Christmas morning, Bike to collect car, with an extra

On Xmas Eve T and me had left the car up at the Awaroa turn off to walk down the road and out the Waiharakeke Track. Xmas morning I rode up to the car, then continued all the way down to Awaroa, around as far as I could on the beach of the estuary, then back up the road to the car.  Merry Chrissmast

Total of 12 kms and 430 m climbed.

Monday Short Fat Dusty Climb; Car Pick-up

In the morning we drove up to top of Waiharakeke track and walked 8 kms back to Totes.  After a couple of beers, some popcorn and a swim, I jumped on the fatty and headed up the road. Hot. Sunny. Dusty as hell every time a car went past, which there seemed an awful lot of. Made the top and nice free coast cruise down to the car - not nearly as far down as I had climbed.

4 kms on 200 m altituded.

Friday Saddle Up, Pigeon

Big walk (there) planned this afternoon (and back on Saturday), so, somewhat misguidedly, I headed out for a ride in the morning (leaving me a tad tired-of-leg for the walk). 

Up the road and back. Spectacular forest all around.  Pretty good going climbing, not too many vehicles met (sure is quiet compared to summer).  Then a wicked blast down.  Then a weird little detour up to the watertanks on the ridge above camp.  Fecking steep little bastard quad track that was...

12.5 kms with surprisingly 560m climbed. (considering it's only 330 m saddle, I'm not sure how that worked).

Tuesday to get the car

Drove up to Waiharakeke Track start and walked a bunch back to Totes. 

After a rest, I then jumped on the fatty and hoofed it up the road and over to get the car.  

Only 4kms, 200m up, and a minimal 80 or some down.

Sunday a.m. Out the Totes

Early start, to avoid the traffic, 7am start (gate opens 7.30), phat af climb all the way up the Totaranui Rd to Pigeon Saddle.  Only met about 3 vehicles coming down the whole way, all of them above the Awaroa Road turn off.  Got to the the top and got a little cell reception (first time for most of a week).  Rode about 20m into the track towards Gibbs Hill and parked the bike against a tree.  Started walking to see where it went.  About a kilometre, what would be mostly rideable but a few big rocky sections to make it non-negotiable, and ended going all the way up to Lookout Rock.  Had a look around and headed back, always shorter on the return.  

Back on the bike, and bombed down the road, tires a little hard and skittery.  Released some pressure part way down, but not too much, which made it better.  Hung a right and headed all the way down through to Awaroa Inlet.  On the way, at the 2nd ford, there was a car and caravan parked int' middle of th'road, weird.  Down to the grunty wee climb to the carpark, then down to the estuary, tide waaay out and could have ridden across.  

Turned back and headed back through the flatlands then up up up.  At the ford, a french(?) woman was eating breakfast and said they weren't game on the ford and would back up once the children were awake.  Good climb the rest of the way, meeting no cars, and then the down, a couple cars on their way up, and stopped to photo the view.  A rider rode past and I got going when he was a couple hundy metres below.  Caught him not long later and rolled on past, mentioning "it's like riding on ball bearings sometimes, eh" as I passed.  Mega speed on the lower down hill straights, then flat, and dusty return to base.

A pretty good 21.5 kms, with not far off 800m climbed.  

Totes and the Rameka Projection Fatstas, Wednesday 4th

Fat bike on holiday...

One ride from Totaranui, up the road and over towards Awaroa, down to the car we'd left at the top of the Waiharakeke Track. 200m up in 4kms, down a hundred if I's lucky, in about 1.5kms...

Wednesday 4th, O and me headed out of the bay, brief detour thru Takaka, then up the Rameka Valley. Parked at the bottom of the Klicks and rode up the road to the top of Great Expectations. The last km I pushed both bikes as he just couldn't keep up the climbing.

I let him lead down. Awesome ride, such a great trail and he really enjoyed it, as did I. Across the creek at the bottom and into the Klicks, taking in all of them, no broken ribs this time, fat bike handling nicely thank you.

9.4 kms, only 270 m climbed

Totaranui Awaroa Surrounds

No more riding done at Collingwood, and then through to Totaranui.  Not much done here, riding around the campground down to the beach a bit of sand action, some good, some bad.  Lots of swimming, several times a day.  Snorkling, canoeing... 

Extended my usual ride here, headed up the dusty dusty road to the top of the hill.  Early enough that it wasn't actually that dusty, only got passed by about 4 cars in total going up, maybe a couple that were heading down.  At the top I took a little bit of singletrack explore, poaching some of the walking track towards Gibbs Hill.  About 200m in it got really rooty, so turned back out to the road, waiting while about 5 vehicles creamed through, raising up the dust.  Now it was back down the road, then a right into the Awaroa Road, doing my usual trip out to the Inlet and back over to Totes.

22kms, over 700m alt...  dusty.

Then a day or two later, we went for a big family walk, parking the car at the top of the Waiharakeke Track (on the Awaroa Rd) bike rack in the boot.  Walked back to Totes, so I had to bike up and collect the car...  4.7kms, couple hundy alt.

Tuesday (I think), 21st Jan, Totaranui - Awaroa - Totaranui with minor detour

Not much biking to be had in beautiful Totaranui, just lots of swimming and lounging around (drinking a lot of Hop Federation Red IPA... ahem (but oh so much better than MunkeeLizard) oh, and Golden Bear), so, finally, decided one day to brave the dust and the road.  Luckily there'd been a bit of rain to dampen the dust the day before, so it wasnt too bad.  Headed up the 4kms of just shy of 200m climbing to the turn off to Awaroa, and headed down that.  Maybe a 3rd of the way down, I took a short detour onto the Waiharakeke Track.  A steep, root infested jungle singletrack, seldom if ever walked, down into Waiharakeke Bay and the main Abel Tasman Track (naughty me, riding a walking track in a National Park...  Still - no sign saying "no bikes", so... fair game?  You decide).  If you look at it on a topomap, you'll see that after about 200 m it starts to follow a creek.  or rather, the track is the creek, or the creek is the track, anyway, i got to there and turned back, having to negotiate the roots and slickness back up, walking some of it.

Back onto the road, mostly down, the odd up, and then final flat to Awaroa Inlet.  Tide was out, so rode around the edge of it for a wee ways, turned around and rode back.  Only met 1 car on this road the whole way.  Climbed back up to the Totaranui Rd and bombed down this, overtaking a woman who was going very slow riding her brakes the whole way, while i was tucked into aerostylez and pedalling hard out of corners...  16kms total around 500m alt climbed and descended.

Totaranui dusty roads

Totaranui 21st. Headed out up the road and over to Awaroa inlet. All up only about an hour’s ride, 4km climb, 4km descent and flat ground, turn around 4km back up, 4km descent.