Solo motorbike camping adventure through New Zealand Episode 10

In this episode, the track I ride has seen better days. I ride through an incredible valley. The dirt track turns into a water track and I camp at the edge of a beautiful lake. Well no wet issues last night from the rain but I did have an issue with the zip on the tent. One of the zippers came off and anyway I'm going to sort that out later today when I stopped somewhere warm and not wet because there is still a lot of cloud around. It's supposed to clear. It's New Zealand. Yeah I just don't want to get caught packing up in the rain so I might head off earlier than expected and just keep moving. So we're heading north apparently some dirt trails or just gravel roads and then there's a pub or something up the end there. Then we'll turn back west to Wanaka. Check that out and then find somewhere to stay I guess. There is one good trail somewhere there apparently. See if I can find it hopefully. While packing up the tent the sun came out. Very nice of it and it's revealing this otherworldly kind of landscape with all the rocks through the dry grass. Probably done a movie here. It's that unique. Cool packed up ready to go. There was some water still on the track but the rain hadn't turned the track into a total mud pit which meant I'd stay clean for now. This is Poolburn Reservoir also known as Poolburn Dam. It was built during the Great Depression for irrigation but also as an employment initiative. It is a unique looking landscape with these large rocks randomly scattered around these vast grasslands. I gather they can only farm livestock in this region as there's barely its own kind of beauty. I'm riding on the Old Dunstan Road which comes up from Pyro in the valley below. The track gave miners access to the goldfields during the early days of the Otago Gold Rush. The journey from Dunedin to the goldfields took five days. Another sheep panicking where to go. Well that didn't quite work out. The track is a little rough in sections. Some washouts, ruts and loose larger rocks but it's still an easy track to ride. I imagine it's probably impassable in winter. I had made it to the end of the track. With signs like that, I'm gathering people have been stuck out here before and that confirms that the track is closed during winter. James said to pick any farm road heading in a northerly direction. They all link up and you'll end up at St Bathans and the Blue Lake. Well the sun rises in the east so north would be that way. Someone wants to play. You know you're in the country when kids can leave their bikes beside the road all day to catch the school bus and not have a worry that anybody would take them. So a decision needs to be made. To the right goes to a main road, to the left goes to a small that's been, looks like eroded. Yeah erosion but it looks cool with all the columns. I thought I'd take a picture. I'd made it to St Bathans and that must be the Blue Lake. This is a man-made reservoir from the mines that were here. They've left a unique landscape. They mined here from 1873 until 1932 when the mine was finally abandoned due to the fear of undermining the town of St Bathans. Natural drainage from the surrounding hills filled the hole with water creating the present-day lake. Cool formations though. It's very quiet. We go. I made my way back past the pub to try and get a signal to work out where this next trail was. Just went past a building that said Bank of New South Wales. Is that Australian New South Wales or another New South Wales? It's not a bank anymore but yeah. Anyway next up Wanaka and I looked at the map and the road goes down back down to Clyde or Alexander again and then back up the other side or James did mention there's a track that sort of cuts it in half. Down and back's about two hours. The track's probably a lot shorter but it could be more than two hours if it's, I don't know how, yes if it's a smooth farm road we'll call it or a actual rugged track but guess what we're going to find out. I headed west towards the Dunstan Mountains. This looked like the start of the track and enough warning signs to make it sound interesting. From the flat farmland I'd be making my way up the ridge. Rock wall on the north side of the gorge appeared. I was riding beside the wall now with the Thompson Creek down below. I'm definitely glad I took the shortcut so far. This thing is pretty spectacular. I just had to take my jacket off because it was warming up having to move the bike around a bit. Oh I think I'm about, I don't know, first quarter through. Wonder what's around the corner. Well around the corner was a gate. I came to a section of the track that was the river. The best way I've found to ride sections like this is to keep your speed up a bit and consistent. Hands light on the handlebars, let the bike pick its own line, just try to avoid any of the larger rock. I started to climb out of the valley. Well this must