Queens of the Hill

Follow-up to previous post about mountain biking on the Queen Charlotte Track. This is how the day started. After Amanda's unfortunate introduction to mountain biking on day one (read, three falls in less than 30 minutes), we opted for road riding on our second biking day. The rest of the group were off trekking through Nelson Lakes National Park (and staying in huts with no plumbing or electricity!) so we were at liberty to create our daily itinerary with our guide, Aaron. He laid out a map and outlined where he proposed we ride that morning. We would ride through farmland to the mouth of Kenapuru Sound, then along its length. He warned us that, to get there initially, we'd have "a bitch of a climb" but that that would be the worst of the climbing. We set off through morning fog into the pastoral countryside. After a couple of small climbs that I foolishly thought were THE climb that Aaron had warned us about, we actually hit said long, windy hill. It just kept going and going. Several times I wanted to stop and walk, but each time, I looked ahead and thought the road seemed to flatten out at the next bend in the road. "Surely that is the top," I thought, and kept pedaling only to discover more hill around the bend. I passed Amanda, who had paused to catch her breath, and as Aaron slowed to check on her, he instructed me to stop at the car park (really just a wide gravel shoulder) at the top of the hill and wait for them. I nodded and struggled on. Where was that $@#*% summit? Around a few more bends in the shadow of the hilltop I labored. Then I saw the "car park" ahead, bathed in sunlight, bright like a beacon. I huffed and puffed up the final slope and pulled over onto the gravel. My reward for that toil was before me: a magnificent view of the Sound below, water and mountains stretching to the distant horizon and endless sky overhead. What a reward! Amanda and Aaron joined me at the top a few minutes later and we all caught our breath while marveling at the splendor before us. Then we mounted our bikes once again and continued on our journey.