Day 118 - rain bikes with one pedal
Tekapo —-> Lake Ohau Lodge 93km cycle
The rain had really come down over night but I was holding out hope that it would clear up this morning. Josh was re-joining the trail for a day to cycle to Lake Ohau. It would probably be his last day on trail, so I kept everything crossed for sunshine.
We picked up our e-bikes (no way was I doing 90km on a push bike) from the centre of town and did our best job at waterproofing ourselves. Shower hats were a game changer - why hadn’t we had them on trail until now?!
We cycled out of Tekapo surrounded by grey skies and headed towards the bright blue waters of the canal.
The rain wasn’t too heavy and it was fairly warm but as soon as we gained any speed on the bikes it felt like we were riding into icicles. We’d stop pedalling just to warm up.
Half an hour in, my foot suddenly slipped off the pedal and I heard a loud clang behind me. The bike pedal had fully fallen off…! We managed to push it back on, but without a tool kit on the bike, it was impossible to screw it on tightly enough - I was kicking it back on as I cycled every few minutes.
My hands were freezing, our waterproof gloves woefully ineffective. I attempted to shield my phone from the rain and willed my fingers to move enough to type a text. I contacted the bike hire company and they very apologetically arranged for a replacement bike to meet us down the track.
A couple of hours later, on a shiny new bike with a full battery charge we were whizzing towards Twizel just as the clouds started to dry up.
We stopped at The Musterer’s Hut in Twizel, a cute cafe where the bike hire company had left our bike chargers. We’d brought our own lunch, but the lure of hot chips and chicken pie was too much to turn down. New Zealanders like to think they own the pie (much like the Aussies) but these were a real let down - we we’re disappointed we didn’t just eat our squished, now slightly soggy ham rolls.
The view for the first part of the afternoon wasn’t much different from the first - the canal’s bright water beaming up at us through the mist.
When we hit Lake Ohau however the terrain changed and we swapped the smooth tarmac for a rougher bike track, providing much more entertainment around the lake’s edge all the way into Lake Ohau village.
Lake Ohau lodge was a further 7km or so on from the village and I pedalled standing up all the way to the door of the hotel - my bum now well and truely feeling the effects of seven hours on a bike seat.
Our bags were dropped at the lodge 15 minutes after we arrived and after a couple of drinks in the lodge bar we retired to our room very happy about the outcome of the day, despite the rain it felt amazing to travel so quickly. Would have been three days walking to travel the distance we had today. Back to snail’s pace tomorrow…
