A Day on the West Coast Wilderness Trail

The next day we got up early and made our lunch for the west coast wilderness trail, then we drove to the bike shop to be there for opening time. We got our bikes and helmets and got them all set up nicely. We still had over an hour to wait until the bike shuttle so we rode along the beach paths to the river mouth and around town for a bit.

The shuttle arrived early so we headed out to Cowboy Paradise where we would start our section of the trail. The driver advised us that we could cycle the other way along the trail for about 1km to a big suspension bridge. So we did that first. It was about 11:30 by then and we were already hungry. Rosie was starving. We thought maybe we hadn't packed enough lunch so when we got back to cowboy paradise we got BLT toasties as a first lunch. Then we started out on the 36km back to Hokitika. The first section wound downhill through bush and farmland and was great fun, we took lots of photos and didn't have to pedal much.

Exploring the beach while waiting for the bike shop to open

All prepped ready to go

Refreshing our bike riding skills in the town

First stop - suspension bridge

High!

Second stop - toastie!

I don't think we'd fallen off....!

Downhill - yay!

Resting before a hill!

When we got down to the bottom of the valley we had a section along a gravel road. There were a few tough uphill sections in this part and we had to have a few rests and motivational speeches. Just like on the Abel Tasman! We also layered down our rain jackets. It hadn't actually rained but it was cloudy and a bit chilly when going fast on the bikes.

Once we reached the top of the hill we cruised back downhill and went a little off the trail to Han Bay at Lake Kaniere where we had our second lunch. We felt a few spots of rain.

Second Lunch Stop!

Putting the toastie energy to good use - classic!

After lunch Rosie allowed me a brief rest and then we rode back to the trail. The next section ran along a water race, then a little along a road, followed by another bush section. Then we followed the trail along quiet roads back to Hokitika. The trail had a marker at every km so we were able to keep track, from km 62 to km 99. The last couple felt long, but we knew we could do it, and we made it back with plenty of time to drop the bikes off.

We drove back to the hostel and had tea and donuts. For dinner we drove 10km out of town to an old pub where we had big steak burgers and cokes. It was a good day.