Toughest day on a bike. Ever.
Today I had a plan. A ridiculous plan which involved cycling over 205 kms, 160 of which was on gravel roads through a mountain range and the largest cattle farm in New Zealand, the Molesworth Estate. Mountain bikers apparently take 3-4 days, no-one heard of someone doing it on a road bike. But there's a first for everything! Nothing special about the plan, what was special is that there was no plan B. There's nowhere to stay in the first 180 kms and there's virtually no through traffic - so if you don't get through, you have to get lucky.
The day started well. Early rise, double sachet of porridge and coffee for breakfast in the Jack on the Green backpackers (excellent hostel) and then I was on the road before 7am into a chilly but beautiful morning.
The first challenge met me after only a few hundred metres - the climb on the thick, loose gravel road up and over Jack's Pass. With over 450m ascent at over 10% there's no way you do that on a road bike. Even mountain bike would have struggled big time. Anyway, the view from the top was worth the walk.
What kept my spirits high though was the stunning scenery and the nice sunny and warm weather.
As can be seen from the "Panorama of the day ".
It was after about 40 kms that I had my first misfortune. I'd already stopped twice to tighten my shoe cleats as the screws were being shaken loose by the bumpy track. What I didn't check was my bottle cages but it wasn't long before I felt my bottle flapping around. One screw had loosened which had resulted in my mini pump falling off. Shit! Not wise to continue without a pump, even though my Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres seem to be bulletproof, so I had to ride back to find it.
Back on the "road" again and after 60 kms I'd got my average speed up to 11.5 kph but to be honest I was already absolutely knackered. It wasn't quite as sunny now and just as I thought to myself "the worst thing you'd want right now is rain", it started to snow. Still, it didn't last long and I soon perked up enough to stop for a picture of the "cow of the day". There are no sheep here, hence the lack of a "sheep of the day" picture, but being in a cattle ranch as big as Skåne in Sweden I guess cows will do?
I started to do the arithmetic and realized that getting to Blenheim tonight would require a minor miracle, so I set my sights on trying to get out of Molesworth and find somewhere after about 170 kms. At this point I'd ridden 80 kms!
I got past Cob Cottage and Desolate Flats (they were & are).
But the going was tough. I was walking up every hill (there were many) and even though the track quality was a lot better now, I still couldn't get up speed on the downhills. It was about here, walking up a hill, exhausted and running out of time that I thought to myself "the worst thing that could happen would be if it rained now ". So it started to hail. With a headwind. At about 3 degrees above zero. Not optimal!
Rain jacket on and my determined head fully switched on - I just wanted to get over two saddles before I could then descend and hopefully escape the storm. Then the hail got heavier.
And then my luck turned. A local in a pickup who'd passed me half an hour earlier had seemingly thought about my predicament and, knowing that I was heading down into a valley where the hail was 10cms deep when he'd driven through, he turned around and came back to pick me up. I guess that otherwise I would have soon sought shelter and tried to let the storm blow through but you can imagine how grateful I was when Paul appeared.
Paul is staying at the Molesworth homestead where his wife Ann is the cook. Talk about landing on my feet. Not only a bed for the night in their spare room, a slap up "working man's dinner", a chance to have a beer with all the staff - but luckily enough Paul is driving to Blenheim tomorrow morning where he can drop me off. Result! Big time.
So I now snuggle up in a warm cozy bed, with a full stomach, and prepare to dream of cows. There are 10,000 of them on the estate - I hope I don't need to count them all before falling asleep.
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