as much gear as possible in the dry bag on road riding days and in the back pack on days with off road riding; this means less stress on the mounting bracket on the rough stuff (reducing the chance of the tail wagging the dog).  The tent on the bars does affect steering but you get used to it.

The set up

Friday

Wellington has been copping a bit of a filthy Southerly so it's a soggy arrival at work on Friday with the bike packed for the road.  A few final purchases during lunch (sunscreen(!) and critical maps). Sally helpfully points out the weather forecast deteriorating into storm warnings and possible snow but past-self has very cleverly backed future-self into a corner by booking a non-refundable ticket. The last hour before extraction is carnage as various people with very important matters queue for attention.

With a bit of rallying around from office colleagues I'm only 10 minutes late for the half hour wait before the announcement the ferry is delayed.  I'm the only bike that skates into the maw of the Arahura so there's plenty of room to tie up. Upstairs for a chicken dinner and a few house keeping items before settling hopefully in for a snooze through the crossing. 

Picton has cold Southerly rain but the wind isn't too bad. The 14K trip along the Grove track to Aussie Bay is slow as visibility is poor and the banks in a couple of places are starting to cross the road. The edge is hard to see with little marking and sheets of water but only two cars pass during the entire trip so it's OK following the centre line.  Soon enough I'm poking around the camp looking for the least sodden tent site. This turns out to be the same spot I had last time and next to the only other occupants in a van. The rain has stopped and by 11 I'm in the pit and wondering how long it will take my feet to warm up.

Saturday

There's a bit of rain during the night and the stream keeps up a constant background noise.  But the morning is calm and there is no trouble sleeping in until after 8.  A bank of mist hides Anakiwa across the bay and my vanly neighbours make some small talk from the window of their toasty haven.

It is a cold ride along Queen Charlotte Drive. The low pass before Havelock is damming back thick mist which spills over and runs down into the sound but clears shortly after crossing the Kaituna River. A little after 10am Pelorus heralds a much anticipated hot chocolate and warm up. The cafe has pretty good food and ice creams and they run the camping ground so I figure it's worth supporting them wherever possible.  A young lass skips out of a car just in front of me and turns out to be the new (and late) kitchen hand. She serves under the tutelage of the proprietoress after a reminder about timeliness. 

With gear still wet from last night and the cold air, hands and toes are numb so a few more layers are added before heading out and up the now familiar Maungatapu valley. The sun appears and just before the climb it's warm enough to remove mitts and booties (as well as letting the tyres down a bit; I can remember some clay sections and slicks are probably going to be a bit marginal). In the end the track is not too slippery so there's no pushing required until the track steepens after murderers rock, then there's a lot of pushing and its a relief to get to the top. 

The stop is brief as the sun has long gone and there's ice in the wind.  It is long enough though to cadge accommodation for the night from cousin Claire.  The descent is good fun and made slightly more interesting by the brake pads starting to make loud noises and me forgetting to unlock the front forks. There's a bit of up and down along the reservoir before the run out down the Maitai Valley.

Looking west from a dim and chilly Maungatapu Saddle

The Bicycle Business bike shop on Halifax street is just about to close but very kindly agree to fit new break pads front and back on the spot and I take the chance to buy their warmest gloves.  Around the corner a handy Macpac sale provides a beanie and thicker socks and there's still plenty of time to do some bike maintenance, have a hot shower and get some drying underway before an excellent dinner with a couple of friends of Claire's (Kirsty and Ian).

The first day hasn't covered quite as much ground as I would have hoped but the bike set up was fine over the Maungatapu track and the weather was cold but not wet.  The over booties, socks and winter gloves I had are fine for winter commuting just not quite up to the job on longer days so the early stop in Nelson allowed some necessary shopping.  I should have picked up the worn brake pads before departure; a bit sloppy.

Go to Sunday blog; Nelson to St Arnaud