Leaving a cold Christchurch head north, improving weather SUN oh yay! After experiencing beautiful weather in the McKenzie country and Fairlie temp drop 29*c to 12! Stopped in Amberley for a coffee at the Little Vintage Cafe and very good coffee at that highly recommended 😉
We cruise on up to Hurunui stop at The Balmoral Recreation Reserve for the night a stunning area with plenty of space and Hurunui River not too far away …. fishing yeah nah very dirty and high after thunderstorms 😖. We enjoy a lovely evening thunder booming round the hills and down comes the rain!
The following day dawns a bright and sunny day, off we go Culverden for coffee break lol only been on the road 5 min and we need a coffee. I must say the surrounding farmland looks a picture so much grass like the rest of the South Island they have had plenty of rain! Looking at the Waiau River runny very dirty methinks there won’t be any fishing for a day or two! We camp up at the NZMCA camp Hanmer well 7km south of Hanmer a lovely big area plenty of space. We bike into Hanmer and find a lovely mountain bike track in the forest park called The Big Easy 7 km swooping round up and down no technical downhills but as the name suggests an easy chillaxing ride.
Day 2 Hanmer… weather so so grey overcast, after our morning routine of brekkie, tidy up, we head back into Hanmer to explore more tracks we decide on Upper Dog Stream track/ Mach 1 a 5 km loop sounds a little more challenging than the big easy….. we follow the track markers indicating go this way steadily climbing and following up Dog Stream, well then the single track becomes quite extreme slippery rock, tree roots needless to say pushing the bike uphill was rather hard work the heart rate was steadily climbing and breathing like a combustion steam engine! After what seemed an eternity we made it up this nearly section, thank goodness had some reprieve ahhh downhill blissful after busting our guts… wet pine needles make it interesting, brakes on hard and tail skids out from under you hang on for dear life, adrenaline fair pumping exhilarating to say the least. We find ourselves out on a forestry road and navigate our way back to main car park to this day haven’t found Dog Stream track we ended up on Timberlands and The Jolliffe Saddle Track advanced track… we arrive back at park mud splattered laughing at our exploits.. one lesson don’t ask me to navigate! To ease the pain of our madness we go and soak at the Hanmer thermal pools, 36-40*c absolute bliss, after a couple of hours we emerge all wrinkled but thoroughly relaxed.
Day 3 Hanmer.
The day dawned much brighter and warmer, once again we hit the mountain bike trails, this time doing Swamp and Swoop and added Yankee Zephyr to spice it up. This time I wisely let Shane navigate and this worked well we managed to end up where we were supposed to be lol, well defined single tracks ups and downs we managed to buzz to the top of Swamp nicely then decided Yankee Zephyr looked inviting sidling up the hill a nice workout coming to a clearing 500 mts up the hill and great vista of Hanmer and surrounding district. It was then off downhill, now me being a rather cautious downhiller let Shane go in front, a wise move as he zoomed off at a rate of knots, fast tight cambered corners snaking down to the bottom quite a buzz. Down onto swoop we went predominantly downhill back to car park. We had a lot of fun on the Hanmer Trails and I’m sure we will be back again.