New Zealand: Christchurch, Hanmer Springs, and Kaikoura
Oct. 13 to Oct. 21, 2001
Michael J. Ferguson
Montréal
Les Publications
INRS-Télécommunications,
Montréal
Journal Index
Contents
1 Introduction
2 Christchurch, Sat. Oct. 13
3 Waipara, Sun. Oct. 14
4 Hanmer Springs, Mon. Oct. 15
5 Hanmer Springs, Tues. Oct. 16
6 Mason Hills, Wed. Oct. 17
7 Kaikoura, Thurs. Oct. 18
8 Kaikoura, Fri. Oct. 19
9 Kaikoura, Sat. Oct. 20
10 Kaikoura, Sun. Oct. 21
11 Google Earth Map of the Ride
1 Introduction
This trip is to be a short, one week or so, ride from Christchurch to
Kaikoura and Hanmer Springs. I am following, more or less, the
Kaikoura Coast ride in Lonely Planet. The more or less is because
I want to go to Hanmer Springs on the way, rather than the way back from
Kaikoura to avoid the Labour Day holiday next weekend.
2 Christchurch, Sat. Oct. 13
I knew I was in trouble before I left - there was a Nor-easter
in the forecast - this would be, and was a strong headwind all the way
to Hanmer Springs. Lonely Planet's advice in these circumstances -
"Take public transportation!" Other than the wind, it was the first
beautiful day, after a week of much needed rain. I threaded my way on
back roads, all to avoid SH1, through the flat Canterbury plains, 60+km
to Amberley. At Amberley, it started to become more interesting
as I entered the Waipara Valley. In the 1980s, vineyards were
introduced and it is one of the fastest growing? wine areas in New
Zealand. Pegasus Bay Winery was 3km off the road, so I avoided it,
but did manage to arrive at about 4:30pm at Canterbury House
Winery.
I was the only one there, and had a long discussion about their wines
with the resident manager. The highlight was a Pinot Gris -
vendage tardive, a delightful, late harvest, sweet dessert wine,
without the cloying taste of some sweet wines. The disappointment was
their 2000, Pinot Noir - definitely too young, and should have
been held off the market for several years. When I asked why they were
selling it, the reply was economics. I left just after 5:00pm, and
the manager came out a few seconds later to shut down.
From there I had only about 4km to Waipara, its Backpackers, Waipara Sleepers. The cabins here are old railway cars.
They also had tent sites, on nice green grass all around the cabins. It was a quite delightful place, free, early morning, hot
bread from a bread making machine in the kitchen, and freshly
laid eggs from their chickens.
Today - 73km and 596m.
3 Waipara, Sun. Oct. 14
After my bread and eggs, I left in brilliant sunshine, and almost no
wind, to tackle the 6.5km moderate climb starting at Weka
Pass.
The pass goes through rounded hills, with frequent castle turret
formations.
During the climb, the wind returned, but I was mostly protected until I
got north of the Waikiri. It was slow going up the climb, and
continual slow going against the wind. For some reason, the composite structure of the roads are more noticeable, and tiring, in the
wind. These are normal and smooth road surfaces.
In addition, major intersections have ordinary, North American,
asphalt.
Although it is now daylight saving, I still did not have enough
light to make it the 80km to Hanmer Springs. With about 1.5 hours
of daylight, I was about 20km away, and making only 6 to 7km/hr against
the wind and the hills. I started looking hard for a place to camp, but
the continuous fences, made it impossible. Finally I did find a place
that was only moderately hidden, but would do. However, I still had
about 3/4 hour before I had to make camp so I started to hitch-hike. After
about 1/2 hour, I was picked up by a man with a small Mitsubishi
van/truck. Much to my surprise, my bike fitted in with almost no
unloading, and he drove me to the thermal baths in Hanmer
Springs. He was on his way to visit his sister at her farm just outside
Nelson - another 250/300km.
After some trial, and well before sunset, I found The Pines Holiday
Park and set up camp.
Today, 68km and 800m.
4 Hanmer Springs, Mon. Oct. 15
It was a good day to not go any where. There was drizzle and, perhaps
even rain, as dawn approached. Taking a tent down in the rain is quite
distressing. Today was a my day to explore Hanmer Springs. It
started with a visit to the Log Cabin to have my second
breakfast. This was an English Breakfast with baked beans, eggs,
sausage, tomatoes, hash browns, and toast all forced onto a normal sized
dinner plate - I won't do that again - much too much. Then I
visited the Four Square supermarket? to get some English Muffins,
butter, and wine.
