Granny's Got a Bike: Ross to Cowboy Paradise

(bit wordy, but that what happens when there's no internet connection!)

It rained all night, but by morning, it had stopped - thumbs up!! But just as I got everything loaded onto Maggie, the rain set in again. So booties, waterproof pants, cap and jacket with hood, even the cover over the helmet added and lets be on our way…

Today was going to be the start of the Wilderness Trail, so I turned to the west and rode back to the sea. The breakers were coming in looking brown and dirty… oh well, am not on a seaside holiday so turned around and rode back to start of the Wilderness Trail… hmmm…. this is not going to work… the rain had made the gravel track a quagmire and Maggie’s wheels were just cutting into it. 70km of this, is just not going to get me to Cowboy Paradise before dark… so chucked a uey and got back onto the main road to Hokitika. I had to go into town to get cash as the cowboy hasn’t got modern yet!

is it the Hokitika River?

Maggie's saviours :)

Hokitika Beach - complete with armchair (of concrete!)

Breakers all the way from Australia

Seriously?

I don’t mind riding in the rain, especially when it’s just gently coming down. It was cool and the air mass was going in the same direction, so there was no hint of wind… in fact it was quite an easy ride into Hokitika (25km) and with the rather boring farm scenery, a good day to be riding head down. By the time we rolled into Hokitika the rain had stopped, the clouds were lifting and things were looking good. We went down to the beach front again and the waves were really serious about bashing onto the shore. Found the Hokitika Cycle & Sports store and left a card saying thanks for looking after us and as it was already 11am, decided to have lunch now (spinach and cream cheese pie n coffee), found an ATM and then rolled out of town, heading for the hills again.

It was great to be leaving the degraded farmlands behind and getting back into the forest, tho it seems there must always be hills… I got to the rather beautiful Lake Kaniere and stopped for a chat with a wounded weka, who was begging for food. I fed him/her a slice of cheese. One leg had been badly broken and was sticking out at right-angles, poor little thing.

And then onto the dirt road to the top just as the rain started to fall again! But it was so beautiful in amongst the thick ferny forest again. And maybe my calculations of km is wrong! And this time for the better! According to the map, its only 35km from Hokitika, so that means I am much closer than I thought. When I went over the rather large river, I began to think I was getting near to paradise! The road went up and was washed out so I decided that walking was more sensible. Around the corner came a 4wd ute and the guy pulled up and said I was going the wrong way!! OMG!! How can I get lost on a single road!! No…. he just meant that I should have been on the wilderness trail not the road…. and the gate was just around the corner and sure enough, only 36km from Hokitika, not 56km!!

Cowboy Paradise is a little how one would imagine it might be – a work in progress. The cabins are quite nice – timber of course – three rooms per cabin. My room has a double bed and a bunk bed and a very huge ensuite. And a heater, so let’s bung that on – it will help with drying out my stuff… the drone of a generator really took me back to Alice Springs! The main communal area reminded me so much of the Russian timber cabins… complete with wires coming out of the walls and ceiling all hoping one day to be connected to something… I will do some photography on it tomoz!

There were two groups of NZ cyclist there… one rowdy bunch from Christchurch and a more sedate group from Auckland. it was quite pleasant being social and for some reason, they knew I was an Aussie! we had a laugh when one of the ladies said it would be nice to have ‘soft chairs’ (we were sitting on plastic garden furniture!) but she had actually said ‘soft jazz’!!! the music ranged from the 80’s way back to the Man in Black!!! John Denver was a big hit with the Christchurch mob, but the Auckland mob were much more sophisticated!

Anyhoo – here’s some pics!