I awoke to torrential rain at about 6am and looked from my room with dread at the thought of a day riding through this but by the time we had finished breakfast at 8am it had died down. We set off towards the rainforest which was beautiful but named with good reason. Soon we were back in the rain and wind, which stayed with us right through until about 2.30pm.
We stopped at “Bruce Bay” and again we were treated to more dramatic scenes as big waves crashed against the shore driven on by the wind. Driftwood was all along the beach and by the side of the road people had stacked piles of small stones; there were many piles and I think they may represent souls long departed?
The Gates of Haast provided our exit from the rainforest, the haast is a powerful river dropping from the mountains that host much of the forest. Once out we rode onto a plateau that took us in land and past lake Wanaka. This was the most spectacular thing I have seen so far, equal to the Grand Canyon as a spectacle. Snow capped mountains fell to the shore of the bluest water I have ever seen; fantastic!
We have now covered around 3500 km and are halfway through our trip. We are staying the night at Cadrona an old gold mining town, which hosts a river to hold the record for having had the most gold ever extracted from it! The hotel is great, like an old western style building with old furniture; it gives you a real feel for the 1800’s, which is when it was built.
Tomorrow we hit Queens Town, it’s only a 40-minute ride away and we have the day off there. It will be nice to have a day off the bike and chill out around the town.
this is some trip guys
ReplyDeletelove the updates