{"id":29632,"date":"2017-03-02T00:19:20","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T23:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peregrinusmundi.com\/sur-la-route-wanaka-mount-cook\/"},"modified":"2020-07-06T10:05:27","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T08:05:27","slug":"on-the-road-wanaka-to-mount-cook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peregrinusmundi.com\/en\/on-the-road-wanaka-to-mount-cook\/","title":{"rendered":"On the road. Wanaka to Mount Cook"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
DISPATCH<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

After five days in Wanaka<\/strong><\/a>, it is time to go. I leave my pretty corner at the Glendhu Bay campsite, Sunday February 26, under cloudy weather. Forty minutes on the hilly road to reach Wanaka and I set off towards Aoraki \/ Mount Cook, my destination in three days. About two hundred kilometers separate me from one of the places I absolutely want to visit during my stay in New Zealand. I leave Wanaka on a hilly road. The clouds have disappeared replaced by a blazing sun. Around me the mountains are almost desert covered with yellow grass. I feel like they are thirsty. It is beautiful but as often, I have the headwind! It seems that whatever direction I take, I always have the headwind! As if driving on the New Zealand roads full of ups and downs was not difficult enough. Along the way, I meet a Quebecer woman with whom I chat for thirty minutes. She has been traveling for a year on her bike and is going to join a friend in Wanaka. She comforts me a little by telling me that the first weeks on a bike are always difficult. And that I chose the hardest part of New Zealand to start with.<\/p>

I arrive in Tarras around the beginning of the afternoon. The village is made up of three barracks, a school, a shop selling merino wool clothes and … a golf course! Lunch break in the shade of the trees then I continue. Passage on a gravel road in good condition which offers me a climb of two hundred meters high, long and in full heat. At the top, when I thought I was completely alone in the area, I see a caravan of people riding on horseback coming my way. I do not know if it is a reenactment or something like that but I feel like I have been thrown into the past for a few seconds. I rejoin the road that sinks uphill in the Lindis Valley and I camp at the edge of a small stream just before the start of the big climb to the pass.<\/p>

The next day, I start the climb early. The road climbs very slowly through the valley covered with yellow grass. With the morning sunlight, it looks like the place is covered in gold. I do most of the cycling except the last two kilometers, which are far too hard for my taste. A little tired of all these climbs! It is very hot again. While I rest for a few minutes in the shade of a sign saying “attention, dangerous corner, many accidents, be alert”, a car overtakes me, a little too close for my taste, before suddenly zigzagging on the road then hitting another sign! Nothing serious, only the mirror is damaged. I do not know what happened, but I have the impression that it is karma. I continue the climb pushing the bike and I reach the top with relief. 965 meters above sea level. The pass marks the boundary between the Otago region and the Canterbury region. The ascent was not easy but less difficult than the ascent of the Cardrona pass<\/strong><\/a> after Arrowtown.<\/p>

I go downhill, smile to my ears. What a pleasure to spin down the slope without pain, the wind whistling in my ears. I cover the thirty-two kilometers separating me from Omarama quickly. Of course, my dear friend, the wind is here and here I am again pedaling like crazy. On the road, I see the Clay Cliffs, large cliffs of clay. A good ice cream, Passion Fruit-Yogurt, gives me a little deserved pleasure as well as a little rest. Not much in Omarama except … a golf course. Again! Definitely, it must be a sport dear to Kiwis.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t