DAY 15 –Big River hut–to Cowboy paradise ranch

DAY 15 –Big River hut–to Cowboy paradise ranch 153km / 12:00 total / 8:03 riding time / 19 kph average

Warning - long entry due to high drama day!

The next morning the rain was alternating from steady to deluge. I faffed around not really wanting to experience the elements but in the end I had to go since I had a massive amount of kms to make up from yesterday. I ensured everything would be fully waterproof except for my phone, an action which would cost me.

Once it was light enough I headed out and noted that the track was a completely different animal now that it was sopping wet. It was slow going and there was plenty of “hike-a-bike” sections. I had 13k to do until I got to the end of this difficult track and I missed the photo control point of the Waiuta Track boardwalk section since I was under the impression it was right by the ghost town.

The track was slippery, exhausting and extremely slow going. The big logs laid vertically on the path made it completely un-rideable and the track at times was basically a flowing stream. Despite being soaked by rain and sweat I was enjoying the remoteness and beauty of the surroundings. I tried to ride as much as possible and noted the fact that I was more or less traversing the top of the valley with the side of the track dropping away steeply through the undergrowth to my left. 

This is not the place to fall since you are alone, it’s steep and slippery and if you fell down the bank you might not stop for quite a while I told myself. I managed to manoeuvre through a bad slip in the track which certainly gave me an idea of how far down the drop was and proceeded cautiously along the track. 

As I seemed to start making better progress my front wheel hit a rock and stalled the bike and my balance was thrown to the drop side of the bank. Everything slowed right down as my brain failed to tell my feet to unclip and I began to tip over and begin falling down the bank, still attached to the bike.

Immediately I knew that this was potentially going to be very bad and my tour may be over. I could not see how far I would fall but since I was still on the bike I was going to likely fall a long way before I hit the bank which would probably then propel me into a roll with the bike possibly landing on top of me. I had no idea how far I would roll and if I would be able to even stop. Adrenaline was forced into the system and quickly I looked around for something to break the fall and I saw a sturdy tree growing out of the bank which was reachable. I braced onto it and somehow it held and so did my arm thus I was able to halt the fall by bracing myself off this tree. 

I braced there for a few moments then unclipped and hauled myself and the bike the few metres back up to the track. 

Once I had composed myself I realised that the tree being in that place was nothing short of a miracle. The bank dropped away soon after the tree so it may have been a SOS situation or worse if it hadn’t been there or I hadn’t had the presence of mind to brace off it the way I did.

People might say I was lucky or things happened by chance but I am a Christian by faith and belief and I believe things happen for reasons and I was given protection by the tree from the Almighty.

After this incident I set off more carefully and then finally the track allowed me to pick up speed and I arrived at the Waiuta ghost town completely sodden. 

This is where I discovered that my jacket pocket was not waterproof and upon opening it an alarming amount of water gushed out and I found that my cellphone had been sitting in this puddle of water since I had carelessly not zipped up the ziplock bag I had placed it in. The phone seemed ok however at this point.

It had taken me 2 hours to do the 13k from the hut to here so I continued out down the gravel roads and stopped at the only open place in Ikamatua to fuel up and plan the rest of the day. This is the point where my phone started dying and I managed to send/receive some texts for the last time but I didn’t have the presence of mind to remove the battery to prevent the short circuit damage which was the result of this.

Back on the bike and the rain began to clear until it was a sunny day as I reached Greymouth. Typically however once on the coast you can be assured of a strong sea wind and that’s what it was for me coming into Greymouth.

I spent way to long in Greymouth eating, stocking up and finding a shop to replace my shredded rear tyre. The only tyre available was heavy and not tubeless but sturdy. It would slow me down but at least I would not have to worry about it completely disintegrating down the west coast where there are no bike services for a good 500k stretch.

Since my phone was broken I was now 100% reliant on my cue sheets since I could not verify if I was on or off course. I managed to find the start of the west coast wilderness trail and started making good progress despite the buffeting from the strong sea breeze.

The west coast wilderness trail was the highlight for me in the south island. It is 137k long and it got better and better as you went deeper into it. It was well signed and very diverse with plenty of interesting sights along the way. I noticed that the people coming the other way were all mainly older folk maybe even retired.

The day’s dramas were not over! Just as I was getting into a good rhythm on the bike again a group of cyclists came around the corner and one guy completely oblivious to me suddenly pulled right into my path (I was keeping well left). Since I was down on my aerobars and had no chance to brake so I steered as left as possible but we still ended up colliding shoulder to shoulder and handlebars. We both went down in a heap and I was amazing that neither of us was hurt. After checking he was ok I checked my bike and noticed it had hit the ground hard. I spent another 15 minutes trying to sort the derailleur which had been damaged and looking for some cosmetic objects which seemed to have disappeared off the bike then proceeded onto Kumara as the track finally left the shoreline and headed into the real wilderness.

At Kumara I chatted with the English shop owner and then discovered my frame bag zip had busted. More gear failure, great! I managed to get the zip working again but would have to be ultra careful with it. It was getting late in the afternoon and I had originally planned to get to Ross tonight where I had some accom booked. That was looking very unlikely and even arriving in Hokitika before complete dark was looking pretty unrealistic also since it was still 70k away. I put my head down and got on with the job and tried to enjoy the wilderness scenery as much as possible as I flashed through it.

I rode past reservoirs, water races through lush NZ native bush and up over the Kawhaka pass. 

At the top of the pass I started seeing the signs to Cowboys paradise then a new plan came into my head. It was early evening and starting to get dark, I had no accom booked in Hokitkia so I decided I would try and stop at the ranch and hope it was reasonable.

I followed the amazing singletrack down the valley and arrived at the ranch in failing light. It certainly was an interesting place and not a soul was to be seen. I banged open the big saloon doors and was greeted by the smell of food and sound of country music and the owners son who sorted me with a bed for the night in the “backpackers”.

The decision to stop here turned out to be an excellent one as I stopped earlier than anticipated and was able to recover better, I cleaned up the remains of the buffet dinner and hit the bed which resulted in an 8.5 hour sleep which was my best night’s sleep during the entire ride.