Day 8 - Slowing it down

Day 8 - Taking it easy

We have accommodation booked in Harihari so our destination is set. Our route is taking us on the Westcoast Wilderness Trail to the town of Ross, followed by some highway riding to our motel.

Pacing

Yesterday was a big day. Basically round it up to a century and you’ve got a lot of time in the saddle and distance on the wheels. Tony and I were both pretty spent when we rolled into Hokitika and this gave rise to a solid discussion about pacing. We definitely have some distance to make each day - that’s just part of doing a trip like this. However, we are doing a good job starting early and that means we are arriving in the early afternoon with lots of time in town to do our chores (stretching, laundry, bike care and blogging) and grab some dinner. What we have found is that we are pushing it hard to get to our next stop when in reality we have time to take the foot off the pedal a touch. Today we put that into practice. The overall difference in our time was meaningless. Sure, maybe we are 30 minutes later than before. The difference in our body and mental state is marked. It’s a stretch to say I feel refreshed, but I do feel like we hit a more sustainable pace. This is not a sprint. That’s the mantra.

Leaving Hokitika

Rail trails are the best

The day started with a bit of highway riding and soon transitioned to the Westcoast Wilderness Trail. In no time at all we were rolling through an old rail trail through lovely forest and wetlands. The gravel trail was nicely maintained and some of the views were spectacular. I’m told that on sunnier days you can even see Mt Cook. Today was not a sunny day.

On the rail trail

Views from the trail

Wetlands

Another tragedy

My enthusiasm for blogging and photographing our trip came with near tragic consequences. The trail at this point is relatively narrow but I was so enamoured with the terrain I wanted to take a video. Since that means I’m riding with one hand on the handlebars and the other holding my phone. I rounded a corner and lost a bit of control and came far too close to a tree. Normally, that would be crisis averted, since normally I don’t have pannier racks hanging off the side of my bike. With a gut wrenching crack, I knew I’d broken something important. I turned around to see my left pannier hanging down and was quickly able to confirm I had broken one of the brackets that keeps the pannier attached to the pannier rack. We debated a few options; turn back to Hokitika where we know there is a bike shop, rearrange everything to avoid that pannier, give up entirely and just go home…so many options. In the end I settled on a zip tie fix. I was able to basically permanently attach the pannier to the rack using several ties. Truth be told, I think the pannier is held more solidly than it was before. We will see how the zip tie holds up over the next few days.

The fix. I suspect it will hold for a while

To the sea

Crisis averted and back in the saddle we made our way along a long country gravel road that ran parallel to the sea. We would only get small glimpses of the water as there were farms and hedges in the way. It was nice to be off the highway and the traffic.

Obligatory selfie

To the lake

Lake Ianthe was a welcome lunch break and while I considered a swim, I just couldn’t muster the courage to do the cold immersion. There was also a bit too much of a crowd for the quantity of swimwear I had on hand. Nonetheless it was lovely to sit by the lake and take a break to recharge for the final leg. I downed one of those magic chocolate bars and started to feel a bit more normal.  As we were leaving the lake we ran into Fran, another T.A. cyclist. After a quick catch up on the various routes and approaches to the tour we said our farewells and were back on the highway.

Almost swam here. Almost.

Harihari

We arrived in Harihari abut 130pm and quickly started unpacking our gear and going through the aforementioned chores. Pretty soon afterwards Fran noticed our bikes out the front of the motel and came to invite us for a coffee at the cafe. Given we had coffee on hand we invited her to join us for a late lunch and we were able to enjoy an extended chat about cycling touring, the various approaches to gear and distance and other trips we have done. I think this is a pretty standard agenda when a bunch of bike tourers get together and since I still feel new to this, I’m not sick of the conversation and it was good to connect with another rider. After lunch Fran packed up and was on her way for another 50k. I didn’t envy her one bit.

The road into Harihari

The rest of the evening will involve a big feed and a good night sleep. Tomorrow we head inland and away from the coast. Which means hills. And mountains. My legs can feel it already.

Final tally for the day:

Distance: 75.45 km

Elevation: 563m

And the tally for the Tour so far:

Distance: 584.42 km

Elevation: 5,885m