Day 10: Twizel

Some people just have a lovely way about them and Sue, the proprietor of the Vulcan hotel in St Bathans absolutely falls into that category. A calm and kind spirit. 

After a hearty breakfast we left into mist or drizzle, depending on how you define these things but fortunately it lifted leaving beautiful morning crepuscular rays(Google it) with a backdrop of mountains as we approached the Manuhericia river valley. The river has an east and west branch, both crossing the Omarama saddle in slightly different spots. You can choose which way you go and for today we went west. The western route has about 25 crossings of the river, again each is it’s own little puzzle. Unlike the Nevis though, many a bike has been drowned here. Why do it then? Ask my mates. 

For those that don’t understand what it means to drown a bike, the motor is continuously sucking air in to provide oxygen for its little explosions and then the waste is expelled as exhaust gases. If the bike is under water while the motor is running it sucks water instead of air and that is bad. It stops working. 

So I follow thier lead and in the end we got through with some hairy moments but no drama. Pretty hairy indeed. 

So with some relief and exhilaration we topped out over the saddle to enjoy a long fast descent to the pastureland around Omarama. Quick lunch and then we headed up towards the Glen Lyon station in the Dobson valley above Lake Ohau. 

This glacial valley heads into the Southern alps and was unashamedly chosen because we expected spectacular views. We traveled 60km up the valley, for the most part on well formed farm tracks but at times crossing scree fields with no formed tracks. More Erzberg stuff, perhaps the toughest of the trip. The views delivered and apart from getting lost in one of the scree fields on the way back it was uneventful. 

If manhandling one’s bike over rock and then bush bashing through Matagouri thorn bushes till we found the track again can be considered uneventful! Several buckets of sweat and some tears later we made it to Twizel for our overnight stop. Except for Dave Mac. He hadn’t had enough and went to look at a power station somewhere. Dave Lear and myself processed with beer instead which seemed like the wiser choice.