2 March - Wilderness Trail Day Three

 For this blog I have taken the Plagerist option and stolen that written by one of my Aussie riding buddies - So my thanks and all credit go to Phil for the following:

It was a coolish overcast day. Rained heavily overnight. Cleared by morning.

Todays ride was the final 34km leg of the 130 km West Coast Wilderness Trail. By days end we have ridden a total distance of 670 since we started off a week ago.

The route was a combination of single track through heavily wooded sections, some short sections of quiet bitumen road with much being trails previously used for timber trams. The latter being a very gentle gradient with a hard packed fine gravel surface.

We arrived in Ross mid morning, packed the bikes on the trailer and returned to Hokitika for morning tea. We then drove along the coast to Greymouth to shop for groceries before heading to the small township of Reefton for lunch.

Throughout the day we passed unsupported bike packers, the majority riding the Tour of Aotearoa which starts at Cape Reinga at the top of the North Island to Bluff at the bottom of the South Island. The TA is one of the worlds longest bike packing trips.

Mid afternoon we arrived at Chris’s bach. A bach is a New Zealand cabin in the woods. His bach is situated on 12 acres of isolated land with uninterrupted views of mountains and bushland. The bach is entirely off grid powered by solar and hydro with very feint intermittent 3G wifi. No good blog posting.

Our overnight home at Hokitika

Old mill at 9 km – the timber industry was the largest regional employer in the early 1900’s

Bitumen sections were on very quiet roads

Flax plant – seen most days – used extensively in the past for rope production

Ride through lots of tracks similar to this one

Old tram bogey at 14. Kms

Very long straight section of the disused tram line as we approached Ross

The Tolana Bridge at 30 kms

End of the the 130 km West Coast Wilderness Trail at Ross

Out intrepid driver Ian

Notice at the Greymouth Railway Station – caused by an overnight coal train derailment

A TA rider..

Ride route of the Tour of Aotearoa

Main Street of Reefton

Chris with local farmer Miguel who provided the venison and lamb for dinner

Chris’s Bach

Chris checking his water intake to his house from the headwaters of the Grey River above his property

Chris’s hydro electricity generator

Another view of the hydro electricity generator which uses an adapted washing machine motor

Todays drive Ross to Springs Junction – blue dot is Reefton where we stopped for lunch – red marker is my current whereabouts