Near Lake Wanaka, South Island

We spent a relaxing week camping on the shore of Lake Wanaka. The weather was perfect with sunny, warm days and clear nights for watching the stars. A few days later we rode back to Lake Takepo to enjoy the scenic views. Dave spent an afternoon enjoying the less traveled roads in the area and saw some beautiful sights from the hill tops, but unfortunately didn’t take the camera with him.

Sunrise

Our next stop was at Rakaia Gorge. The first night there was pretty chilly with rain starting just after mid-night and continued for the next three days. The manager of the campground was kind enough to let us stay in his friend’s caravan for one night to get out of the rain.

After the third night of rain, we decided that the weather was winning so we packed up and found a motel room in the town of Methven. It was only an 18 minute ride, but the rain and temperature just a few degrees above freezing made that more that enough for the day.
When the clouds finally did lift, they uncovered the mountains covered with a fresh coating of snow. A beautiful sight, though the snow came far enough down the mountains to let us know that summer really was coming to an end.

Mt Hutt near Methven

Canterbury plains

We were close to the center of the south island and still had some places we wanted to see, so we rode west through the extraordinary Arthur’s Pass to the town of Greymouth, where the rain came down again for several days. At this point, we gave up staying in the tent and spent the rest of our time in cabins.

Arthurs Pass

When the rain finally did let up, we headed north along the west coast. We were told of a scenic area north of the town of Westport that we should not miss. The small town of Karamea is on a road 100 kilometers north of Westport and followed the coast along the Tasman Sea for most of its length, except for a 20 km section that went inland giving a great twisty ride through the hills. This is was a fun ride, and although paved most of the way, we had to ride at a slow pace as there was a lot of mud on the road from the landslides caused by the previous three days rain. Several times we had to wait as road crews plowed the mud and downed trees off the road.

Beginning of the Heaphy Track

We stayed at a holiday park adjacent to a river estuary which, at low tide, we could explore on foot, though sections were a bit muddy. This area was a haven for bird life and we spent a couple of hours watching the wading birds feeding before the tide came back in.

No more tenting for us!

About 20 km further north along the coast we took a gravel road to its ending and the beginning of the Heaphy Track. This is a four to six day hike known as one of the Great New Zealand Walks. Since ours is a motorcycle trip, we just did a half day walk along the coastal part with a stop for lunch at Scotts Beach on the way back to the bike.

Scott's Beach on the west coast

The Lewis Pass was the route we chose to take back to the east coast and the weather was near-perfect. We stopped at Hanmer Springs for a few days. This is the main thermal resort on the South Island. The town is known for the Thermal Reserves which are pools with a mixture of fresh water and hot spring water of various temperatures. We had a relaxing soak in several of the pools and were reminded of our similar time in the Baldi Hot Springs at Fortuna, Costa Rica.

The short days ride to Christchurch signaled the end of this part of our trip. We arranged for crating and shipping of Deb’s bike and decided to sell Dave’s bike. We did some riding two-up in while in New Zealand and found the bike big enough for both of us, so we decided that it made sense to sell one here rather that paying to ship it home.

So, here we are back in North America visiting family and friends. Deb’s bike is somewhere on the Pacific Ocean expected to arrive in about one month. This summer we will decided where to ride to avoid the cold weather next winter and hopefully we can make it to another Horizon’s Unlimited Travelers meeting this year.