Haast to Franz Josef

Haast to Franz Josef

Everyone knew that this would be a hard day. The prospect of riding 145 km with about 700m of climbing in the last 20 km was daunting for some and enough to be taken seriously by all. I had warned the group the night before to eat constantly throughout the ride. The support crew had bought extra snack bars and bananas. Breakfast was set earlier than normal at 7:30. Alarms started going off at 6:15 and as usual people were eating breakfast ½ hour before the set time. Most people had an extra helping of porridge. Lunches and breakfast were all finished by 7:30. Peter brought to our attention a brochure he had found which said that the distance was 165 km not 145 and broke this good news to us during breakfast.

Most riders have nervous stomachs before such a ride and so the bathrooms are quite busy in preparation for the day.

Outside it was quite foggy and cool so early in the morning and near the ocean. The first riders set off just after 7:30, the last riders –Rita and I- set of at 8. We had decided not to have any official lunch stops today so that people could make their way at their own pace. We set out with leggings and jackets on.

The first road sign we came to, just a few kilometers into the ride, said that indeed our destination was 142 km away. I’m sure that as each rider went buy that sign they felt relieved.

About 20 km into the ride we had to climb a series of large hills, as the road swung away from the coast, with a total climb of about 200m. By that time the fog had lifted, the sun was out and there was no wind. I had decided to stop about every hour in order to eat and give our rear ends a rest. This time came at the top of one of these hills; which overlooked the ocean.

I wanted to take a few movies today of the downhill rides. I got some good footage here but the lighting was poor and affected the quality as I found out later in the ride so I would have to wait for another 110 km before being able to try again.

On route we met a group of American tourist who were on a week long professionally organized tour. The group consisted of about 20 people but it was easy to tell that they were not true cyclists. They did however give us the unofficial name of the climbs at the end referring to them as “triple bypass”. The ones we talked to had been bussed to a point past the climbs.

The second break was at Lake Paringa, the 3rd and 4th river bridges. Rita was feeling quite full at the last stop but since I knew what lay ahead I insisted that she eat more. This 4th stop was about 35 km from the end or 10-15 from the serious climb. A little further along we had a Power Gel, carbohydrate electrolyte blend with Double Latte flavour. Then we waited for the climbing to start and waited and waited. I thought don’t tell me I read the chart wrong and the small incline was the hill! As we passed though the town of Fox Glacier there was a sharp turn in the road and the climb lay ahead or so we expected. We had been riding for 5 and ¼ hours by this time with another 20km to go. The road led into the ever-present forest, so unlike the previous Crown Saddle climb where you could see a long way up the hill, here you could not get a sense of what lay ahead. After a couple of turns we knew that this was it but never the extent of the climb. Because of the constant trees on both sides of the road there was very little breeze but often-full sun. Neither could you see down the hill as we continued to climb the first of the three peaks. As we crested this 410m peak we headed straight down again for 200m, the road followed the mountain contour and so was very curvy. This is where the posted video was taken. At the bottom the road went up for another 200m as quickly as it had dropped off at the top. Then one more saddle followed but this was only a 50m climb before dropping off about 200m. One more climb before reaching Franz Josef put us on the river plane. The view crossing the Bailey bridge was spectacular and certainly worthy of the posted photo.

Total riding time was 6 hrs and 45 minutes at an average speed of 21.4 kph when we arrived at the Glow Worm Cottages almost 8 hours after leaving Haast. The hot tube was well used by our group. All the riders came in on their own except Rita B. who rode farther than she had ever done but the series of hills at the end was just too much. Adrian had a brake/gear shifter come apart on him and jury-rigged a piece of fence wire so that he could brake coming down the steep grades. Kirk came in with a swollen knee, which had been bothering him for several days now but not as much as today. My Rita had never ridden this far either nor had I on the tandem. She likes to say that it is I doing all the work but there is no way that is possible. She definitely pulls her own weight. The most common complaint from the riders at the end was “oh my sore butt”

Tomorrow is a well-deserved day off after 4 days of riding. We are now 559 km into our 2200 km journey or ¼ of the way. Next week we ride for 6 days straight before a day off in Wellington.