Awesome adventure. A tale of two extremes, almost.
Day one, drove around to Blackball in two cars, brief stop for a coffee, then headed up the gravel road to the start of the Croesus. Deb and Emily had graciously accompanied us and took the cars back to Punakaiki.
There were 5 of us - pretty much riding in the following order for the duration - me, Nelson, Brandon, Pete, Alistair - started off up the track. After a very short climb, the super fun, iron-out-any-adjustments-needed-in-your-luggage-attachments descent to start with. A few minor tightenings made, we set off over the bridges and into the (very) slow and steady climb. The trail has been improved a bit from the last (and only)
time we (Pete and me) did it (annual trip, 2011). The gnarly baby-head rock gardens aren't as in-evidence as they were that first time. 100% rideable. At one point, we were stopped for a breather and Brandon was stretching, when he suddenly shouted in pain and collapsed, tumbling down off the track, almost over the edge. His knee-cap had dislocated! Popped straight back in, but he was sore from then on. Continued the climb, meeting a lone girl riding, not long later a lone guy riding, then further up a couple of women walking. Could tell there were riders ahead, by the damp tire-track marks leading out of creek crossings. Ending up taking a couple of hours up to the the Ces Clark Hut. We found 4 other riders here who were just about to leave when we arrived. I recognised one of them from somewhere and we couldn't work out where. A nice family were in residence at the hut. We snacked and topped up water and stretched and then got moving again.
Alpine tops, spectacular views out to all the mountains, Grey River valley, Lake Brunner. Further along, views to the south, Hokitika mouth, 12 Apostles, Barrytown. Ridge riding, sidling, climbing, blasty descents - fantastic, circumnavigating the outer rim of the Croesus catchment, then around the top of the Moonlight catchment. The final descent to the hut was pumpy, swoopy, blasty and so much fun - with Nelson in the lead. Arrived after around 5 hours of riding.
Roughly 20 kms, and apparently 1600 m of climbing (I'd thought it was only about 1200 but Trailforks tells me total climb is 2400 and we did 800 on the second day, so...) - also, MMR fucked up on the sync because no data reception, and so I dont have the altitudes vertical or horizontal.
At the hut we had a good evening. The rider I knew but couldn't place worked out how we knew each other (Little Ak). Ranger told us the weather was about to get extreme and they might even consider closing the track if the winds got to the forecast 125 kph gusts - this would prove dangerous on the exposed tops of the escarpment (which we could see out there).
Found out later that a group of bikers who were meant to be staying at this hut had already ridden ahead to the next hut apparently... We figured we'd just suck it and see.
Next morning, this was the same view as above...
The other bikers and a walking couple got going quite early hoping to beat the worst of the wind, we took a little longer. And thankfully the ranger had an updated situation report and it was not going to gust as highly as the previous night's forecast had predicted. Hut was in total cloud, wind was galing, rain was falling - horizontally or up-slope. Fun. Got ready and hit the trail. (Sign here says Pororari Hut 4-5 hrs by bike - we'd see about that!).
Battled our way around the alpine, same order as before, little climbing little descending eventually to some scrobble forest, slightly more sheltered. up and down, mostly up for a long while, then some down, followed by some up, and down. The escarpment we only knew we were on by the grey void out to the left. Pretty spectacular. Wind was proving fine, blowing a bit but nothing scary. Drenched to the skin since about 5 minutes in, tho my new jacket was proving rather good, and coupled with the GE leggings was keeping me plenty warm. Incredible trail, the surface was grippy as anything, and we had soooo much fun riding. Met the walkers before the emergency shelter, then trail dropped over the edge and zigged and zagged down near cliff steep hill, passing under a spectacular waterfall (or five), and over rugged creeks with car sized boulders. Bombing and bombing now, occasional regroups, and then Hut 1km sign and a climb, grunty bastard climb, up to the Pororari Hut. (2.5 hours to get here). Heated some water, stood dripping around the fire, got quite cold. Coffee, soup, snacks, then re-don the wet jackets, gloves helmets, and off again.
Descent! Super decent. Blasting, weaving, flowing, down down down, so much fun. A couple of regroups, Nelson in the lead from the hut, Brandon on my tail, we had a hoot! Eventually down on some flatter bits, following a river (Pororari I think), a couple climbs, not much, lots of descent, some heavy showers, but warmer down here, crossing a big river a couple of times(?) then the final sting in the tail, a bastard 10-15 minute climb with a couple of the steepest pieces on the whole route. Ugh, not what you want. But from the top of this, super fun descent, railed it! Then out the valley over the river, down the gravel road and around up over the pancakes down to the house.
This
leg just over 4 hours total (but actually only 2 hrs 49 moving), 34 kms, with 787 m ascended (therefore around 1800 descended).
