What a stunning day. The sun was out and we had blue skies. It was windy too, but you can't have everything. We should have done Carricktown track and the Nevis today but decided that heading south would put us further from home and we felt like our reserves were starting to fade...
The sun finally came out today and we actually had some blue sky too. Weather report for the Nevis Road wasn't looking great, so we selected to have an easy short day. Popped up to nearby Fraser dam for a quick look then back down again. Next up was Hawksburn Road. We did this road two years ago and distinctly remember some steep rocky bits and some heavily eroded parts on top, but someone has come along and fixed it since...
Whew, another epic day for us. Left camp at around 8:45 and it was a few hours of easy backcountry roads. Nice and cruisy, though not great for fuel consumption. From Piano Flat it was lovely hard-packed dirt roads through the forest, winding up and down. Traction in the rear isn't great on these kinds of roads, we think the rear suspension is struggling. At the start of Waikaia Bush Road, there is a sign that says "it's harder than it looks"...
Everything hurts. Backs, arms, necks even our hands. Overcast and chilly today, never getting above 10 deg C. Off to a great start down some easy gravel roads and onto a bit of the Old Dunstan Trail. A local classic route that runs through beautiful Central Otago scenery. Hills with rocky outcrops, occasional flocks of sheep and cows. Not a single car to be seen. Popped off of the Old Dunstan and on to Long Valley Ridge Road for some of my...
Aaaand we are back at Ranfurly. It took us about 7 hours to complete a mere 113km(70mi) and maybe 50 ish (30 is miles) of those were on sealed roads. That gives a hint at how hard today was. We left Ranfurly this morning thinking we would do the loop around Mt Buster and then head onwards. Felt a little disorganized this am. The normal second day of a trip pfaffing. How does everything seem to expand and not pack the...
Early start at 7am and off to Fairlie for the compulsory pie stop about three and a half hours later. Coincidentally that's when the sun decided to try half-heartedly to peek out from behind the clouds. After Fairlie we finally hit our first bit of gravel for the day. Hakataramea Pass Road. Fast hard-packed gravel through scenic hills. Lots of sheep about. Don't know if it's the knobblier mobber rear tyre or if we are just a little out of practice,...
It was a lot of hard work, but it's done! ...
Who doesn't love to talk about their gear? ...
DISCLAIMER!!! All figures are approximate. The maths mostly adds up, but please don't get upset if there are a couple of errors here and there. We rode a total of 11,388 km (7,090 miles) over 45 Days from New York to Port Orford. That means our little 12 inch Grom wheels did almost 40,000 revolutions over all sorts of terrain.That is a LOT. That 11,388 km is according to the odometer on the bikes, the GPS seems to think we did 11,202...
We really wish we had camped more. Not only is it cheaper, but for us it is more fun. We struggled to be in the right places at the right times though. At the end of the day there wasn't always a convenient campsite nearby, and a motel was the more realistic option. We originally budgeted for doing motels every other day, but had secretly hoped to be doing motels every 4th or even 5th day to tie in with...