NZ Day 4 - Old Ghost Road

Wednesday, 5 April 2017

If I asked the kids what the highlight of their day was today I’m pretty sure they’d say sleeping-in and having french toast for breakfast.  We woke up to the sound of rain on the roof of the van, so we lingered inside reading books and generally avoiding getting going. By the time we finally left at 11.30 the weather was clearing - so that was clever!

Heading to the west coast we retraced our route from a few days earlier - it was even nicer the second time around - after winding through the fruitgrowing areas we headed then along flat river plains, then next to the Bulla Gorge for a while with mountain ranges looming all around us. We stopped at a lookout early on..

 

 

Jon and I thought the best part of the day was getting a chance to go for a run on the Old Ghost Road - an old mining trail I hadn’t heard of at all until recently but is apparently a popular multi-day mountain bike (and hiking) route. We parked for lunch at the start of the track as it was just off the highway and a nice place to take a break.  After a reviving lunch we got changed into very stinky running clothes (after 3 days of running and no washing machine), and headed out on the trail.  It would be a tough first day for the hikers/cyclists as the first 18kms is steadily uphill. We managed to make it to the 4k marker in half an hour - considerably faster than some of the cyclists burdened with 3 days worth of gear no doubt! Then we had an easy cruise back down the hill.  The scenery was amazing in this section and from reading John Dawson’s blog I know that the rest of the trail is pretty awesome too - something to do another time perhaps.

 

 

 

While we were running the kids were fossicking for gold in the river - with no success unfortunately.  

Back in the van we had an hour’s drive  through the last of the mountain ranges and down into Carters Beach - where we had our first paid and powered campsite booked and waiting for us - largely so we could wash clothes and charge up laptops.   The drive was really nice and had a few surprises - like this one-way-at-a-time section..  

Luckily it was the car in front of us which had a sudden encounter with a log truck coming the other way - luckily both were going slowly so all was fine.  Yesterday we had our own scrape with a log truck as we crossed a long and narrow but two way bridge.  The log truck slowed to a stop to let us by, but we still had to scrape the side of the bridge with our side to make it. Luckily it's in a section of the van that has clearly been scraped before.

With our washing done I'm writing this from Carter's Beach. I can hear the rain squalls passing by but we are cosy inside the van with all our charged devices. It looks like we've got another day of variable weather then some mostly sunny days ahead. 

2017List
Cool things Wednesday, 3 May 2017
NZ Day 30 - Long Distance Final Sunday, 30 April 2017
NZ Day 28 - Rest Day 3 (HA!) Friday, 28 April 2017
NZ Day 27 - Long Qualifying 2 Friday, 28 April 2017
NZ Day 26 - Long Qualifying 1 Wednesday, 26 April 2017
NZ Day 25 - Rangitoto Island Tuesday, 25 April 2017
NZ Day 24 - Unexpected Outcomes Tuesday, 25 April 2017
NZ Day 23 - Sprint Qualifying Sunday, 23 April 2017
NZ Day 22 - Goodbye Rotorua, Hello Auckland Sunday, 23 April 2017
NZ Day 21 - Rest Day 2 (HA!) Saturday, 22 April 2017
NZ Day 20 - Rotorua Orienteering & Adrenaline Forest Thursday, 20 April 2017
NZ Day 19 - Rotorua Orienteering Thursday, 20 April 2017
NZ Day 18 - Rest Day (HA!) Tuesday, 18 April 2017
NZ Day 17 - Oceania Middle & Rotorua Tuesday, 18 April 2017
NZ Day 16 - Goodbye South Island Tuesday, 18 April 2017
NZ Day 15 - Milford Sound Saturday, 15 April 2017
Milford Track - Day 4 Saturday, 15 April 2017
Milford Track - Day 3 Saturday, 15 April 2017
Milford Track - Day 2 Saturday, 15 April 2017
Milford Track - Day 1 Saturday, 15 April 2017
NZ Day 9 - Pastries and Packing Saturday, 15 April 2017
NZ Day 8 - Pools and Puzzles Sunday, 9 April 2017
NZ Day 7 - More Glaciers & Amazing Views Sunday, 9 April 2017
NZ Day 6 - Gorges and Glaciers Friday, 7 April 2017
NZ Day 5 - Seals & Rocks Friday, 7 April 2017
NZ Day 4 - Old Ghost Road Wednesday, 5 April 2017
NZ Day 3 - Abel Tasman National Park Tuesday, 4 April 2017
NZ Day 2 - Hot Springs and Long Drives Monday, 3 April 2017
NZ Day 0 & NZ Day 1 Sunday, 2 April 2017
NZ (Planned) Wednesday, 29 March 2017