Day 4 - Glacier Country

Jack Daniels Remaining: 750mls

Kilometers Ridden Today: 36kms

This is a fantastic part of New Zealand and I am glad we chose to spend 2 nights in Franz Josef. For this "kind of" rest day, we all found out various activities to do – even the ever-indecisive Saunders eventually sorted his day. Base camp for the two days was the Franz Josef YHA.

Shawn, Richard and Paul decided to ride to Fox Glacier and back (about 55kms round trip). I spent the morning with Alex and Sam having coffee/breakfast, and then attempted to fix my bike (I had also lost the use of my front gears the previous day). While I do know a bit about bike maintenance, sometimes it would pay if I took a moment to step back and assess the problem. I hastily removed and attempted to tighten the derailleur cable, but then discovered two things – one was the cable had become detached from the shifter (and I had no idea how to re-attach it), the second more embarrassing issue, was realising there was nothing wrong with my gears – it was in fact that my cranks were not aligned; my on the fly fix it job yesterday was not quite right. I corrected the issue (spare part thanks to Santo), but was unable to fix the cable.

I decided to head to Fox with Alex and Sam who booked a heli-hike on Fox Glacier – the bike was good enough to ride, so I loaded it up with the expectation of riding back from Fox to Franz Josef. Upon arriving at Lake Matheson (for viewing Mt Cook), I realised I had “been here, done this” before, so jumped on the bike right away, while the weather was good.

The ride from Fox to Franz Josef was awesome, with lots of challenging hills but rewarding descents. Check out the profile and the ride:

And some happy snaps...

Approaching Fox Glacier from Lake Matheson (cloud on the mountains in NZ, how different):

Decisions, decisions:

The spectacular views looking back towards Lake Matheson, while climbing:

With a couple of little deviations, I turned it into a 36km ride, including a 3km “cyclo-cross” up to Franz Josef Glacier, which gave me an appreciation of the micro-climates of the area. I got properly drenched at the Glacier, but upon returning back to the main road, I noted it was bone dry.

The crew split for dinner tonight with Richard, Shawn and Paul eating in, and the rest of us giving another restaurant – Alice May – a try. Got to say, one of the best roast pork meals I have ever had in my life! Though, on inquiring about the name, we were directed to the somewhat sombre story in the menu that it was named in honour of a local lady, who was the centre of women’s rights for a while, when she shot her boyfriend for refusing to marry her when their baby was born still-born. She became the centre of women’s rights and charges against her were dropped (remember that New Zealand was the first country in the world to afford women the right to vote). Her actions were obviously out of grief and despair as she did attempt to kill herself at the same time.

Like of the little hobbits we were, the six us re-convened for second dinner later that evening and a night cap. Apparently Richard, after riding every day (and to and from Fox Glacier), had excess energy (and no-dose) to burn. So here he is he head banging and violently flailing one hand.

(Slow shutter speed and no flash?… I don’t know what you are talking about…)