South Island safari -- Day 11

[Hitcher]

The safari continues...

More thoughts...
-- What's with the cattle stops in the Haast Pass? Particularly the last one (heading towards the Coast) which only goes halfway across the road?
-- Diesel spills are beautifully coloured on wet roads...


Day 11: Wanaka - Westport: Not our longest day distance-wise but the most demanding in terms of riding. Read on...
At last the day of truth dawned -- were we going to be able to ride the West Coast without drowning? Having gone to Plan B earlier in the safari and flagging the chance to do the Coast from north to south because of the weather, it was now or never on this trip. People staying at our Wanaka motel who had traversed the Coast the previous day advised that is was raining solidly as far south as Lake Hawea. The forecast however, looked encouraging.
We gassed up at Caltex Wanaka, where a friendly pump attendant recommended highly a lunch stop at a salmon farm at Lake Parenga (about 3-and-a-half hours ride away by her reckoning). After waiting an age for a convoy of campervans to roll by, we were goffin off. It was cloudy and cool in Wanaka. A stop was required shortly at Alfredtown to put the shades on and again the day got steadily better. Again, just when you'd thought the SI couldn't top what it had already shown you in terms of roads and scenery, along comes the ride from Alfredtown to Makarora. Starting with Lake Hawea on the right and then over a pass to complete this stage with Lake Wanaka on the left. Moody lighting, stunning scenery and an awesome road. Make the most of your overtaking opportunities up Hawea as the road is comparatively narrow and winding up the Wanaka side.
The Haast Pass starts slowly and then comes on strong, in terms of the riding demands. The road gets increasingly windy and steeper -- downhill in this direction. In fact I saw my first-ever truck run-off ramp -- a bit like the ski-jump ramp at Sarajevo! The irony is that for an out-of-control truckie to get their ride up the ramp, they would have had to have successfully negotiated a few 25kmh corners first... Once you get to the bottom of the hill, there are several km of beautifully winding road along the edge of the Haast river (wide and rocky), with virgin West Coast rain forest adjoining the other side of the road.
91 octane at Haast wasn't the same nose-bleed-inducing price as Milford, but it was a close thing... $1.30 a litre!
Yes, there are long straight roads on the West Coast, and the first stretch up the coast to Lake Maoreki has some of the best of them. Also a chance to take in some of the best coastline in New Zealand. Nice and moody with a touch of seabreeze holding up the haze against a baby-blue sky and the silhouettes of the tree-lined hills...
After winding along through the rainforest to Lake Paringa, we were now well in the mood for lunch. The first signpost was courtesy of DOC. I thought "there can't be much here", so when we rounded a corner to encounter a large parking area, public toilets and a cafe I assumed this was the lunch stop highly recommended by the servo lady at Wanaka. We bowled in announcing that this place had been recommended as having the best coffee and lunch on the Coast. After having drunk the coffee and eaten the lunch, we left congratulating the lovely ladies for the best in the South Island!! A few km up the road, we rounded a corner to find -- the salmon farm! We didn't stop...
By Karangarua the cloud grew gloomy and the temperature dropped. As we climbed up to Fox, the cloud grew gloomier. The road was damp on the extremely windy descent to Franz Josef but not enough to warrant donning wets. A very technical ride, this bit! The cloud started to lift again by the time we reached Whataroa and by Ross was almost gone. This meant that we missed the reverse views of Mt Cook and Mt Tasman (at Fox) and any viewing of glaciers would have been most unpleasant.
From Franz Josef the West Coast becomes comparatively civilised with the emergence of dairy farms and other pastoral holdings. While they have a certain visual charm, to the eye of a former Taranaki dairy cockie's son, they look a bit hick-like...
By the time we reached Hokitika the sun was gloriously out (it was about 5:00pm), so we gassed ourselves and our steeds before heading northwards. We had been well warned about the perils of entering and exiting the two road-rail bridges to be encountered on the ride to Greymouth, so took these extremely carefully. There are numerous scrapings on the roadway to testify to the regular occurrence of unwary bikers!
The late afternoon sun made our re-emergence onto the coastline proper a wonderful experience. The colours on hills and sea were stunning. The best coastline anywhere are the run from Rapahoe to Barrytown and again from Punakaiki to Woodpecker Bay -- my most favourite bay in the known universe. I developed a special affection for this locale many years ago during regular trips between Westport and Strongman II mine near Rapahoe. It is a truly mystical place (said a biker at risk of poetic ramblings).
By Charleston the twilight had drawn and we rode the last km in the dark.
We arrived in Westport to find the town booked out (odd for a Wednesday) but we managed to find a "room" in a truckshed (that is another story, dear readers!) before adjourning to a local drinking establishment to celebrate St Patrick's day and the birth of my paternal grandfather in Westport 115 years prior exactly. Two very pleasantly tired bikers adjourned to their "lodgings".

[LB]

My green skin tone had started to fade overnight, but is now back in full glorious colour again.

Obvious answer to your question re the cattlestops: they have very well-trained cows who keep to the left and only ever go one way. Simple really.....

[pete376403]

I can confirn the road/rail bridges can bite. Got me a couple of years ago, front wheel slipped and it was gone. The spaces between the bridge frames look big enough to fit a GS1100 and rider and (amazing how much goes through your mind in the milliseconds it takes to hit the deck) I was wondering how I was going to get the bike out of the river. Fortunately the only bit that went over the side was a rear view mirror. Some observations - falling off take it out of you, was very hard to pick the bike back up, Also, car drivers (fuckim anyway) are impatient bastards, getting all twitchy cos they had to wait till I'd cleared the bridge.

[wildfire1]

Oh yeah...these babies suck big time. I had never heard or come across these puppies before my big trip around the Sth Island.

I was warned about them when my fine lady and I stopped for some lunch at the Hilton (so sue me you b*stards) in Blackball. While there, we got talking to a local West Coaster who happened to work at the Wesport Hospital A & E, and he told us that they get between 4-5 customers every month due to these evil road/rail bridges.- almost all from Motor cycles or touring cyclists!

It is easy to see why!!!

Come on Tranist and NZ Rail YOU CAN DO BETTER!!!! let's get this sorted - the VERY least that needs to be done is better signage warning motor cyclists of the danger AND telling drivers that the MUST provide a greater following distace for all 2 wheeled vehicles.

[James Deuce]

When I was riding round the Sth Island on the RC30, I bumped into a couple of lads from Israel, who had finished their military service and came to NZ and bought cheap bikes to tour on. One had a CBX550 and the other had an XZ400. They both fell off on one on SH6 between Westport and Greymouth (can't remember exactly - memory completely shot in regard to that trip) and boy were they incensed about idiot NZ road designers .

They both hare'd onto the bridge at a rate of knots and just arsed over on the slime covered wooden surface. I just took it easy, cruised over, parked and then helped them pick up their bikes. No damage, but as I remember the car drivers got all grumpy for blocking their way, as you mentioned Hitcher.

[merv]

The safari continues...

More thoughts...
-- What's with the cattle stops in the Haast Pass? Particularly the last one (heading towards the Coast) which only goes halfway across the road?

Quite simple - you know how wet it can get there - they are drains.