Current Location:Takaka, Aotearoa
I think one of my biggest problems when it comes to cycling is thinking about things too much, that might actually be a problem I have in general. I finally got around to getting over Takaka hill the other day and it was a very nice ride. In my mind though it had been built up to the point where I thought it was the size of Everest. In reality it’s a meager 800m (2400ft, the elevation of home in Maui) and my theory of going 10m per minute vertically held up quite well, so all in all it took me just under 1 hour 20 minutes to climb the hill. The downhill was quite worth it because I didn’t have to touch my peddles for 20 minutes of freewheeling, awesome. The lesson here is to just get the hills over with instead of dwelling on them for weeks on end, hopefully I can put it to practice.
Takaka ends up being what it’s been built up to be by Max, Jane, and Alex. It’s a very chill place to hang out for a weekend. I even managed to make it up to Farewell Spit up on the north end of the south island. I went looking for a beached whale that was in the paper but couldn’t find it and the locals in the area had no clue where it was but the ride up to the spit was excellent if not a little long. Another ‘problem’ I’m having in the area is they keep putting mico-breweries on the side of the road. I stopped by the Mussel Inn on the way back from the Spit yesterday and helped myself to more than a few beers and had fun trying to peddle back the remaining 15k with fading light.
I finished my second great walk in New Zealand and it was completely different than the Milford Track. The Abel-Tasman Track is relatively easy if it’s timed right. Had I tried to do it a few days later it would have taken me extra days since you have to cross estuaries which rely on the tide. As it turned out I timed it about perfectly since I only had to wait 1hour for the tide to go out and wade through hip deep water. The hut I chose to stay in (Bark Bay) was about halfway through the hike and I figured it was as good as any. It turned out that it was the one hut inhabited by mice so that made things a little noisy at night, fortunately I don’t leave without my earplugs so they came in great use that night. The walk itself it really easy and pretty scenic but at the same time it’s all about the beaches, with freezing water. I hear in the summer it’s quite nice to go swimming in but not at this time of year.
I’ll post pictures when I get a chance.