Day 34 - February 13, 2023

February 14, 2023

Day 34: Haast - Makarora

Click into your low gears or crank up your battery - we're going over..... Up we go - up and over the Southern Alps. Take it slowly because there is some great scenery to see!

We have been so incredibly lucky with the weather, especially these last few days on the South Island. I can't say that we've been so lucky with the winds, though. Discouragingly, the headwind was obvious today as soon as we started out. Also obvious was the fact that my legs were feeling the effects of the last few days. Oh well; just a little pass to climb today.

Farewell to the Haast motel, and directly onto the Haast Pass Highway. No cue sheets required today. All on the highway, including start and end points. Speaking of highways. One significant difference I've noticed since I cycled here in 2006 is the preponderance of larger motorhomes on the road. In 2006 almost all of them were just little vans. Now there are quite a few (smaller) North American sized vehicles. Too bad, because the roads are so narrow and always without a shoulder. Also - general comment - New Zealand drivers don't believe in moving over across the centre line (even with no oncoming traffic) unless they really, really need to. There are certainly exceptions, but a few too many of them cut it a little bit too close (in my humble opinion), and at full speed. Thankfully all the roads we have been on have not been too busy.

Beautiful views right from the get-go.

Lovely shots of the mist hanging in the valley as the sun rose above the mountains. I love being out and riding before 8. Nice and cool, and very little traffic. Haast Pass seems to be very popular with the motorbike crowd; saw (and heard!) lots of them before the day was out.

The road follows the Haast River valley, although clean glimpses of the river itself were a little bit scarce.

Lots of beautiful mountain views all the way up. It was pretty gradual climbing for about the first 50 km.

Mount Macfarlane?

Mounts Hooker and McCullaugh? from the Pleasant Flat Recreation Area at about 45 km.

Thunder Creek Falls at about 50 km.

And then the climb begins in earnest. About 12 km and 2000'. Steepest section (double digits) was early in the climb. I did get off the bike once to walk a bit, but then had trouble getting right back on - steep slope and headwind. Oh well - a little longer walk than planned. Lunch was partway up near Fantail Falls. Most days the lunches are quite good, but today's was noticeably lacking. There were still two to come in after me, so I tried to leave some for them. I had a few lettuce leaves, some noodles out of the noodle salad, a few small pieces of cheese and a few veggie sticks. No bread/wraps, meat/egg or other protein, avocado, tomato, or fruit. Not sure what happened there, but I was glad I had packed half a PB&J to get me up the hills. I really don't stop to take pictures during the climbs; just put my head down and get it down. The three below were taken as I waited to cross a one lane bridge.

A second little push after lunch to reach the true summit. And just like that we're over the Southern Alps and into the Otago region of NZ. We'll still have some form of mountains for a few more days, but we're done with the West Coast mountains and Southern Alps. I can't believe we had such fabulous weather for our time there.

We had a nice downhill run and started following the beautiful Makarora River.

Next stop - the Blue Pools. Some did swim, but I don't do glacier-fed..... Beautiful, beautiful water colour.

Then on into Makarora, into a headwind of course. One place to stay here......... the Wonderland Makarora Lodge. Looks like the same cabins we stayed in in 2006. I'll have to check my photos to see what cabin # I was in then.