Day 19

During the night it rained and kiwi (possibly) called – and I had the best sleep I’d had since the Tour started. It was raining at 630 and we got ready slowly hoping it might stop – and it did!

After climbing the short distance to the saddle again, it was a lovely gravel downhill through the forest, to the main road. There was a bit of traffic as we headed towards Springs Junction but it was good to be able to cycle so fast on smooth seal. The route turned down a gravel side road and that was fast too – my legs were feeling strong and having the 48 hours off the bike in Wellington had definitely reduced achiness.

At Springs Junction we rendezvoused with Josh’s dad Tim who come out to ride to Reefton. I enjoyed an excellent date scone while Josh upgraded some of his gear. Tim had visited the Cookie Time factory and brought along a whole lot of OSM offcuts which filled up our snack bags. I may never want to ingest another OSM after this trip but they are definitely a convenient way of getting in vaguely balanced calories and my digestive system tolerates them well!

The three of us headed up towards Rahu saddle, then sped down a massive 37km descent to Reefton. I was riding a bit further back, mentally singing Four Seasons in One Day, as the weather changed from sun to rain to showers to sun during the 1.5 hours it took to reach Reefton. It was nearly all forest and I loved the feeling of speeding through the trees and the changing landscape.

In Reefton I headed to a cafe for some much needed sustenance after what was a pretty big ride with no breaks. I’ve definitely found on the Tour that I function better getting off the bike every hour or so, and prefer to ride faster with breaks rather than slower without.

I enjoyed an excellent vegan burger (though my veganisn is temporarily suspended due to risk of starvation), hot chocolate and hot cross bun while Josh farewelled his Dad, who had a long ride back up to Springs Junction.

We stocked up on dehy at the outdoors shop, where the very friendly proprietor was super positive about the Tour and the business it had brought to Reefton. Josh bought some hut tickets and we left town at 4pm, hoping to get to the hut in around 3 hours (as Ian had a few days previously).

I though of Ian heading up the rough, rocky 4wd track, as it must have been hell on a cross bike! It was hard enough with front suspension and 2.2 tyres – very physical with lots of big rocks to person-handle your bike over, while trying not to steer away from the best line and/or crash.

In a reversal of yesterday afternoon, I was feeling great while Josh was a bit low energy – soon cured by some OSMs but in the meantime lots of opportunities for me to lurk around corners taking action photos when Josh appeared. Steam crossings are particularly good for this!

It was pretty slow going and after a while my steering started to deteriorate and Josh re-found his mojo. Thankfully the last few kms were more fun – sweeping downhill banked corners.

Today was another day where I appreciated my choice of bike, even if I don’t always appreciate its weight. There was an awkward gate we ended up lifting our bikes over just before the hut, and mine was definitely heavier… I wondered if it was the heaviest on the Tour. A lot if people seem to have abandoned camping and cooking gear for the South Island.

Big River hut is massive but we were the only ones there. It was novel not to put up the tents and to have a fire, on what looks set to be a clear, cold night. Tomorrow we’ve got the most difficult section of this track to come, then will head to Greymouth and maybe Kumara for the night.