be the end of the track as it has the same sign as the first gate. Hopefully it's the end of the gates too. I spoke too soon. That's the valley I've just ridden out of. I started the descent down to the main valley floor on the western side of the Dunstan Mountains. Look at this beast. I guess that's how they get around here in winter. Finally a gate that's open and I don't need to get off the bike. That was the last gate. If you're going to ride this track you're going to be opening and closing a lot of gates. I think that makes it 23 gates I've opened so I found somewhere to park. And that was food. It looks like there's a lot of places to hang out and eat here. I rode alongside the lake a bit further as there was one thing in Wanaka I wanted to check out. I left the bike and walked down to the lake. So the one thing I'd had heard of Wanaka was a tree that sits on the edge of the lake. But that's what happens when people Instagram things. They become popular and I can't even get a clear enough shot to get an image. There's 50 people around it. There's about five buses out on the street. And you wonder why you don't come to popular spots. Ah well we'll see what we can do with that. The tide was wrong. The sun was wrong. But now to find somewhere to camp I think. Wanaka is very, it's a mountain town. Very touristy. I mean it's gorgeous. You can see why so many people end up here. But you can't camp anywhere near here. I gather there's a caravan park and things like that. But I might go explore a little further around past the lake. Some sort of narrow neck or something. And then see if I can find some camping there. I walked past the buses and back onto my bike. There was a place to camp near this river. But it didn't look that inspiring. So I continued on. I came upon Lake Hawere. With its shorelines and mountains on the other side. I saw a track to the lake. So I took it. Decisions. Apparently this is a free campsite. And the one I was going to as well. And it's on a lake as well. It'll get sun going down. That's all. I guess the only thing here is it's not really flat. Very rocky. A bit of sand. And I think there's some sort of trowel where I could put a tent. First world problems. This lake or the one. I guess if it was really bad I could always come back to this one. I might just get a photo or two though. Wow. New Zealand has an abundance of insanely beautiful mountains. It feels a bit weird leaving such a beautiful place. But you never know what's just around the corner. This was the end of this lake. But after a small rise was another large lake. This one being Lake Wanaka again. So the same lake that was in front of the town. The other campsite was just ahead on the left. Well that's not good. For some reason the site had been closed off. So that meant back we go to the first spot. Well I had to go through the hardship of riding 10 kilometers back along those two lakes. So it is campsite one. It's pretty epic. I'm pretty close to the water too. I'm gathering this won't rise. There's been no rain. We'll see. There are those sandflies so I'm gonna have to keep covered up. Set up tent and might even get my toes wet. Four or five nights ago I said I was gonna give you the result of the quilt that I got instead of a sleeping bag. When it went down to I think it was one degree. It was epic. It's really warm. And the fact it's got like this toe box for your toes but the rest of it's just a big open quilt. It's so good. It and the warmth doesn't get out if you've got a good sleeping mat. This is Australian this one actually. It's by Nev. It's always good to get your boots off at the end of the day. So the other issue that happened last night early this morning. Finally one of my zips is starting to pull away. So I have no idea how I'm going to fix it. Electrical tape every night. Maybe I'll have to pick some more up. Oh well. It's the solution for everything. Hopefully. Oh now that I'm done I might watch the sun go down that mountain. Or the shadow of the sun. I made sure everything was closed up on the bike. Then sat down and took it all in. Before it got totally dark I thought I'd test the water. I haven't been in a lake yet. The rocks are cold. Surprisingly it's not that cold. It is a lake though so I guess the deeper you go the colder it will get. The edge is normally a little warmer. It's quite pleasant. I could nearly have a swim in the morning. Look at it now. The water is so clear. Super clear. I keep calling the end of every day an epic day. Maybe not last night in the rain but definitely two in Queenstown and the night before that on that lake and yeah just it's endless. I guess that's the thing about New Zealand. There's a lot of epic days to be had. That's going to be me for the day. I'm going to head to bed. See what happens tomorrow. In the next episode I try not to get bogged in the sand. I stop by the blue pools. Go check out a rocky river and see the bluest water ever.