Day 7: Waikaia

I would like to thank my friends Bernie , Dave and Dave. I am sure, as a reader, that you can understand the pressure that a daily blog creates. I try not to fall back on hyperbole or outright lies to keep you, the reader and myself interested. I’m sure I’ve said it before, but everything you read here is true, despite the inevitable protestations of my riding buddies. So every day I’m desperately analysing our every move for blog worthy content and on days when none of my mates does anything stupid it can be difficult. Today I’m pleased to say they all obliged and in fact the pressure was off before we even started. 

We had a big day lined up with some challenging riding in the Oteake conservation reserve followed by a long traverse to end up in my favourite stop, Waikaia. This means an early start , aiming to be out the door by 730 latest. When alarms started going off at 6am we all leapt out of bed, even Dave Mac once we clarified we were serious. In silent efficiency we ate and packed and somewhat to my surprise we were 98% ready to go ahead of time. It was at this point that Bernie commented on the absence of key for his bike. We were calm of course  as his bike was standing outside and it didn’t get there without a key. He started systematically unpacking while the rest of us hopefully looked under pillows, couches, microwaves etc. Of course they did appear, deep in his electronic gadget container. No harm done of course but lesson learnt, if dementia is creeping in put your shit in the same place. 

Off we went into a beautiful morning. We established that Ranfurly and Naseby are separated by 13 km of gps Bermuda Triangle. It’s not easy to get from one to the other but we managed with minimum fuss and carried on to the start of Danseys pass again. From here onto a huge hill climb up the Kyeburn track to almost the top of the mountain of the same name. Near the top you can make a short diversion up a scree slope to a view point just short of the summit. After a brief debate we scrabbled our way up. It really  was spectacular and I’m sure the photos will struggle to do it justice. 3 of us at the top were preening ourselves in self congratulation at how clever we were to organise our lives in a way that allows us to be  in these  places. In the midst of this a faint crackle appeared on the helmet comms. “Is anybody out there”. If you’re see the movie, The Martian, we’re the dude gets left on Mars and he survives by growing potatoes, it was like that but without the potatoes. At this point we established that there were 3 of us at the top and the 4th had carried on past the diversion and was now somewhere on the mountain. The comms was sufficient to establish he was alive but not good enough to pass instruction. This has happened before. So now we had the situation that Dave Lear thought we were in front of him and so we started chasing each other. We did eventually catch him and we are still  friends. I told him I would claim responsibility for the fuck up on the blog as I was the one who should have made sure he was in eyesight when we left the track. I lied. He deserves better. 

From there we headed deeper into the mountains , descending down to Guffies creek which we cross several  times. One crossing in particular is deep but has a shallow bypass 5 meters further on. We know this because we did the track last  year. Of course Dave Mac, a deep  thinker, barrelled straight in and pretty much submarined his bike. Bernie was about 10 metres behind and apparently didn’t notice Dave disappear under the water and so went in exactly the same spot. This is what I have  to put up with. Dave Lear, who hadn’t  got lost again and myself went through the bypass and barely got our tires wet. 

From there another big climb onto the top of the Hawksdun range at 1600 metres. By now the wind was beginning to him through although it was just about manageable. Dave Lear, for reasons known only  to him said “I know  it makes no difference but the wind  is manageable”. Mother Nature said fuck you and dialed it up a notch. As an aside, I apologise for the swearing today but they drove me to drink and when I’m tipsy I misbehave. 

Anyway, back to the Mars scape that is the top of the range where we were now battling a pretty challenging rocky track with a howling cross wind.((thanks Dave). It was proving difficult to pick a line with the wind strong enough to shift tyres. Eventually we reached the crux, a very long, at times  steep, loose rocky descent. At times  on the limit of control it was very much burning thighs and bulging eyeballs. To help matters I was far enough on the back of the bike that with every bump, and there were plenty,my luggage was tapping my puckered naught in a most titillating manner. 

I just put that in to make you feel uncomfortable. 

With some relief we all got to the bottom (so to speak ) intact and made our way  back  to Ranfurly. There we discovered there had been a regional power failure  and with no power  there is no fuel coming out of pumps. Plan B was hatched and we headed across to the old Dunstan Road. This is a beautiful fun track that runs past the Poolburn reservoir where orcs roamed not so long ago. From there to Alexandra via some fine gravel and after coffee and an excellent carrot and walnut slice, we are hard men after all, onward to Waikaia. 

The transition from Otago to Southland did not disappoint with a 10 degree drop in temperature over roughly 100 metres (this is true) and rock and tussock giving way to green fields and rolling  mountains. The wind never let up and it was a relief to find our accommodation for the night.