Hurunui hotpools

This year we actually trained for the Spring Challenge which was a little bit of a novelty.  It also meant that we got out on some sweet trips, including a great overnight ride to the Hurunui hotpools.

I'd never been on any overnight mountain bike trips before, but after some careful packing to ensure that we all had matching bikes and packs, we three intrepid Mighty Midgets & a Mighty Midget's Man set off into the sunshine.

It's a relatively easy ride around the side of the lake and would have been quite pleasant if it hadn't been for the strong headwind.   But it was good practise for drafting and we set up a pretty good paceline to keep us zooming along.  The track was a combination of gravel and 4WD road, with a pretty rideable surface.  There quite a few gates to throw bikes over though and during one of these brief interludes, I somehow managed to flick a tendon out from under my ankle bone.  Not really sure how – I didn’t actually do anything.  Got off my bike, lifted it over a gate, got back on my bike and it hurt.  Weird.  Luckliy doesn’t seem to have done any lasting damage but was not particularly pleasant for riding.  Because of this, we decided to take a “shortcut” along the walking track to the hut rather than crossing the river and biking along the flat before crossing back again.  Shortcuts are never a good idea and this certainly wasn’t.  Very little of the track was actually rideable and there was a lot of swearing as we pushed and carried our bikes over particularly nasty sections of track (think treefalls on the side of a muddy hill scattered with possum carcasses).

The training plan was to try and do a 10 hour day: 3 hours or so of biking and then an expedition up the valley on foot, culminating in a soak in the Hurunui hotpools.  I decided to call it a day when we got to the hut but the others continued on up the valley like good little things.  I lazed around in what was left of the sunshine and read and reread the meagre pickings of reading material in the hut.  I may have closed my eyes for a second or too.  Maybe. 

Despite my injury, I was feeling pretty smug about our efforts.  We had biked about 20km offroad with relatively packs without much difficulty.  Then Jackson arrived.  On his bike.  Having come 150km from Christchurch.  With another 3-4 days of biking in the pipeline, including a fairly hefty pass over which he planned on carrying his bike.  That kinda put our efforts into perspective.  The rest of our intrepid bunch returned after soaking in the hotpools with a meteorological jellyfish to decorate the hut and we quickly demolished a hearty meal of blue cheese and mushroom pasta before retiring to bed.

The next day dawned in glorious sunshine and, with a relatively happy ankle, we set off.  After a short pleasant ride down the way we should have come up the day before, we were confronted with the first obstacle of the day: a river crossing.  Nothing like starting the day with cold, wet feet.  But it was quickly over and we were on our way again.  

Until we got to the next river crossing.  Michelle decided she didn't want to cross the river again and had some fun fighting with the swingbridge. I was quite impressed that she actually got onto the bridge – it was mighty steep!

The ride home passed relatively quickly after that, with some amusing moments to pass the time. 

Steve was very helpful demonstrating riding techniques, particularly how NOT to ride through mud.

Poor Bike!  And then he cleaned it by riding into the lake  (You should watch this with sound to hear the cackling girls as he goes over the handlebars for the third time that day).

It was a shame not to actually make it to the hotpools but at least I have a reason to go again and perhaps achieve #?? on the list of 32 things.  I'm starting to like this mountain biking business, particularly long trips.  Which is probably lucky, considering #1 on the list.  But more about that some other time.