371km Marahau to Greymouth
Getting soaked by the rain is almost a rite of passage when cycling New Zealand.
We’d heard all about the legendary wet weather, especially on the west coast of the South Island. But we didn’t really appreciate what we were in for until we found ourselves dripping wet for the fifth day in a row, soaked by just the latest downpour to come steaming our way.
We did a quick calculation. Let’s see. That’s 11 days of cycling so far in New Zealand. Minus 2 sunny days and 1 overcast day. That leaves 8 days of rain. It hadn’t been all damp, of course. Every so often a patch of blue sky would appear or maybe even a brief ray of sun but it always disappeared too quickly, leaving behind a steady stream of water that slowly soaked through our clothes, leaving us looking, well, like the proverbial drowned rat.
We’d long since given up the idea of packing the tent away dry but was the luxury of just one piece of dry clothing too much to ask?
At least we could take comfort in knowing that we were hardly the first to have this problem. A frustrated Captain Cook imortalized New Zealand’s bad weather in 1770 when he gave the name Cape Foulwind to a tip of land, after he was unable to land there because of the storms.
More modern explorers – two cyclists we met in a campground kitchen – told us one evening that it was perfectly possible to cycle the whole 660km from Westport to Queenstown and never see the mountains. And then there were the two Italian bikers we met at the grocery store. “We’re not camping. We’re staying in a cabin tonight,” they said. “Yesterday we felt like fish, swimming instead of riding.”
With that in mind, we felt quite lucky when the sun finally returned to warm our backs for our final stretch into Greymouth. It was the kind of cycling we hoped to see in New Zealand: quiet roads, a stunning coastline and blue skies as far as the eye could see. There was even a glimpse of some far off mountains.
Now if only the forecast holds…
24th February 2009 at 10:13 pm #
Go east young man! (it’ll be in the rain shadow)
At last my jealousy ends and I’m off to ride around Turkey on Thursday.
Keep up the good work, all the best
David
27th February 2009 at 2:13 pm #
Hello Friedel and Andrew…….. I’m so sory that you have found your traveling with rain more often than not.
On the plus side when you visited ud at the cheesery and dairy goat farm south of Greymouth It was sunny and smiles all round…..not to mention the ‘nice cheese maker ans assistant’ oh ! yes and the cheese!
I hope the weather is kinder to you both.
Fiordland is the most beautiful place in the world. I lived in Te Anau for more ythan 20 years and it never rained all the time 🙂
Take care and safe happy traveling on your journey.
1st March 2009 at 4:46 am #
Hi David, have an amazing trip to Turkey! Oh, how we wish we were tucked up in a hotel there now, sipping some of that fantastic tea. We did have some sun in the last few days but now it’s raining again. Fingers crossed for sun tomorrow.