Alps To Ocean Bike Ride, Day 1 Mt. Cook Village to Bramear Station, 33kms, 25C

WOW!!!

That about covers it. What a truly amazing day! Picked up at our Queenstown hotel at 9:30 on the dot by our host, Scottie. A very nice Kiwi who has traveled some, including Canada and Victoria. He settled back at home with his wife and now three children and operates his varied eco-tourism operations. He drove from the coast early this morning after having been up most of the night when the alarm in his business went off. I was impressed with his good nature after a sleepless night, an early start and then the long drive to pick us up and a further 200+kms to drop us off followed by 300 kms to his home on the coast at Oamaru where we will finish later this week. He then has to drive a couple up here tomorrow. Scott is very typical of the super nice New Zealanders we are meeting throughout this journey. It's made our experience quite exceptional.

As we approached the mountains it soon became clear that we were facing a wall of cloud and rain at Mt Cook. We could see it from a distance even though we were in the hot sun. There was a time when I would have perhaps been a bit disappointed, but now its just become what it is. Nothing to be done. There is so much beauty up here that it just doesn't really matter. Beside, perhaps I'll be working here next season as Scott asked me if I was interested in managing the cycling part of his business next season:-) Who knows? I'm open to new opportunities and it would be an amazing way to spend 6 months. He was probably joking anyway...maybe;-)  I already have Annemarie's blessing!

We arrived in the village and things were looking a bit bleak, but then the rains settled back towards the mountains and we wondered if it would hold. Mostly it does, and after a nice lunch at the Sir Edmond Hillary Centre we are dropped to begin our ride...7 kms to the airport!

While Mt Cook was largely covered in cloud, the majority of the massive peaks in the area were clear. Annemarie is dwarfed below some of the peaks...and these are the smaller ones!

Then at about 3:15 just the two of us are taken for an exciting chopper ride up and around the area (what a gas!!) before being dropped off with our gear on the far side of the river. The chopper then returned to the airport to pick up our bike. Brilliant!! Here are a few photos...

Suddenly it's very quiet and there are just the two of us left left very alone. 

We gear up our bikes and start peddling down the glacial flood plain. The trail starts fairly well marked, but as we cross a major glacial drainage channel joining from our left the trail essentially disappeared. The surface was so soft that we had to push our bikes for a while through the scrub until eventually we found the trail again. 

Then off we went, across bridges, along narrow trails, through streams, eventually arriving at a gravel road that we followed to our evening destination. All the while we were surrounded by some beautiful scenery. 

Young Banff type mountains, but differently formed, though both areas are of course heavily glaciated...after all, that's part of the attraction! 

We met our hosts Hamish and Julia jogging along the road and with fresh directions to their property we found our way to their sheep station. Yup, finally spending a night on a sheep station! We had no idea this would be our first destination...a sheep station!

They're smaller than the Spanish sheep, though this area is home to the famous Shrek sheep that the movie was named after.

Before saying good by to our hosts to let them jog on, Julia managed to tell us that the steak and salmon were in the fridge together with a nice green salad and that the potatoes were waiting to be cooked with fresh herbs. Sounds like more than enough, but it gets better! A rhubarb crisp was waiting and there was vanilla ice cream as well!!! Best crisp I've ever had...included cocoanut and white chocolate...brilliant!  Julia also said that the breakfast food was in the house as well...our place on their property is called the "Hill Top Cabin".

They have three cabins all well separated out of sight from each other with amazing views.  When Scott asked if we wanted dinner tonight ($40 each) rather than take in our own food we had no idea that it would be this good. It was great, we just cooked it up, pulled out a couple of nice beers (our only two) from our panniers and settled right in! 

A special start to this portion of our journey. We are nicely alone with just a few hundred sheep all around us and I think there will be no further sign of our hosts. I think there will be stars tonight after the moon sets and I'll shortly be taking a look. It's almost 10pm now and it will be dark tonight and I suspect cold up here in the mountains with glaciers close by and the wind is howling...perfect!

We will start out early tomorrow as we have to cover some 82 kms to our next destination, a ski resort now used by cyclists in the off season. Scott told us that the trail has only been opened and completed in all areas for the past 18 months, so still relatively unknown which suits us nicely. 

I understand that it may be possible to see Mt Cook from here in the morning before we start...will definitely have a look see. This evening as we sit here, it looks to be clearing with some soft cloud on its high ridges reflecting the moonlight. What a nice show to watch out our front window. The wind is still howling outside...still so perfect:-)

Annemarie's perspective...

Highlights Upon Highlights 

The helicopter lifted off, leaving us all alone, just us, our bikes and the few things we packed in our panniers (including two beer), literally in the middle of nowhere, although we could see the heliport from where we stood. The experience of having a trail in the mountains all to ourselves was nothing short of spectacular.

But that wasn't the first highlight of the day...it started with noting my mom's 85 birthday...unfortunately she wasn't home to receive my surprise call, but that doesn't make her day any less of a highlight for me...this is the woman who gave me the confidence to push my limits, and I get to celebrate her birthday twice...once today in New Zealand, and again tomorrow when she's celebrating it in Canada. I won't be calling again, but I will have lots of time to think about the many remarkable things she's done and the lessons I learned from her during tomorrow's long ride.

We knew that this trip within our trip would be a highlight, but even that expectation didn't measure up to the actual experience. We thought we'd be sharing the helicopters ride, but we were the only ones on board and the pilot took us for an extra spin to see the waterfalls (which meant we had to fly into a bit of a canyon), and he gave us a bit of a demonstration of the maneuverability of the machine while we were up there...

Back to the ride. We were warned that the first part would be a bit tricky as we were riding through a river bed...that part was okay but some of the route markers were missing, so we followed other tire tracks and promptly found  ourselves lost...a little extra overland travel through some brush, and we found our way back to the track...then had to cross a stream with our bikes (and those few things in the panniers don't seem that light at this point).

Further down the track is Lake Pukaki...bright turquoise in the sunlight...behind us is Mt. Cook being bashful shrouded in cloud. All around us as we travel though farmers fields are craggy mountains...highlights? Geoff's pictures will tell the story I'm sure (he may even throw one or two of mine in).

Several times today Geoff and I have just taken a moment to express our gratitude for the life we are living at this moment. (Really we've been grateful for every day of this trip, but some do stand out more than others). My first month of retirement has been pretty amazing I have to say.

Our destination tonight gave us the option of having dinner provided (at significant cost) and we took up this option...Geoff had salmon, I had steak, both accompanied by a fresh green salad, and rosemary potatoes and rhubarb crisp with ice cream for dessert. We had to cook it ourselves, but it was all prepared and seasoned to perfection. We have this little cabin to ourselves tonight, with only the sheep in the neighbouring field for company...which is wonderful because our hotel room of the last thee nights was on a very busy road frequented regularly by revellers enjoying the nightlife only a tourist town provides. 

Tomorrow brings our longest ride...along with many more highlights to recorded tomorrow night I'm sure. Now it's time to go out and enjoy the Southern stars.