Day 5 - Murchison to Springs Junction

Day 5 - Murchison to Springs Junction

We wanted to get an early start today so it was up at 6am and a light breakfast of egg and bacon sandwiches, coffee and chocolate milk. Breakfast of champions I hear you ask? Why yes. Yes it was.

Another beautiful day

Hitting the road at 7am we were greeted with a still, calm morning blanketed with low cloud and fog. The mercury was reading 7 degrees but my optimism added several degrees to make it awesome riding conditions. Our goal was Springs Junction, via the Maruia Saddle with a bit of highway riding to finish things off.  

Starting off the day


The start of the ride was - like much of the Tour Aotearoa route - through bucolic farmland, nestled in a wide valley. The pace was nice and easy and after the rest day yesterday the legs felt a bit stronger. Before too long the clouds lifted and we were riding under blue skies, with no wind. Just perfect riding. 

Low clould over farmland

Sun is shining. Amazing day


Maruia Saddle

The Maruia Track was gravel, but the good kind (refer to my previous post on the importance of understanding the spectrum of gravel roads) with hard pack and few loose rocks (for the most part). Since this was a saddle that we had to pass over, it did involve a steady elevation gain. 

I'm getting wet feet

There were some interesting moments as this track has several points where we needed to ford across a creek. The water level in these crossings is not significant - rarely to the bottom bracket - but it can look like any other rocky brook that you have hiked across. So that means lovely, big, round river rocks. As you might have guessed, that means that I didn’t make it across one of the streams unscathed; I lost too much speed and had to put my foot down to stop my self falling. Even though I was wearing gore-tex bootie covers, the end result was one very wet foot. The booties, they do nothing 

Through the saddle

We crested the saddle by 11am or so and it was a perfect time for a lunch break. The descent down the other side of the saddle was fast and cool as our sweat quickly dried off in the speed-induced breeze. Before long we arrived back on the paved road towards the highway. I’m learning the NZ highways don’t have a great bike shoulder so it’s fortunate that we don’t speed too much time alongside the double-trailer trucks and other traffic. 

You shall not pass (ok, just this one time)

The day finished off with another gravel trail with a pretty clear signal not to keep going.

What to do?

However, we had done some advance scouting and all indicators (other than the big sign above) suggested it was fine for cyclists. This turned out to be true with just a small section that was very rough as the gravel was loose and still being worked into a proper road.

The rest of the trail was mostly quite nice with some deceptively steep sections that were really only made worse due to our tired legs. I don’t know what it is but the chocolate bars I’m eating along the way must have some magic in them as they seem to give me a kick to get up these steep sections just when I’m flagging. Weird. 

Warm Showers

The town is not so much a town as a gas station and a few farms. We stocked up for dinner and snacks (chips, Fanta, Chocolate cookies…just the essnetialls really) and made our way to our accommodations. Tonight we are staying as a guests of someone we connected with through Warm Showers and it is indeed lovely to have a shower after a long day in the saddle. The host has a lovely little cabin ("a wee biv" is how it was described) with two bunk beds. It will do us just nicely.

Our little cabin for the night

Tomorrow is likely goint to be our first spot of rain and our destination is still TBD. Check back tomorrow to find out more!

Final tally for the day:

Distance: 79.49 km

Elevation: 999m


And the tally for the Tour so far:

Distance: 339.74 km

Elevation: 4,324m


Comments

Sean said…
Looked a great day in and over the saddle. Appreciate the explanation of the Bristol gravel scale!
1:33 AM

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