08/02/08
Hello friends from around the world. Today I made my way over Haast Pass, the lowest of the passes from west to east over the Southern Alps of New Zealand. Whew, it had some tough parts. Although the overall pass was only 564m, the first section was a killer, as everyone I encountered has agreed. I’m glad that I opted to do it in 2 days rather than only one, as now I can enjoy a leisurely ride in to Wanaka, and hopefully be there by mid-day. I’m hoping that once there, I can find a bar televising the Coast to Coast race, and I’ll then proceed to drink and cheer on all the local athletes rather than competing in it myself 🙂 I chose to play a bit of a tourist myself today, opting to do all the side trails on the way to Makarora, in order to break up my day and not finish off too early, which believe me, would be boring here in Makarora. Know what’s here? Nothing. Just the ‘resort’ I’m staying at, and a DOC information center, which I spent 40 minutes at already chatting about tracks around here. Anyway, read on for a bit more about the day and what it held for me. I also have a pile of pictures on the map for you to check out.
Click here for photos from this day. Well folks, when in Rome, do as the Romans, but when in Argentina, one must certainly do as the Argentinians do, and that’s exactly how we siezed a unique opportunity on the 22nd. When we awoke, we were expecting a group meeting, and then boarding a bus for Salta (a 20 hour ride). Instead, we were told the bus didn’t leave until 10pm, so we had another full day in the Paris of South America. While we were initially bothered, since we’d mentally prepared ourselves for the long ride, this did open other opportunities. The two that came to mind were that first off, the next Air Canada flight got in at 2pm, so there was an off chance Jody might be re-united with her bag, if it hadn’t been lifted off the carousel. The second was the fact that later that day the River football team would be playing a home game. This is huge in BsAs, and we were interested in taking part. Read on…
Good day friends! Well, after the last unsuccessful race outing (in my mind anyway), it’s time to put that in the past […]
