Day 20

I’d set my alarm for 645 but I thought we’d be woken long beforehand by the light. But no, the call of the North Island Brown Kiwi jolted me into consciousness. Been great to have some better nights of sleep – drinking two rehydration sachets in the evening seems to help!

Despite the lack of tent packing it took a while to get organised, though we did give the hut a good clean before departure. At first the track seemed easier than yesterday afternoon’s effort, with a long boardwalk section (would not be so easy if you steered off the side but happily steering is generally at its best at the start of the day). And then it continued ok-ish and rideable, though uphill. Great, I thought, soon we’ll start going downhill and what’s the fuss all about…

But then, even though it wasn’t a repeat of yesterday’s big bad rocks, it became less rideable in its own way. There were quite deep mud ruts, plus many slippery routes, and the whole thing was off camber. This meant when you unclipped on the left to put your foot down and stop, your foot often found air. Unfortunately I have a strong preference for stopping/dismounting on the left so for me this was particularly non-ideal. While I’m experienced at the sideways fall over, gaining more experience doesn’t necessarily result in improved technique.

After a few falls, my mojo decreased and my fear of injury decided to take its place. So I did a bit of walking, though ironically I could still almost keep up with Josh who was riding nearly all of it. There was a lot of getting on/off the bike and this section took a long time and was pretty physically demanding.

But eventually we came to the end – and enjoyed being back on nonslippery and much more speedy-feeling gravel. It was a quick blast to Ikamatua with the word ‘cafe’ at the top of my mind. Sadly the pub cook was not yet on duty but we grabbed some supplies from the nearby store and sat in the beer garden.

Greymouth was not too far away and we set a fast pace given our plan to make it to Kumara today. Going fast and feeling strong is awesome (even if it tends to ebb and flow a bit!). We covered the 54km to Greymouth by 3.30 and this time surely we could find a cafe. Josh’s homing instinct quickly lead to a very hipster establishment that seemed a bit out of place in the town I remembered. I had a BLT bagel, chocolate caramel slice and smoothie. By this point in the day, we had polished off every single OSM brought by Tim (though the hut mouse had some of Josh’s).

Before leaving town, we headed to Countdown to resupply for the next day. Even when you go in chanting ‘don’t buy too much’ to yourself, you inevitably emerge with a luggage capacity challenge. I did not buy any OSMs this time but Josh did!

After I had scoffed down the nectarine and chocolate that could not physically be fitted on the bike, we pedalled towards the Greymouth bar for one of our photo points. I had the uncomfortable feeling of having crammed far too much into a stomach that had shrunken to well below normal size, and this persisted for the next hour. But happily the riding along the West Coast Wilderness Trail was easy and flat. There were some lovely sections through native bush – a big improvement on some of the soulless ‘cycle trails’ we’d traversed farther north.

Quicker than I expected we were in Kumara, with Josh leading the way to a lovely hostel he’d stayed in with his family last year. Nice camping space, awesome kitchen and the best shower of the trip! After bike bottle washes the past couple of days it was great to experience the wonder of plumbing again.

Tomorrow we’ll head along the rest of the trail to Hokitika to stay with Debbie – an easier day!