Rising at 0700, I'd walked to get the car, breakfasted & loaded by 0830, with 33835 on the clock.
At 0850 I turned left at Franklin & headed back up to Cromwell, arriving at 0925. Petrol was marginally cheaper here, so I filled up the tank & the windscreen washer, & turned north less than 10 minutes later.
The lupins were several months old, but I wanted some pictures, so stopped by a bridge over the Lindis for these.
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| As you can see, I found some more willows, too |
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| Roadside lupins on the go ~ no time to stop! |
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| But I did stop for this little river |
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| I passed the lady in this car several times, but then she passed me while I was clicking! We leap-frogged each other so often we started to wave ;-p |
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| Approaching the pass |
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| I'd first driven thie pass in Dec '9, but in the opposite direction. This time I'd did it several times ~ courtesy of the Waitaki rides & the Hobbit Party/Queenstown flights |
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| The Lumix was on 'thru glass' for the ones on the go |
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| There's that car again! |
I got to Omarama at 1115 & stopped for the loo, a double espresso & a kit-kat. I noticed the grey car went straight on towards Twizel.
I got a ginger beer & a crunchie as well. I guessed I may be hungry later.
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| This one's either before or after the Omarama junction. The roads in Mackenzie & north Otago are all fairly straight, but not as long & straight as in Canterbury |
I thought the buildings to the right of the trees was the Twizel airport, but when I Gmapped in road view I couldn't see that tree anywhere, so maybe not?
My ride was booked for 1230, so I didn't hang about after Omarama, & after turning off the SH8 onto the SH80 just short of Lake Pukaki, I only made 1 stop for pics.
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| This is a similar shot to the one I took in Dec'9 ~ |
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| ~ as is this, but from the SH80 not the SH8 |
Once back aboard, we set off up the main road a little way before cutting up a track to the right.
One of the riders was a relative beginner, so the girl in charge let we 2 cut up the hill to the right for a canter. As we were pretty high ~ altitude-wise, & as we were going up hill, the horses weren't very keen.
Can't blame them really!
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| This is looking back down the hill towards the bridge over Twins Stream ~ there was no Maori name |
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| Looking back where we'd been |
We continued upwards. Hardly surprising they were keen not to trot!
As this was near enough mid-summer, there wasn't much green to the grass.
Much like it had been down in Waitaki with Pete.
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| We'd ridden up the path running L-R from the valley ~ |
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| & were headed this way. That's Lake Pukaki down on the right |
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| Leaving my mount with the others, I walked up the track a bit & wondered what it'd look like after rain |
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| This was pretty zoomed. I think that's what caused the mistiness & lack of focus?? |
After the photo stop, we set off back down they way we'd come up.
That was shame.
It'd've been much better had we been able to do a circular ride.
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| The path ran between the slope & the trees, so I hung back to catch a pic of the other three riders. They're barely visible in front of the trees, but there. Honest! |
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| Great pic of Aoraki Shame about the telegraph wire :-/ |
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| This one's better :-) I could cut the fence off the bottom if I printed it |
I needed to weed again, & spent ages getting rid of the worst pics. That done my battery needed charging again, so I asked if they would charge it behind the counter while I sat in the sun, ate & drank a tasty toasted butty, tea & coffee, & wrote up a few notes.
Looking at them now, I see I hadn't got any names: not even the nags!
There is a note saying "Marena=red", so maybe that was the name of the lady in red???
However, the notes do say I left Glentanner at 1705 with a journey to Methven ahead.
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| My last proper shot of Aoraki in the evening sun |
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| Seeing the mirror effect in Pukaki, I stopped for a pic |
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| Me being arty-farty. The clouds show up better in Pukaki's glorious blueness than in the sky! |
With about 240K still to drive, I didn't want to hang about, but couldn't miss slowing down for another bit of arty-fartyness through the wing-mirror.
At the SH8 junction, I went left towards Tekapo, & passed more lupins on the roadside before the landscape changed as I approached Burke's Pass.
