Wanaka to Queenstown, Our Last Day

As all good things do, our tour had come to its end. The last, and hardest, day from Wanaka to Queenstown, over the Crown Range was upon us. I was in no shape to ride, so I dressed in my civvies and gave David the camera. He was rewarded by being able to ride with the group (insofar as the group ever rides together) rather than being bogged down by me and my cold. I climbed into the van for another long day with Klaus and Julie (the non-riding spouse from Canada). 

 

First stop, coffee in Cardrona, a tiny town that scarcely existed before the gold rush, boomed then, shrank again to almost nothing, and then was saved by being close to two ski fields. The Cardrona hotel was quite a trip and a very pleasant place to sit and have a leisurely coffee.

There was an old shed with two wonderful dilapidated old trucks, a couple of bicycles, a tricycle, and other old junk among the old buildings surrounding the garden shown above. Full of boy toys, in other words.

The terrain was steadily and gradually uphill all day, but the last 3 km to the summit were reputed to be very tough, and a pretty stiff headwind had developed. At the morning briefing, the plan was that Klaus would stop the van at a chain fitting bay just before the hard climb and give a lift to anyone who wanted to avoid the climb. However, after coffee, Alex said that everyone had indicated that they planned to give the climb a go, so there was no need to stop there. Klaus did pull over until the first 3 or 4 people passed, but then he headed up to the top, figuring people might need warmer clothes from the van. The first several people came struggling up, indicating it had been a very tough climb indeed. Most of them had their outerwear with them. Julie kept saying that her husband Cor, the 76-year-old rancher from Alberta, didn't like headwinds, but Klaus didn't seem to think he needed to go back down to check. It was a very long wait. Eventually, Alex appeared, saying that Cor had had a flat, which they had repaired, but there was a long slit in the tire, so he'd need to swap wheels with Klaus' unused bike before the descent. He grabbed the floor pump, indicated that at this point there was no need for Klaus to go back down, and cycled back down to Cor. Next up was Steve, our Brit who had been the city manager of Blackpool until retirement. He was furious and really reamed Klaus out. "If you say you're going to be at the chain bay, then you need to be at the chain bay! When Cor had his puncture, Alex said we could get a new wheel at the chain bay, and you weren't there. There was enough space between the two groups of riders that you should have known something had happened," etc.  But he was right, Klaus does seem to have a great reluctance to retrace his route, and this is what caused the problem with Isabelle as well.

The descent was scary enough from the van, and I wondered what it must have been like on a bike. The headwind was blasting, the descent was steep and curvy, turning into sharp switchbacks below, and there were roadworks near the top. This road has only been sealed since 2000, and it seems to be very difficult for them to keep it sealed. The spot where there was one-way traffic control was nearly eaten away by the extreme weather conditions.

On the way down, there was a herd of reindeer (?) with huge racks. Among New Zealand's unusual products is deer velvet, considered an aphrodisiac in Asia, I believe.

Lunch was in Arrowtown, a cute, if touristy, town near the base of the mountain. We had heard about this town from a couple walking their disabled-aide dogs around Lake Matheson. They live there and said we just had to see it. The first group over the summit got a pretty good look at it. Those of us in the van were hurried through our lunches (once we got them) and back into the van, since Klaus wanted to take the van in for door repars in town. Plus, Steve had broken a tooth and needed a dentist, and Klaus had found him an appointment, but Steve had pedaled straight on through, so he had no details.

So we took the most direct route to Queenstown, but the cyclists took a more scenic route via the Shotover Road, with a great view of the jet boats from the Shotover Bridge.  I'll let David tell you about that part of the trip.

Our group went on towards Arthur's Point and descended to a crumbling old, one-lane bridge over the Shotover River, with a quick left and uphill after it. I'd seen people stopped nearby so I pulled off the road and went back for pictures of the view. There was a narrow edge with railing, and as I went out I was surprised to see a red boat blast up river under the bridge, seemingly barely missing the boulders and rock walls. It then spun a U-ie and careened back down river, passing under the bridge and spinning around again to dock at a mooring on a sandy spit. 

This was the Shotover Jet Boats attraction and we watched as several boats full of screaming passengers came and went, first disappearing down river then returning for the perilous trip under the bridge and past the sheer rocks. The jet boats are the invention of a New Zealand farmer who wanted a fast but minimal draft boat (they have no propellers) to navigate shallow waterways. With the addition of several hundred horsepower, you have an amusement park ride on the river which brings hundreds of people a day by bus from Queenstown and the area.

Another steep climb after the bridge brought us over the crest for a view of Queenstown, before the final descent to the hotel -- well, not quite, since the hotel was also up a hill. Bottom line: 1027 m of climbing over a 78 km day.

One interesting twist to the day was that as the van approached the Copthorne Hotel, there was a road detour that seemed to cut off all the entrances to the hotel, one of which was itself torn up. Klaus really needed to offload the baggage and find Steve for his dental appointment, so he was none too pleased. He followed the detour, however, and we found that we could get into the one open entrance after all. We were greeted with the news that there was currently no water at the hotel (hadn't been since 10:00) and they did not yet know when it would be turned back on! When the cyclists showed up, it was still off, but came on at about 5:30. Apparently, the water outage was entirely unrelated to the road works. One last dinner down in town, which I skipped, eating half a bowl of soup in the hotel restaurant.

The last official "day" of our Pedaltours was breakfast at the Copthorne. This is one of the odd things about Pedaltours. The day we met was a half-day, with orientation, handing out of jerseys and water bottles, and (for those who had rented them) bicycles. Then a short spin to try the bikes, and dinner. Two rest days in the middle, one of which served as a juncture between the two back-to-back tours that comprise the Southern Grand Tour, and this final breakfast at the Copthorne meant that our "16-day" tour involved 12 days of riding. The 16th day also served as a juncture to the last portion, which 5 of the participants were continuing on with. While we had lost three and gained three at the first juncture, they simply lost 5 of us and one guide (Alex) here. So there is some method to their madness, I guess. And I can't say the rest days weren't welcome. Both Punakaiki and Fox Glacier were good places to explore. Backroads, which was a day ahead of us after Punakaiki, had a rest day at the Wilderness Lodge, and their day hike included seeing a penguin! At this time of year, they are apparently molting and staying out of sight,

We had declined to pay Copthorne rates for our final non-tour two nights in Queenstown, so we had to find the Pounamu Apartments and get all our stuff there. Despite being cheaper than the Copthorne, they have a kitchenette, free laundry, and 100 MB free WiFi, compared to no kitchen, guest laundry done at a premium by hotel staff, and WiFi available only in the lounge, also at a much higher price. Pounamu turned out to be within easy walking distance, albeit not with luggage. We hired a taxi, checked in early at the new place, and I went back to bed while David walked back twice and rode our bikes here. The last two days have consisted of me mostly resting and David taking in the sights. No jaunts to the fiords around Milford Sound or rides up the gondola to hike the mountain are in the cards for this trip. Guess we'll have to come back!