Cycle Touring on the South Island of New Zealand

by Susan Otcenas

Friday, January 7th, 2005 - Haast to Fox Glacier

Distance: 122.8 km
Average speed: 16.2 kph
Time in saddle 7:33
Max speed - 52.2kph
Departure 7:40 am
Arrival 6:00 pm
Rain, rain & more rain.

We left Haast in a drizzle, which almost immediately became a steady rain. This did not bode well for me, as last night's sore throat turned into a full-on head cold overnight.

Fortunately, traffic was almost non-existent so early, and the first hour passed uneventfully. The series of hills to Knights Point were tiring, but small compared to so many others we've climbed. It was raining pretty hard at Knight's Point, so we took cover under the picnic shelter. My cycling book says the one good thing about rain on the West Coast is that the sand flies are not active in the rain. Can you say BALONEY!?! They swarmed around us while we tried futilely to swat them away. I was not a happy camper.

Momentary shelter from the rain

rain & fog @ Knight's Point

We pedaled on towards Lake Paringa at 50km, consoling ourselves with thoughts of hot cocoa and a chance to get out of the rain. It was a huge letdown when the store there turned out to be closed, especially with the map showing nothing else until Fox Glacier at ~ 120 km. I was feeling grumpy, sick and damp, and I took all that out on poor Jeff. I'm lucky he puts up with my crap. Fortunately he knows that the best solution in these situations is to get some food into me to keep my blood sugar stable (plenty of snacks in our handlebar bags) and to not provoke me. Usually, I snap out of these moods quickly. He's such a doll!

10km down the road, we saw it… CAFÉ written in massive white letters across the roof of a distant building. I shouted with glee and picked up my pace, hardly believing my eyes. And what a place it was. The Salmon Farm Café and Shop sits in a large building overlooking circular ponds with oodles of salmon swimming in them. Not surprisingly, the café specialized in all things salmon. We both wolfed down a bagel with freshly smoked lox, cream cheese and red onion (literally, since childhood my all time-favorite, if-I-were-banished-to-a-deserted-island-this-is-what-I-would-take-with-me food.). Coming up for air, we had a second course of salmon chowder - chunks of salmon in a thick potato & corn chowder - with a whole grain roll.

I felt sooooooo much better after eating and getting warm. I dried out and put on a warm/dry pair of Goretex pants from my pannier (for some reason I'd chosen to wear leg warmers that morning instead of my Goretex pants. Dumb, dumb, dumb) Jeff did the same, and we set off.

Not long after we left, the sky began to brighten and we were soon treated to a much needed 10K of sun. We took a picture so that we could remind ourselves later that the day had not been all bad.

A brief moment of sunshine at the beach

One of many one lane bridges.

Still, by the 90km mark, the rain returned again in earnest. It was at this point that my intermittent sneezing started to become a serious problem. My whole body was wracked with sneezing fits, with me hanging my head over the handlebars at the side of the road. We pedaled on, but I was rapidly losing steam and was having a hard time maintaining a reasonable pace. Jeff stopped several time to pump a slow leak in his front tire, and I would just soldier on. He had no trouble catching back up.

What a relief to finally arrive at the Fox Glacier Lodge after 122 km. I'd been looking forward to staying here the whole trip. It was to be our "splurge" accommodation - large room with queen size bed, wood-paneled walls throughout, sliding glass doors to the balcony, our own bathroom AND our own hot tub to soak in. As we were checking in, the gal who owns the Lodge indicated that it was available for another night if we wanted to stay longer. SOLD! Even though we had a schedule to keep, I decided on the spot that we were staying put and would figure out how to make up the distance later.

After a long hot shower, I felt well enough to walk down the road to the Cook Saddle Restaurant, where we had a fabulous meal AND got to see our first kea. Kea are a type of New Zealand parrot that can be mischievous around humans. We were warned not to leave our bikes unattended, as the kea were likely to rip up the saddles with their sharp, hooked beaks.

Kea

kea in the trees

After dinner, I had a long, hot soak in the hot tub and went to sleep.

NEXT PAGE: Fox Glacier Rest Day