March 18, 2016 Haast to Fox Glacier

The weather forecast for today looked really horrible last night.  It had been such a glorious day and then there was a beautiful sunset so we drove out to a place where we could see the ocean and the sun set.  However even then the heavy duty clouds were setting in along the mountain tops.  The forecast was calling for rain fall of up to 5 mm/hr starting at around noon along with northwesterly winds up to 25 km/hr.  Not good news. 

So we decided to get on the road as soon as possible and maximize the ride before we got either blown or washed off the bikes.   Needless to say the alarm was not a welcome sound at 6:00 am. The temperature was quite warm in the morning and I had put on full heavy duty rain gear in anticipation of the deluge.  So it didn’t take long before I was sweating profusely. 

As each kilometer clicked by there was no rain.  So we were always thankful that no rain and no head wind.  The country side was really pretty with the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. At one point there was a pile of white rocks along the beach which people had signed and left.  Including one from the “triplets from Phoenix  02/12/16”   

The mountains were shrouded in clouds and you could see that higher up it was raining very heavily. Of course when you are a rain forest you have to get a little rain.  Today was also the day of the typical New Zealand one way bridges.  These are marked which way has the right of way and then you just have to guess if the oncoming car will yield to cyclist. 

We stopped to eat sandwiches beside this old barn which had “Shhh”  in big letters on it.  It seemed like only place which did not have millions of biting sand flies. 

The last few kilometers to go and we were convinced that the rain was right around the corner as you could see it up ahead in some of the valleys and the temperature droped several degrees within a few minutes.  However it never started and we escaped getting soaked.  However just as we turned the corner with less than two blocks to go a bee flew into my helmet and even though I jammed my brakes and jerked my helmet off  I still got stung. 

I think the plan is to drive up to see the Fox Glacier later this afternoon.

So another great day of riding in the land where even culverts have names (see picture above)

Terry