Rob came up with a great suggestion over dinner last night and that was "Let's ask the pub if they will do a takeaway lunch for us". He did ask and they said yes so that meant that our ride for today was going to start at the pub at 7:30 just in time for us to pick up our lunches for the day as there were to be no coffee shops or Cafe's along the route.
We headed out of Kumara and along the trails, tracks, roads and dams of the local power scheme - yes there is quite a bit happening out there that is just out of sight on your left hand side as you whizz through to Greymouth or Hokitika. They all make for great riding and you are generally climbing on an easy slope for the best part of it. You reach the Kawheka Saddle (317m) and then other than one other 120m climb it's all downhill. We rode straight through "Cowboys Paradise" which is looking worse 12 months on and stopped at the top of the zig-zags at the same time as a couple of touring riders were coming the other way. We chatted with them and they are Canadian and ended up exchanging emails as they are leaving from Christchurch in a few weeks time so I told them to come and stop at my place.
The downhill zig-zags are great riding and one straight lines it in a few places to shorten the journey and add a bit more fun, At the bottom of the zig-zags there is now a lovely new shelter and in this we had our cut lunch before heading on out for the last stretch of the trail. This is located at the Aratika River I now realise after spelling something completely different for an American tramper who was wanting to know how to spell the name of the river - I spelt what I thought I saw!
At Lake Kanerie the trail heads off in tot he bush again and runs along the side of a water race which again makes for great riding, There was quite a group of E Bikes that had followed us down the zig-zags and had caught us up when we stopped. Just before we had time to "hit the trail" in front of them, they took off. We waited a few more minutes then took off and got passed them just as they were comingout of the water race trail which was quite good.
There is very little Road riding to be done on this leg of the trail and when there was there is generally a goo amount of room for vehicles and bikes to co-exist. Our route once we got off the road is a trail right beside the river.
Another great day and as we arrived in Hokitika at about 2:00 PM we all have a bit of time for R & R - for me that means - sit on the bed, right the blog and shortly I'm off for a walk around town to find somewhere for dinner,
Ian was waiting at Lake Kanerie
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