TT2000 Write-up - Day 9

Day 9 had me starting off pretty early and following Lake Wakatipu around to Queenstown for fuel and then onto Glenorchy to go in search of more gravel.  If only the weather would play ball...

Had to take this as I have one of the Connie parked there too.

Yes, that is a bride and her groom...at 9ish in the morning...

From Glenorchy the plan was to go and get lost up some nifty looking valleys - well, they looked interesting when planning my ride.  I started off by missing my first turn-off up Rees Valley but taking the next one up Glenorchy-Paradise Road.

This road started off as a reasonably corrugated but widish road but after the Paradise sign it became narrower with the odd ford and rough section.  On the way up I stopped to check out Diamond Lake.

I carried on further up the road until I got to a ford that I thought might be a little much for the loaded Tenere and then turned around for the trip back.

I also found time to go searching for more half decent scenes to capture with the camera.

My next little out and back ride was up to one end of the Route Burn Track - another nice little gravel road that ended up winding through some nice native bush

On the way back I pulled of the road to another hiking trail's carpark.  Nice little river running underneath the swing bridge.

Another sweet bit of gravel then took me to Kinloch, just across the lake from Glenorchy.

The road out was just as good as the road in...

Now it was time to hit that road I had missed earlier - up the Rees valley.  The road fairly quickly got a lot narrower and there were a number of little fords to cross.  I stopped when I got to the place where the road is no longer maintained - about 2m from the sign there is a large and very rough section which is probably a river at certain times of the year.

On the trip back I did manage to find a couple of excuses to stop...

By now I was getting a little peckish so stopped in at a cafe in Glenorchy for a top up.  Gotta love the artwork on display - a Haast Eagle.  Plant that on my back lawn and the starlings would keep their distance...

Now it was time to return to Queenstown for the next part of the day's riding.

After topping up the bike again it was time to cross over the Crown Range Road for the second time on the trip.  This time I wasn't in so much of a rush so could afford a couple of stops.

Once again, I have pictures of Bandits and Connies here...

My last little gravel excursion was a trip up to the start of another tramping track at Mount Aspiring.  This involved about 30 odd km of quite busy gravel.  There were a lot of tourists on the road and I generally caught them easily but had to be careful passing.  There was the odd little splash of water to go through too.

At the carpark I stopped for a brief wander around but unfortunately wasn't that prepared to go climb mountains with everyone else...

I found that there was lots of Toyotas as well...

Yet again there was no road ahead so I had to spin around and head back to Wanaka.  It was hot in and busy in Wanaka so I pulled up alongside the lake for a minute to see if that would cool me off...

Doesn't look fun at all...

Next up was a quiet cruise through to Cromwell for the night.  It was very hot riding and also hot (about 30 degrees) in Cromwell itself.  A vigorous wee breeze did come up to try and cool things off but I still had all my windows open until about 10pm.  Never mind, I'd had a very enjoyable day - I thought that I'd taken my time and got my money's worth out of the approximately 500km I added to the Ten's odo.  Bring on tomorrow!