Day 25: Makarora to Lake Hawea

Got up early again this morning and recorded one of my songs of the 1800s that I had written by the fire - should have recorded it by the lit fire the night before but no one was there at that time in the morning 6:30am so good opportunity before they all started having showers.

ANyway I thought the weather was a lot better than the day before despite the locals saying that the farmers had said today would be worse and I should wait another day. Packed up gear and headed over to office to drop off keys to be met by the girl who works in the bar asking me if my name was Rachel and not to panic but the police were looking for me - I instantly knew it would be the fact that I had not been able to drop a line on my blog/facebook page and that my parents were worried. Having spoken to the police to reassure them I was ok and that fortunately I had come over the pass the day before yesterday missing the terrible weather I headed off down the road.

My so called good day lasted an hour before the wind got up to what felt like gale force and the rain hit hard at times almost forming hailstones. The road was beautiful of what I could see of it but the next couple of hours were torture as I could feel my body temperature dropping quickly as the icy winds took hold of me and I started to worry about hyperthermia realising that I was quite a long way from any form of township still....I just kept cycling and walked a couple of times up some hills to try and be able to fold my hands over to keep them warm. I was soaked through and freezing.

Finally in the distance I could see Lake Hawea and just kept trying to aim for there whilst the feeling in my legs finally lost all sense of temperature and I knew I was in trouble if I didn't get into a hot shower soon. Having now whshed I had listened to the farmers I finally arrived at the first lodge at Lake Hawea passing the campsite as a definite no ..... I stood in the hallway of the hotel and immediately three of the staff said to me you look blue....very quickly I was given a room key and shown to the showers and handed a towel, stripped off and spent the next what felt like an hour under the shower trying to warm up each part of my body again. Eventually I felt I came back to some sort of normality got dressed had a cup of tea and started to dry my clothes.

The day was spent in front of a very large fire in the main part of the hotel and I grabbed a burger from the closed kitchen grateful for shelter, warmth and hot food. The rain didn't let off till after 3pm and at that stage the day suddenly looked different - I kept feeling I should hop on my bike and go further but everything I had was still drying and so I gave in and stayed for the night realising that that would mean I would have two days to get from here (which was much further than I realised - thought I had only cycled 30km but it was over 50km so that was a good start) to Invercargill and then Bluff.

I would have to go over the Cardrona road which apparently has snow on it at the moment but hopefully that will clear a little by today.

Still that will be tomorrow's story.....

Day 24: Makarora - weather too bad to go

So today was a frustrating day in that I knew that not going today was going to cause me difficulties along the way and relied on tomorrow to get me to Queenstown which turned out to be impossible in the end again because of the weather.

In my dorm which was really a four bedded chalet that I shared with a lovely woman from Holland and we got on really well and spent the evening before chatting and going for a drink at the bar in the lodge and meeting many of the locals there who are also really fab.

The day until midday was spent continuing our chats and showing my roommate what I was up to and talking about the process of how I was writing these songs. Was great to share the whole experience with someone whoo was so interested in the whole thing.
At midday she had to catch her magic bus and head on to Wanaka. We worked out that we would meet in Queenstown the following evening - which unfortunately wasn't going to happen being hampered by the rain. I spent the rest of the day writing up some of the blogs ready to post when I could get cellphone coverage whic wouldn't be until close to Wanaka.

Fell asleep in the room which I now had to myself for a few hours and then popped back to the bar to read a book and catch up with the locals more. Its a really interesting place - only really a handful of people all mainly from different countries but all who once arrived couldn't move on anywhere else - it is a stunning place.

The Pipson family seem to be the earliest family around the area in the 1890s from what I could gather. The fat of making that pass through the Hasst reminds me of all the incredibly hard working people who made the infrastrucutre that we enjoy today - the roads, the train tracks....you can't even begin to imagine what the conditions would have been like and knowing how the weather kicks in at a drop of a hat over here and the extreme conditions you get I am sure there were many casualties along the way.

It was going to be an early start if I was to get to Queenstown the next day. I was relieved not to have tried to go out in today's weather - worst I had seen it since I started...howling winds and rain like the end of the earth had come! Glad I was in my cabin and not my tent...but I was going to have to pay for this luxury in making up the miles lost over my last couple of days.