Fairlie to Wanaka
Wednesday 10th April 2019
Wanaka
The starlight show on Monday really lived up to the hype, we were fortunate with the weather as I had tracked a heavy rain cloud coming off a low pressure system that was due to hit today on Wednesday which would have put a literal wet blanket over our enjoyment of the spectacle. In order to make the most of our limited time, we had to push on to our next spot in Wanaka straight after check out on Tuesday morning so that we could spend Tuesday and Wednesday night in Wanaka and avoid riding in any wet weather. When on a road trip like this I find it important to remember to break up all the travelling and actually enjoy a place before shooting off to the next destination, a reset of sorts.
The first ride to Fairlie was hard enough as we got accustomed to the feeling of long haul riding with luggage and two people on the bike, so we drew out our next leg by visiting the picturesque lakes Tekapo and Pukaki and stopping for lunch in transit. Once arriving at Tekapo we took a side route that hugged the lake to get away from the tourist clusters that flock directly underneath the ‘scenic view’ signs. The sun blasted down on us and if we were stopped for anything longer than half a minute I would start baking instantly in my full protective riding gear, so we found a little spot half way up the lake and parked the bike to take some photos and have a short walk, not before I manically stripped down to my long-johns. After our intermission we plugged onward to get to Wanaka in good time, there were a couple of stops I wanted to make on the way. The next lake after Tekapo was lake Pukaki, the Northern tip of this lake hosts the famous Mount Cook a.k.a. Mount Doom! The road hugged the lake for a solid half hour, which meant that we were riding on an incredibly beautiful lakeside road with mountains on our flank just waiting for me to cut into after we pass the lake, again I had to pinch myself to come back to reality. We did not stop for long here since we were enjoying every minute of the lake while riding, one of the benefits of a road trip by motorbike is just that, we did however stop at the end of the lakeside route to just soak in the majesty of our surroundings for five minutes, just ahead everything will change as we venture into mountain territory again.
We stopped in the small town of Twizel for a lunch break at Shawty’s Café perched on the edge of a kid’s park. Ski and snowboard shops were telling of our imminent arrival at the next mountain range that bridges the Canterbury-Otago territories. If we had more time I might have stopped at Lake Ruataniwha to see some wild Salmon for the first time, this area is teeming with them. Once we passed Omarama, the flat farmland roads with mountains in the distance slowly morphed into full blown alpine routes. Every mountain we summited had a breath-taking eagle-eye view waiting for us at the top before winding down to dense forest valleys, flowing rivers bridged by fords for us to transit over were only muffled by the roar of my trusty steed, back to dream state.
If we carried on on the ‘8’ we would eventually have arrived back to Dunedin after another six hours, so we hung a hard right turn after the Lindis Valley to join the ‘8A’ and eventually the ‘6’ to get to our Airbnb that claimed convenient proximity to the Wanaka lake. Once we settled in after the long ride we popped down to the high street that sat on the edge of the lake. The town was quite vibrant and busy, it is the gateway for Southern Alps Mount Aspiring National Park, hosting a myriad of glaciers, beech forests and alpine lakes, an attractive location for any adventurers passing through. We enjoyed a well-deserved Indian curry for dinner and spent all of the next day relaxing while the heavens opened the floodgates as forecasted. Thursday morning would see our next departure to Queenstown.