March 19 2016 Fox Glacier to Hari Hari

There is a poem which is posted in several places on the West Coast which deals with how much rain there is here (see picture above).  We got that rain.  At 4:00Am it was hammering down so hard I thought that the roof was going to collapse.  By the time we got up it was still hammering down.  In addition the wind was just howling out of the north.  It didn’t look like a great riding day. 

So we drove up to Hokitika which was two rides up the road.  It is the only town of any size on the west coast.  This crosses the mountain range and we were hoping that the rain would be much less further north.  We would then ride back to Hari Hari this would give us a 73 kms ride with a howling tail wind. 

In Hokitika we went and found the bike shop which had been recommended by the Earniepedia.  It was great as we found some excellent New Zealand jerseys which have a great map of New Zealand.  It is the only place which sells them as they were special ordered.  I also found a replacement mirror. 

After the bike shop we wandered down the street to a jade carving shop.   As it turns out this shop is where Jos’ brother inlaw’s brother  is a jade craver there.  Agnes found an excellent piece of jade jewelry there.  It is called a “toki”

After a quick lunch we jumped on the bikes and headed south back towards Hari Hari.  Even though it all up hill we were just flying with the howling tail wind.  At one point we were flying along at 43 kms/hr.  I had the bike in the top gear and couldn’t pedal as fast as we were flying along.   We had a stop planed at the 25 kms point and we were down in just over 35 minutes.   The rain was holding off and so we pressed on.  At the 35 km mark the rain started again and by the 40 km it was just pounding down.  We pulled in at the 49 km mark at a place called the Bushman’s Center. It is place which should be on the top 10 most over rated places.  It is rumored they sell possum pie but they don’t. 

I was totally soaked and cold so I jumped in the van.  I had absolutely had it with the pounding rain.   Jos and Tom road the last 23 kms back to Hari Hari.

Tomorrow we will ride back toward Fox Glacier to complete the ride and the sag back to Hokitika for a rest day.   We have a very nice looking villa for two days.  It will be great to have a rest day.  Even better the storm front will have moved on. 

All in finding an excellent jersey and getting to ride down wind so fast you couldn’t keep up with the pedals more than made up for the pouring rain. 

Terry