Mt Cook and glacial lake by P. GreenspunThe Coweys had planted a small 'wood' of conifers to protect their house from rockfall from the cliffs.Some people in the neighborhood have actually had football size rocks cannoning down into their living room table.Potentially lethal,but,like most things in NZ,worked around and taken in their stride.
Finally the day dawned for us to pack the bike onto the bus to Twizel (opposite Lake Tekapo,glacial lake to Mount Cook),and travel 300kms in 4hours .Having spent many hours touring with various dutch orchestras on the roads of europe,I could appreciate the comfort ,speed and efficiency of the bus service from Christchurch.The winding road sped through a sunbleached,brown tussock,hilly landscape.A shade of brown not easy to find in europe pervaded.No clay in the undersoil here.In preparation for the wilder part of the trip,I had taken to studying soil profile records.The climatic subtilties are extraordinary:When we got off the bus in Twizel we were in a rabbit induced desert-within 60kms of Mt Cook and 20kms of its glacial lake.A desert beside a lake?No trees,sparse scrubland.
Puzzeling away in heat between 30+35C,we cycled from Twizel southwards through the adjoining desert. The sunset was reflected in both northern and southern halves of the sky;over Mt Cook,as we looked back,and towards the Lindis Pass as we searched for our first bush campsite.
Obviously we had a few things to learn about NZ antipodean natural history...Unfamiliar noises made us,along with Don's warning about crazed tourist killers,fairly jumpy;(the tourist brochures actually warn tourists not to walk on the streets alone at night).We were well hidden from the road,among the beginnings of what was to be a fir tree plantation.
After sleeping well (swiss penknife at the ready!),we set off and had a hot midmorning's cycle to Omarama. Foehn tail winds helped us make exellent headway,in spite of the heat,in the rain shadow of the southern alps.
More rabbit induced desert interspersed with irrigated greenery around the occasional house.So much bleak sunburnt hilly tussock as far as the eye could see.The decreasing accessibility from Christchurch and Dunedin giving an inhospitable feeling to the more frequent and utterly desolate mountain ranges.
Lunch in Omarama was a rather tense affair,as Jean spilt yogourt on a 'dedicated' bench outside of a very snooty wool souvenier shop(prices targeted for the japanese yen,and utterly extortionate,even for the the 'tweedeed out' and 'fleeced out'scots).Coachloads of tourists would be shipped from one tourist trap to another on the south island.This was not the NZ we came to see.
Jean got so sick of my comments that she ground a youghourty hankie into my face;but that bench sure was full of yoghourt!
We were to make intimate aquaintence with the tensions between 'doing NZ',and having NZ 'do' us.
We set off after this diverting little lunch expecting the Lindis Pass to be a nasty climb in soaring temperatures.
Somebody had told us of an american cyclist caught in one of the violent wind shifts to the south,in central Otago,who was found(in summer clothing) three days later suffering from hyperthermia,wandering miles from her bike...35C to -5C at the height of summer is not to be taken lightly,especially in an arid climate zone.
The heat was even more intense in the early afternoon,and we used the amazing kiwi made'Polar Fleeces'as breathable (and open) sun protection-and stayed cool.Impressive,but only possible in the strenghthening tail winds.The slog up the final 5kms still hadn't convinced us that we were anywhere near the summit (only 1000 or so meters high). We were requested to stop on the summit(complete with '3rd degree')by the police, for,of all things ,a japanese car advert.
After answering all the policeman's questions concerning who we were,how we had got the Tandem etc,we discovered that our Trangia stove lid had been 'cross threaded' ,and our interrogator used the police car engine heat (with a little dipstick oil) to free the offending lid.So we had a very well timed tea (tuna and macaroni),while waiting for the car advert crew to finish.(Sobering thought-no police no tea:no japanese car advert,no tea.)
The summit and twilight crags were upon us before we knew it; and we were cascading down the spectacular gorge in the twilight ;steering more by instinct than by design .Incredibly atmospheric ;craggy outcrops merging together ,dance like, in the rapidly descending dark.The bike handeled very well at 60km/hr,and the Arai Drum brake proved its worth,stabilizing the back axle through centripetal force,very comfortably.It was the only time that Wim Kok's 200nlg dynamo worked.
[The bike was our second tandem in six months ,also bought in holland from Kok in Utrecht.He had sold us around 2000nlg of 'vital'(in his opinion)extras,70% of which was useless.The Burly 'Rock and Roll',we destroyed in six weeks;more of that later.
(The first tandem had perished in the french alps descending Col De L'Iseran,the hi tech MAGURA hydraulic brakes having deceided to spray oil at us.We had to,for safety's sake ,walk down everyting we had climbed.That bike was bought from Wim Zoon in Laren,holland,an expensive hand made mistake.)]
We had found a plaque from Lord Dalhousie along the roadside commemorating a gift of 8 deer to NZ in 1873.Tickled us pink to realise that the estate that Jean had grown up in,in Brechin,Scotland,(cos her dad worked there 40 years,)had such a link to NZ. In spite of the heat ,the Lindis pass is a well engineered and easy ascent,and after the descent,we camped in a hollow reeking of old cow dung.It didn't hinder our sleep at all.
Old knarled willow trees greeted us in the sunlit morning,along with some very small biting 'sandflies'.
To a couple of midge hardened scots we didn't think much of them at the time.Little did we know that the further south we cycled,the bigger the sandfly became.More of them in Fiordland than we care to remember!
The brown sunburnt hills had less and less tussock on them,and the sharp ascents now and then seemed very wearing in the central Otago aridity.The tail wind helped us through some gorges and many rocky outcrops,which blocked out the sun for a while.The shaded descents feeling sharp enough in that heat.We passed an occasional sheep shearing station-quiet as the grave,and just as abandoned.
Was this combination of sparse vegetation,rock formations,and too much sun without shade not reminiscent of Arizona?Irrigation turned every color on its head,around isolated settlements,riots of color planted in the sand and heat.
Munching on raw garlic and cheese prevented heatstroke as we ground around the hills towards Taras.This lunchstop was in beautifully laid out playing fields for a school.The shade from the red beech trees was most refreshing.As we approached Cromwell we took another long seat in the poplar trees beside the fast flowing Clutha River.That day was the first we had seen of trees that gave any kind of serious shade.The rest had been shrub and scrubland.We were entering gold rush terrority,from last century.The Clutha river had claimed many a life ,by drowning and by despair-gold fever.
Two middle aged cyclists passed us the same day twice.They had less baggage,no tent and lots of experience in that heat.They were a farmer and a schoolteacher from the north island.We had a good time as they sussed out whether we were just 'doing NZ' or letting NZ change us.
Mt Cook and glacial lake by P. Greenspun