A Travel Year – Jacques & Chris big adventure

I posted to the Sounds to Sounds Facebook group about my experience as soon as the helicopter dropped me in Wanaka. I wanted to warn others that rain could make the stream crossings impassable and dangerous. I wasn’t sure if others would all know something I didn’t, but I figured it would be helpful. It spurred a lot of discussion in the group, some supportive and some more critical, but ultimately it seemed that many people became more aware.

However, a couple days later a woman tried to cross near where I did, and got swept down the stream with her bike, thankfully only sustaining minor injuries to both. At the time she crossed, the stream flow was roughly 1/2 of when I was crossing. She stayed in the same hut as I did, but a group was there with a vehicle and ferried her across the remaining stream crossings, which by that time levels had fallen more. She was lucky.

I wondered about the timeline of the flooding, since several comments advised that I could/should have just waited out the flooding, since stream levels go up and down quickly. I had talked to a couple riders who had done the ride the other direction the day before me, and everything was good. They did say that the rain had been chasing them, but they did not get rained on. The below chart shows what happened.

I learned a lot from the experience as well, both what I did well and what I could have done better. I think the biggest thing I learned is that the mere existence of a hut in NZ means that dangerous situations are common enough in that general area to build a hut. That section of the route has three huts in about 10 miles, and so that should have triggered me to spend more time examining the route, the weather and the stream flow rates (which I did not know could be found at the time.) Just for reference, most routes have zero huts along the way.

Yes, I had food, water, maps, a water filter, dry clothes, rain gear, a stove, sleeping bags, etc and also a GPS communicator that I could summon help with. All my devices were charged and tested. I had a spare battery which was full. And so I could have easily survived for the 3 days it would have taken for stream flows to return to normal and gone and probably found my bike and (maybe) my shoe. That is, if no storm came during those 3 days. But, I’m glad I did what I did.

And finally, it’s notable that I was not charged a single penny for the helicopter or anything. I didn’t have to fill out any forms, sign anything or pay anything. I fully expected to pay something or fill out something and so I offered but it is just something they do. No one who helped me gave me any judgement about what I did or didn’t do. It was amazing.