TA day 19: "Rest day" to Greymouth

TA day 19 - Easy day to Greymouth from Robert and Marianne on Vimeo.

After the Big River Track, I was glad of a shorter day today. Riding to Greymouth was a breeze compared to Big River.

I woke early, but after sorting through my gear, giving my bike some TLC to wash all the grit out, cleaning and oiling the chain etc it was 9.30am by the time I left Ikamatua. My front disc doesn't seem to squeal anymore! 😃 

The landscape of cows, sheep and farming equipment rolled by as I poodled along.. I did spy a great sign that I'd like to dedicate to my work colleagues...

Work colleague Ruth got me in touch with her dad Bruce who lives in Greymouth, and he rode almost to Ikamatua to meet me! It was nice to have a riding companion. 

Dedicated to my Lost Letter Office team at Capital E!

He provided a wonderful running commentary of the region and it was great to have a local explaining the history and pointing out various landmarks - including The most 
excellent letterbox of all time...




We stopped at Blackball for refreshments and the owner of the cafe affirmed one of Bruce's historical facts about the local hotel in the town, Hilton. They were charged with stealing the internationally acclaimed Hilton name.

However, there is evidence to the contrary that they had the Hilton name first! Apparently the owner received a payout and changed the name to Blackball Hilton.

One other funny sign in this week township warned of wild goats!

On getting into Greymouth the rain set in, so I will wait till tomorrow to take my next official Checkpoint photo of the Greymouth Bar.

A big thanks to Bruce for hosting me. I feel well rested and fed, and ready to face a longer day tomorrow pedalling to Hokitika.

TA day 18: Through Reefton and the Big River Track to Ikamatua

Riding to Reefton was awesome! After a little climb it was all downhill through some gorgeous forest. I left early, so the roads were empty. 

Reefton was a lovely town and very supportive of TA! Even the cafe had a screen showing the MapProgress of all the riders.

The Big River Track was very hard - most of it un-rideable. The second half was essentially a tramping track that had degraded badly in places. Pushing a bike through that was ridiculous! 

I was going to camp in the tramping hut at the top, but when the rain started falling with the track wet and slippery, I decided to continue down and get out of there. I am glad I did, for with more wet weather forecast, some of the sections would flood. My riding companions, Frans and Marty were a great help - thanks guys! Hope the rest of your TA goes well.

Here is a wee vid of images from the day... Enjoy!


TA Day 18 - It's a wheely long way to Bluff from Robert and Marianne on Vimeo.