Day 37: Lake Brunner to Arthur's Pass
April 8th 2014
Distance cycled: 56 km
Total distance to date: 2223 km
Knowing that today would involve a steep climb up Arthur's Pass, I treated myself to a big burger and fries for lunch before leaving Lake Brunner. Maybe it was because I haven't had a proper burger in a long time, but this burger was so good. Worth every penny.
I finally set out on the road sometime later with a full belly. The first 15km were lovely rolling hills through farmland followed by a few flats.
The wind was on and off again, prompting me to take off and put on my sweatshirt repeatedly. I pulled over into one driveway and this little guy ran over:
I thought he would try to bark me away but he was really friendly! His owner sat in the house and looked at me through the window. I waved but he didn't wave back. I think the dog doesn't get much attention from him because when I left the owner had to come out and call the dog back in off the road.
The wind continued to hound me and at some points nearly blew me off the road. And that was just the side wind. Once i got onto Highway 73, I was headed straight into it. The traffic picked up at that point too and it was certainly a challenge to keep going. I was in my 3 lowest gears almost all day long.
Finally I made it to the tiny town of Otira. From there I only had 15 more kilometers to go until the pass.
The lady yesterday warned me it would be steep. And she was right. There were about 300m of climb to Otira but it was all gradual. The last 600m were all after Otira and it was straight up.
By the time I made it to this lookout point, I'd had to stop several times to catch my breath. I figured I'd gone 3km total since Otira. It was nearly 5pm. I only had a little over an hour of daylight left. I was starting to think that maybe I'd gotten in over my head. Here's the view from the lookout point of this 16% hill:
Just as I was considering my options, an SUV pulled in. A couple got out to snap some pictures. I offered to take a photo of the two of them, which was my in to ask for a ride over the pass. Luckily they agreed! They were a honeymooning couple from Spain. We loaded the bike into the rental car and off we went.
Ten minutes later, we were in Arthur's Pass Village. It was 5:20. I called my host from Warm Showers. She was just getting off work. I thanked the Spanish couple profusely and went to pick her up. We met in front of the info center and cycled together to her house. Lorena was lovely! Her little cabin was so cozy, even more so after she built a fire in the hearth. We had a dinner of lasagna and steamed veggies as darkness settled in around the mountains. Originally I had planned to pitch my tent in her yard, but Lorena had a spare mattress which she pulled out onto her living room floor. I was very glad because it was colder outside than I had predicted it would be. I slept better than I had in a week!
posted by Kyla @ 02:34
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