After depositing all my groceries back at my tent, I became a real
tourist, and visited the Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools. Unlike
Baden bei Wein, where I lived in the mid 70s, and Rotorua,
there was no overpowering smell of sulphur and sweat. It was indeed
quite pleasant. Originally, there was enough water in the artesian
springs to heat the pools. However, popularity and necessity required
that the town fathers drill holes to increase and control the flow. It
was a quite enjoyable experience. This was a social occasion for the
regulars, and much fun for the bus tours from Christchurch.
Since this was a non-riding day, I was able to have a real lunch -
a whitebait omelette, with salad and wedges - fried
potatoes. Whitebait is a small fish used as bait for larger
fish. Apparently, it was discovered that they have their own gourmand
qualities. The cafe was on Conical Hill Road, leading to a must do climb.
I rode up the Conical Hill Road to the trail head, and decided the
initial paved section was too steep to ride. Not only was it too steep
here, it was also illegal 30m later - this was a no bicycle trail.
The trail switchbacked 600m, through exotic forest - foreign to
the summit. As you climbed, the valley was glimpsed through the trees.
At the summit, you really could see that this was a flat valley stuck
between the mountains.
However, the walk was not all vistas - some things were much smaller.
I went back to camp. As the sun was setting, the sky grew a trifle
ominous.
5 Hanmer Springs, Tues. Oct. 16
It poured rain most of the night and I was almost reconciled to spending
another day here. By dawn though, the sky had broken enough for a
glimmer of sun on the mountains - I decided to pack up and leave.
The first 9km was across the Hanmer Plains followed by small sharp
rise to the bungy jumpers, Waiau Ferry Bridge.
Then it was mostly downhill, with almost no wind, for 50km until I
reached Waiau. The delight of this ride was finding a newborn lamb.
Mother tried to protect her baby by calling it to follow, but neither
legs nor experience permitted a response. After I was safely out of the
way she came back.
I arrived at Waiau at noon with no hope of making it the 85km over
the mountains to Kaikoura. According to Lonely Planet, there are no
services on the road, and definitely no places to stay. That turned out
not to be entirely true. Bob, at the Four Square Supermarket told
me about Mason Hills, a farmstay place, and that Avery might be
able to help.
I looked at the depressing Motorcamp in town and
started up. 22km and 600m climb later I found Avery and Mason Hills. She
was embarrassed at not being able to put me up because they were redoing
the floors, but she did direct me to a secluded spot on the river,
behind a double gate where I could camp. It was wonderful.
6 Mason Hills, Wed. Oct. 17
It was the beginning of a glorious day; the best riding day I have had
in New Zealand; sunny, cool, and almost no wind. It was still a
wonderful campsite.
I even enjoyed the view across the road as I replaced a spoke in the
front wheel.
It was a day of steep hills, mountains, deep river valleys, lost sheep
on the road and deer farms.
First there was the Cloudy Range.
The Conway River was the first of six or eight deep river valleys
where you dropped quickly and climbed, steeply, and slowly.
The country became more fertile when you left the Hurunui and
entered the Kaikoura district. The 2m high fences for deer farming
were quite common, sometimes running right up the side of a cliff. The
deer were also curious, coming across the field to stare as I rode
slowly by.
The Kaikoura Mountains are much higher than the Hanmer,
Cloudy, and others that I had passed. I think some of the snow was
fresh from yesterday. The early morning low clouds mostly burned off,
but there some were still recalcitrant.
In late afternoon when I left the Inland Route for SH1, 8km south
of Kaikoura, the clouds had left the faces.
As in Rotorua, the recommended motorcamp had changed its name, Searidge to Kaikoura Top 10. It was difficult to find the tenting
section because their map gave the impression of a place about five
times its actual size. With the recommendation of a young Swiss couple,
who have been bicycling from Auckland, I ended up in the small area
by the train tracks rather than the road. The trains are quite
infrequent.
I was soon joined by a young English couple who had just shipped their
bikes, paniers, ..., back to England for $100us each. They had just
finished their tour of the Westland and were on their way to Rotorua and Patagonia. Their memories of the Westland were
spectacular country, oppressive sand flies, and rain. Their first
task here was to remove the sand fly carcasses from the inside of their
tent.
It was a great day, 65km and 943m of hill climbing.
7 Kaikoura, Thurs. Oct. 18
Today was another day of beautiful sunshine, and some disappointment for
whale watchers who had their trips cancelled because of a strong south-easterly. My attempt is postponed until tomorrow morning.
