Part 1: Offroading the South.
Matt bestowed upon us some knowledge of amazing roads to check out so we departed on December 13th to go tackle them. We had a few days before meeting the rest of the gang in Queenstown and we wanted to hit as many of Matt’s rides as possible. Soon after arriving in the countryside, Sam tried to take another mid-ride selfie and his point and shoot camera flew out of his hand and into some bushes. We searched for it for the better part of an hour but eventually gave up. He would have to use his a6000 (a predessesor to what I currently shoot with) for the remainder of the journey. Remember when I said that we lost some footage? Anyway, we took off towards Lake Tekapo with plans to follow the Macaulay River upstream to a cabin to camp for the night. We followed the east bank of the lake along Lilybank Road before it abruptly ended at the river.
Me on Frankenbike, since it’s upgraded high capacity fuel tank had its own colors and the janky panniers gave it a Frankenstein appearance. Sam’s bike was named Pig since its fuel tank resembled a pig’s snout.
Lake Tekapu.
Hmmm…yeah….lets try to cross it anyway.
Macaulay River was flowing fast and deep and we never found a passable route so we turned around and set camp in a huge field. There were tons of sheep roaming around and we found a few skulls and remains. Sam began to cook dinner and I went on a half mile hike to fetch some water. We made a campfire and I tried, with little success, to dry out my boots which got soaked after I crashed in one of the shallow river offshoots. We enjoyed the fire, stars, moon, and occasional sheep BAAA for a few hours as we talked about how we finally made it. Truly the beginning of the New Zealand Adventure.
Picking up the Pig after a wipeout in some water. We commonly traded bikes since the Pig was better equipped for off-roading and because Sam had quite a few more years of riding experience over me.
Sam just after bailing out on a ford. We tossed a stick in and found it to be about four feet deep which would’ve been bad news.
One of many sheep skulls near camp.
One of the best photos from the entire trip.