Well Reefton is a place where you may think WTF can you do in Reefton… well what an amazing place at this time of the year, sunny, warm, MTB trails and good cafe’s. Is that it you may say to your self as you read our blog but no… if there is one thing that I have enjoyed in this Moho lifestyle is the people you meet. Over the past two nights we have got to know Karen and Nick Schouten who have been living on the road for just over two years, covering in our discussions everything from Moho life, cycling, track and hikes to do and a variety of subjects surrounding life on the road. Got some great information and different ideas about how things can be done differently… and or more efficiently. Today we met another two NZMCA members John and Anna Baker whom originate from Christchurch, a lovely couple who came to NZ in 2009 fresh from England. It was fascinating to hear how difficult it was for them to get work in NZ with their UK qualifications, but glad to hear they finally achieved what they wanted to do. John showed us some samples of his hobby working with different stone, how he turned them into jewellery, beautiful works of art that I’m sure would be grace the necks of many. Late in the afternoon a caravan backs in beside us and immediately Bill a Dutchman who has been living in NZ for the past 30 odd years, still with a heavy Dutch accent, introduced himself and his wife Louise, as casual as if knowing us all his life, pulled up his seat and proceeded to have a drink with jude and I which continued on into the evening. John and Anna also brought a seat across from where they were parked and joined in on our happy hour that they sort of suggested earlier. It was a fantastic evening sitting in the late afternoon sun and warmth under the shade of the awning having a few beers, wines or what ever and I guess our first hosted “Happy Hour” (thanks John and Anna lol). Jude and I although being fulltime on the road for the last 15 months learnt so much from people like Nick, Karen, Bill, Louise, John, Anna and a few other moho’ers we have met over the past 15 months. A fantastic day with some great people. The amazing thing about living on the road is no matter how much you have in common, we are all still so different. “Moho life is living the dream” Mountain biking 🚵♀️ 🚵🏾♂️ head down to Blacks Point and entry to tracks, we choose The Murray Creek track steadily climbing up to the Waitahu Saddle riding through lovely beech forest crossing river via swing bridge, passing historic gold mines and coal mines. Once we reached the saddle it was onto the Ajax track past the historic mine and stamper battery, mainly single track with some rather narrow sections with nice drop offs! Concentration required, at one point the track gave out on Shane and he went over handle bars landing on his head in a heap covered in mud! No injury thank goodness just pride a little dented… 🙈we continue on cautiously, it certainly tested our abilities! Shane made the decision to go via Machine Track, I was not that keen, now all the info on this track was that it is a fairly technical downhill, dropping 455 meters in 1.5km… yep it was steep! So I opted to walk my bike down even that was pretty tough controlling my bike,however Shane rode most of it, hats off to him he has more guts or stupidity than me. Once at the bottom time to think what the hell did we just do, but that’s in the fun of our adventures!
We visit the newly opened Reefton Distillery crafting local botanical gins, fruit liqueurs, vodkas and whiskies. They forage for native leaves, flowers and berries in the local forest. We taste a botanical gin and oh my nothing like a traditional gin, incredible flavors of the many ingredients used, kahikatea tips, toatoa, snow moss, watercress, just to name a few. I bought Little Biddy with 13 botanical ingredients!Now this gin is created in honour of a Reefton legend, a pipe smoking gin-toting, 4 foot tall gold prospector! Little Biddy. I will savour this truly West Coast gin.
The last day we did the Waitahu valley along the Waitahu River, short drive of about 6km. The track was easy but narrow with the section overgrown with broom. Our Jimny was small enough to to reduce too many scratches as she squeezed her way between the broom bushes on each side, and small enough to get under a couple of fallen trees. The track followed close on the edge of the Waitahu River and needless to say had some spectacular views of the clear waters of the river and the valley hosting it. We got to a point where we could go any further due to a section of the track being washed out… I do believe our Jimny could have negated the steep drop onto the rivers edge and climbed out the other side… but caution was the best call as we were not with another vehicle to assist should we strike difficulty. It was a great location for Jude to try a bit of trout fishing in the clear waters, in between two swift flowing sections of the river. While Jude did the fishing I donated blood to the sandflies and explored the depths of the holes in the river and spotted a huge eel that casually moved to where Jude was fishing coming to just below the surface like a crocodile checking out dinner, it’s beautiful yellow eyes crisp just under the surface of the water. With no luck with the trout side of things and me getting bored it was time to head out. What a beautiful short drive along the is track which is at the end of Gannons Road at Reefton.