I spent the day enjoying the mountains, shoreline, and some small drama
at the seal colony. First I rode up to the lookout.
It was not clear enough to see to Christchurch, but it was still
pretty.
After checking my email, I rode out to the seal colony. The panorama of
the mountains on the way was inspiring.
The Seal Colony at the end of the Kaikoura Peninsula is the
second most popular tourist attraction on the South Island. It has
numerous small joys,
a rotating seal as it lazily got ready for the water,
and Herman, who had enough of this life.
When I first saw Eloise, she was crying, presumably because of Herman. She was hiding from the tourists in the bushes, and didn't
really want to face the world.
Normally there are 6000 to 7000 New Zealand Fur Seals resident
here. Today there were 5. I was assured that the others were probably
around the point resting. I didn't find them. These seals are actually
sea lions - what is the difference? - I didn't know! Sea
lions can walk on there flippers but seals have to bounce.
8 Kaikoura, Fri. Oct. 19
Kaikoura Whale Watch became Kaikoura Whale Search this
morning. We were out for over two hours and did not even hear a whale on
the hydrophones. The sperm whale sonar is so strong that it can stun a
tuna into submission, so it was not a problem with interference from the
ship engines. Later sailings were cancelled because Whales out of
range. It was, still, an interesting two hours with roller coaster
crashing over the swells, a few wandering albatrosses, black petrels,
and a small pod of dusky dolphins. We stopped, and the dolphins stayed
around for several minutes, changing sides of the boat just as I was
ready to take their picture.
Whale Watch apologised, and gave us an 80% refund. I will try again
tomorrow morning. Yesterday, the last boat saw 12 whales, and the
captain said that they saw a pod of about 7 heading out to sea. This is
the time of year that the females migrate past towards the Antarctic,
and it is not unusual, for the adolescent males, that make up the
majority of the whales here, to go out for a look.
In the afternoon I went back out to the seal colony and the end of the
Kaikoura Peninsula. I walked along the top of the cliff, and down
to the ocean at Whalers Cove.
I searched from the top of the cliffs with my binoculars but could not
find any seals. Perhaps they do disappear in the afternoon. Another
young English couple said they had seen about 20, out on the rocks, at
about 10:00am.
9 Kaikoura, Sat. Oct. 20
Today it was Kaikoura Whale Wait - all boats were cancelled
because of a strong south-easterly. The overcast morning became rain in
the afternoon - a decidedly unpleasant day for riding. Because of the
cancellation, I was able get to the seal colony at high tide, and very
early morning - there were seals -
The big guy on the left had just come out of the water and immediately
started harassing a smaller female - she did not take it kindly.
10 Kaikoura, Sun. Oct. 21
It was calm, low clouds, and drizzle for most of the day. The whales
were still out chasing the ladies and the folks at Whale Watch did
not really have any idea when they would be back. No whales had been
sighted since Thursday evening, except for a pair of Humpbacks that
wandered near the shore and were seen from the beach just in front of
the Whale Watch office.
It did not rain for the entire day, but this is all you could see of the
Kaikouras.
I took the train back to Christchurch at 4:15pm, and arrived back, intact at 7:30pm. It was a
good trip, with some disappointments.
11 Google Earth Map of the Ride
This is a link to the
Google Earth Map of the ride.
File translated from
TEX
by
TTH,
version 3.64.
On 15 Nov 2006, 07:17.
The pass goes through rounded hills, with frequent castle turret
formations.
During the climb, the wind returned, but I was mostly protected until I
got north of the Waikiri. It was slow going up the climb, and
continual slow going against the wind. For some reason, the composite structure of the roads are more noticeable, and tiring, in the
wind. These are normal and smooth road surfaces.
In addition, major intersections have ordinary, North American,
asphalt.
Although it is now daylight saving, I still did not have enough
light to make it the 80km to Hanmer Springs. With about 1.5 hours
of daylight, I was about 20km away, and making only 6 to 7km/hr against
the wind and the hills. I started looking hard for a place to camp, but
the continuous fences, made it impossible. Finally I did find a place
that was only moderately hidden, but would do. However, I still had
about 3/4 hour before I had to make camp so I started to hitch-hike. After
about 1/2 hour, I was picked up by a man with a small Mitsubishi
van/truck. Much to my surprise, my bike fitted in with almost no
unloading, and he drove me to the thermal baths in Hanmer
Springs. He was on his way to visit his sister at her farm just outside
Nelson - another 250/300km.
After some trial, and well before sunset, I found The Pines Holiday
Park and set up camp.
Today, 68km and 800m.
