A couple of delays

For a quiet street in Queenstown there was a lot of noise but then given it was a Friday night, probably not unexpected. Between the music and the shouting, it took a while for me to get to sleep. Simon heard the music but not the shouting so enjoyed a better night's sleep.

It was cloudy when the alarm woke us, and only forecast to reach 16 degrees.  But it wasn't raining, which had been the early forecast for the first day of our Round the Mountain ride.  

We were at the wharf by around 8am, earlier than our 8:15 meeting time, despite a detour to FergBakery to stock up on lunch supplies and a most delicious looking chocolate brownie. 

By 8:20 no one had turned up with our tickets for the ferry and the boat had departed fully loaded with no room for any more bikes.  Not a promising start.  We had paid Round the Mountains for a shuttle pick up and accommodation so assumed they would sort out our transfer to Walter Peak somehow. 

Sure enough, a few calls later and we were advised that we had time for a coffee before our water taxi departed, with four other people. It seems it's a busy time of year to do the cycle loop. Turned out we were on the second water taxi, with the first departing with another 6 cyclists who were also on the shuttle pick up at 3:30 to Te Anau.

Our late departure meant that our cycle would be a little less leisurely and not allow time for a detour down to Mavora Lakes.  However, the cloud had lifted and it was another stunning day for cycling as we pulled into the Walter Peak wharf and unloaded our bikes. Our ferry companions all had e-bikes and one of them, who had done the route before, warned us of the challenging hill ahead, particularly as we were carrying full panniers.

Undeterred we set off, with a couple of early stops to adjust the height of my seat which seemed to have collapsed overnight - or maybe I felt it more due to the additional weight.  

The scenery was absolutely stunning, with towering mountains rising out of the surrounding waters. We passed a few cute animals as we cycled out of the Walter Peak farm precinct and towards Mt Nicholas Station.   The day had warmed meaning I didn't need three layers anymore.  

It was a gradual uphill along the valley.  Before long we were at the first ford.  I had my sandals packed at the top of my pannier in case it was deep, but no change of shoes required as we crossed easily.  

The valley grew ever more spectacular and we stopped near the old cookhouse for our morning tea and shared the brownie which tasted as good as it looked. 

A little further on, we passed a couple who had been on the first water taxi and one of their hired ebikes wasn't working so had given up walking and were resting in the shade.  The rest of their group had gone on ahead, but there was no mobile coverage to raise an alarm.  Simon had his satellite Zoleo and offered to text a message through to the shuttle company in the hope they could come a little earlier to collect them.  Message sent, we continued on to tackle Von Hill.  

It started gradually but soon became steep and was relentless for the next 2.5 kilometres.  We made our way up slowly, fighting the strong southerly headwind which impeded our progress. Eventually we made it to the top and stopped for a quick lunch.  Due to the headwinds, our progress had been slow and we were determined to be at the meeting place by the scheduled time of 3:30 pm, despite knowing that the shuttle would be delayed by its diversion to collect the broken bike.

The last 21 kms was mostly downhill, and despite the winds we made very good time, reaching the meeting spot a little ahead of time.  We then relaxed, chatted with others in the group and enjoyed our apples whilst waiting for the shuttle to return.

We had an additional stop on the way to Te Anau whilst the broken bike was replaced before finally arriving at Lakeside Motel and Apartments, our base for the next two nights. Our bikes were covered in dust, so we were glad we hadn't tried to cycle the leg to Central Station which was meant to be boring and dusty. 

We decided to head straight into town to pick up some breakfast provisions and takeaway Thai. Turns out the Thai restaurant only does takeaway, which you could eat in if you chose, but they had no staff to provide table service.  A few wines back at the apartment and some birthday calls to round out the day 

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