After a bit, I could see rain clouds behind me, &, unusually, 7 cars & a lorry ahead.
I checked out the Kimbell B&B I'd stayed in in 2011 as I drove by, and the pub on the opposite side where I'd watched some rugby ~ see the blog Mackenzie Country from Sept 2011.
At Fairlie I'd need to turn off the SH8 on to the SH79. I also needed food for tea, so I stopped at the Four Square at the T-junction.
It was 1845.
Two rib-eyes, some mushrooms & four kiwi fruit in the boot, I hit the SH79 only to catch up with some cars with trailers as they negotiated a wiggly bit of road, so I pulled over & ate the Omarama crunchie & drank the ginger beer. I had the best part of 100k to drive before the rib-eye & mushrooms, so I figured it was a cunning plan.
As I'd been driving along, I'd noticed there were names on the bridges as well as the river names here.
I like it :-)
I eventually got to Geraldine at 1920. Of note is that the map shows Geraldine is more or less due east of Fairlie, & (as the crow flies), they're about 20 miles apart. However, the SH79 route takes you more than twice that distance.
The Inland Scenic Route begins (or ends, depending on the direction you're going) in Geraldine, & I took a left, still on the SH79 at the junction in town.
The SH79 gives way to the SH72 just after the bridge over the Orari River, & I followed the Inland Scenic Route towards the Rangitata where there was (another) long bridge over it.
I'd noticed in previous visits to NZ that the Rangitata & Rakaia were very wide ~ if not very full of water most of the time, & the bridges across these braided rivers were very long. Apparently, the one across the Rakaia near the eastern end is 1.7K!
I noticed this time that there had been some work done around the Rangitata. Something to do with floods.
At this point were were in Canterbury & the roads got very straight for a long time. Fortunately, the scenery either side was not as boring as the roads were straight :-D, & I re-acquainted myself with views I'd originally seen in 2009 & again in 2011. However, I was going north-ish this time.
Coming towards Staveley ~ from where I'd ridden with Bruce on those 2 previous occasions, I decided to see what was at the end of his road, & turned left at the shop.
Bruce's Staveley Horse Treks is about half-way down Flynn's Rd on the left, but I drove past it, & went all the way to the end where I found a car park for Sharplin Falls, & the beginning of a hike up through the bush.
By the time I reached the end of Flynn's Rd, I'd driven more than 470K, & I still had to get to Methven & Big Tree Lodge. Making a quick exit (leaving the engine running!) to take a pic of the pretty stream, I turned around to head back up to Staveley village & the main road.
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| Bowyers Stream from the bridge |
While writing this, I went on Gmaps to see if I could find out the stream's name ~ but, unusually for watercourses in NZ, there was no sign of a stream on the map, never mind what it was called, so I E'd the Methven I site.
The kind & helpful Vendy got back to me & said it was Bowyers Stream.
So now I know :-D
I eventually arrived at Big Tree just before 2030, & I was very ready for my rib-eye.
Lee was still the hostel manager there - see 2011 Mt Hutt blog, & there was another male & a female there as well. They were all watching telly, so I cooked both the Fairlie rib-eyes & all the mushrooms.
I was frikkin' starvin'.
I begged some milk off Lee for a coffee & downed 2 mugs while I showed the steaks the pan - I like them blue.
Then I got the 5 Flax pinot noir out of the car. It went in the mug, & I had a mug full while I checked & sent Es on the NZ mobile I'd got at the airport.
It was about then I realised I'd left my camera charger at Glentanner.
Wot a pain in the rear :-/
I am a doofus %\
Leaving some wine for the airport next morning, I watched the end of a NZ movie about a famous Maori comedian (who I'd not heard of), then went to bed.
Given the long day & the distance driven, ie 497K, there wasn't much sudoku done before lights out.
Tomorrow meant a drive to Christchurch to take the car back, & a flight to New Plymouth.
Plus, I'd need to find somewhere to get a compatible battery charger!
OAO
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