Since this was a non-riding day, I was able to have a real lunch -
a whitebait omelette, with salad and wedges - fried
potatoes. Whitebait is a small fish used as bait for larger
fish. Apparently, it was discovered that they have their own gourmand
qualities. The cafe was on Conical Hill Road, leading to a must do climb.
I rode up the Conical Hill Road to the trail head, and decided the
initial paved section was too steep to ride. Not only was it too steep
here, it was also illegal 30m later - this was a no bicycle trail.
The trail switchbacked 600m, through exotic forest - foreign to
the summit. As you climbed, the valley was glimpsed through the trees.
At the summit, you really could see that this was a flat valley stuck
between the mountains.
However, the walk was not all vistas - some things were much smaller.
I went back to camp. As the sun was setting, the sky grew a trifle
ominous.
The first 9km was across the Hanmer Plains followed by small sharp
rise to the bungy jumpers, Waiau Ferry Bridge.
Then it was mostly downhill, with almost no wind, for 50km until I
reached Waiau. The delight of this ride was finding a newborn lamb.
Mother tried to protect her baby by calling it to follow, but neither
legs nor experience permitted a response. After I was safely out of the
way she came back.
I arrived at Waiau at noon with no hope of making it the 85km over
the mountains to Kaikoura. According to Lonely Planet, there are no
services on the road, and definitely no places to stay. That turned out
not to be entirely true. Bob, at the Four Square Supermarket told
me about Mason Hills, a farmstay place, and that Avery might be
able to help.
I looked at the depressing Motorcamp in town and
started up. 22km and 600m climb later I found Avery and Mason Hills. She
was embarrassed at not being able to put me up because they were redoing
the floors, but she did direct me to a secluded spot on the river,
behind a double gate where I could camp. It was wonderful.
I even enjoyed the view across the road as I replaced a spoke in the
front wheel.
It was a day of steep hills, mountains, deep river valleys, lost sheep
on the road and deer farms.
First there was the Cloudy Range.
The Conway River was the first of six or eight deep river valleys
where you dropped quickly and climbed, steeply, and slowly.
The country became more fertile when you left the Hurunui and
entered the Kaikoura district. The 2m high fences for deer farming
were quite common, sometimes running right up the side of a cliff. The
deer were also curious, coming across the field to stare as I rode
slowly by.
The Kaikoura Mountains are much higher than the Hanmer,
Cloudy, and others that I had passed. I think some of the snow was
fresh from yesterday. The early morning low clouds mostly burned off,
but there some were still recalcitrant.
In late afternoon when I left the Inland Route for SH1, 8km south
of Kaikoura, the clouds had left the faces.
As in Rotorua, the recommended motorcamp had changed its name, Searidge to Kaikoura Top 10. It was difficult to find the tenting
section because their map gave the impression of a place about five
times its actual size. With the recommendation of a young Swiss couple,
who have been bicycling from Auckland, I ended up in the small area
by the train tracks rather than the road. The trains are quite
infrequent.
I was soon joined by a young English couple who had just shipped their
bikes, paniers, ..., back to England for $100us each. They had just
finished their tour of the Westland and were on their way to Rotorua and Patagonia. Their memories of the Westland were
spectacular country, oppressive sand flies, and rain. Their first
task here was to remove the sand fly carcasses from the inside of their
tent.
It was a great day, 65km and 943m of hill climbing.
It was not clear enough to see to Christchurch, but it was still
pretty.
After checking my email, I rode out to the seal colony. The panorama of
the mountains on the way was inspiring.
The Seal Colony at the end of the Kaikoura Peninsula is the
second most popular tourist attraction on the South Island. It has
numerous small joys,
a rotating seal as it lazily got ready for the water,
and Herman, who had enough of this life.
When I first saw Eloise, she was crying, presumably because of Herman. She was hiding from the tourists in the bushes, and didn't
really want to face the world.
Normally there are 6000 to 7000 New Zealand Fur Seals resident
here. Today there were 5. I was assured that the others were probably
around the point resting. I didn't find them. These seals are actually
sea lions - what is the difference? - I didn't know! Sea
lions can walk on there flippers but seals have to bounce.
I searched from the top of the cliffs with my binoculars but could not
find any seals. Perhaps they do disappear in the afternoon. Another
young English couple said they had seen about 20, out on the rocks, at
about 10:00am.
The big guy on the left had just come out of the water and immediately
started harassing a smaller female - she did not take it kindly.
I took the train back to Christchurch at 4:15pm, and arrived back, intact at 7:30pm. It was a
good trip, with some disappointments.