While we were having a beer in Haast, we met up with a guy we met from Auckland who is doing the actual TA ride. We’ve met increasing numbers of them as we get closer to the bottom of South Island, as they left the top of North Island about a month after us. People doing the actual ride all have transponders that track their locations, for the organizers and their families/friends. Whoever is interested. They also are tracking their own progress…how many days have they been riding, when do they anticipate arriving in Bluff, and how many more days of this do they have before they have to go back to their normal lives. And how many people are ahead of them on the ride? The fastest person has already finished this year’s ride, in 12 days. That makes 260km (161 miles) per day of riding over the 3,000km length of the route!
From Haast, we rode to Makaroa, a distance of about 79km (49 miles). The elevation gain was about just over 3,800 feet. We had a strong head wind for quite a bit of the ride, and the climb up Haast Pass was incredibly steep! And others do 3 times that, every day!! And we are definitely tired from doing what we do.
But, the ride was amazingly beautiful, in spite of the incessant wind. The route goes along Haast River, a giant stream course flanked by steep hills and many waterfalls. We had sun most of the day and lovely clouds, and no rain. But that wind! To be fair, the wind died down for a bit in the middle, and then returned right in our face just as we got near the top of the first mile of the climb up Haast Pass. It’s hard enough to climb 10% grades with no wind!
The scale of the landscape is grand. It reminded both Chris and I of our home state of Colorado, wild and steep.
We arrived at the summit of Haast Pass and rode the last miles mostly downhill, arriving about 5:30.
Chris had reserved a cabin for us, and so we moved in and set about showering and getting dinner ready. Sebastian, our French Canadian friend, is here and we chatted a bit with him.
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