Today we rented bicycles again, with the intention of exploring part of the Alps to Ocean Cycle Trail. This is a 306 km route, starting in the mountains and ending on the Pacific shore. We only planned to do a small portion today, from Twizel as far as Lake Ohau to the west. Like our bike ride on the North Island, this is one of the country’s listed Great Rides. New Zealand has designated both Great Rides and Great Walks, and we’ve done at least a portion of each on both islands. The criteria include being accessible to an average hiker/bicyclist, and covering a type of terrain or experience that isn’t included in any of the other hikes or rides on the list.

We could have hired someone to shuttle us and our bikes to do a one-way ride, but in the end settled on an out-and-back. The route is mostly flat, so we were expecting fairly easy going, but it turned out that there is a pretty strong prevailing wind that was blowing against us on the outward leg. It made a noticeable difference, and we took turns riding in the lead and breaking the wind for each other. The landscape here is fairly open and flat, at least until you get to the mountains in the distance. It may be raining in Milford Sound right now, but we’re in a drier part of New Zealand at this point, with brown on all the hillsides instead of green. Likely we’re in the rain shadow of the Southern Alps.

Despite the aridity, there’s a fair amount of water flowing down from snowpack on the mountains themselves, which prompted the development of the various hydroelectric stations in the area. These are fed in turn by artificial canals, one of which ran parallel to our route for a large portion of the day. The water was an unreal shade of teal blue, fading to a deeper aquamarine at the edges — the pictures hardly do it justice. Although the canal was pretty enough, with its straight lines and sides landscaped to a certain uniform slope, the view was largely the same for much of the ride, without the variety that a natural watercourse would have offered.

We finally reached our destination at Lake Ohau, where we stopped for lunch. With the wind at our backs, the trip home was remarkably easy in comparison with the morning ride.

On the way up we had passed by some sort of facility in the canal, and thought it might be a fish farm. Passing by on our way home, we saw a man throwing scoops of something into the pools. When asked, he confirmed that it was a salmon farm. Each time he threw a scoop, scattering food across the pool, the surface would erupt with splashes and tailfins as the salmon snatched up their meals. A few opportunistic ducks also joined the frenzy.

We seem to have a thing with animals staring at us. Yesterday it was cows, today it was sheep. Susannah had intended to take a picture of them all taking shelter under the shade of a tree, but her approach on bicycle must have scared them because they all got up and moved away, looking back to see whether she might be a wolf there to eat them.

We managed to make it back to Twizel before the unreasonably early (4pm!) closure of the local ice cream shop. New Zealand has several local flavors that are not found elsewhere. In addition to various distinctive fruit sorbets, they serve a honey/caramel flavor called Hokey Pokey, and another with chocolate honeycomb bits called Gold Rush. They also tend to have chocolate sorbet on offer, much to Susannah’s delight.

Our Airbnb is a whole house this time, and a former student of Susannah’s happens to be traveling in New Zealand at the same time as us and arranged to visit. Alison joined us around dinner time, and we enjoyed a take-away meal outside in the lovely yard, accompanied by lots of conversation and swapping stories about our travels. We’re looking forward to hiking with her tomorrow.