I hope it's not too boring with all those photos...

Will move on tomorrow morning for St Arnaud (the only "town" in the Nelson Lakes National Park).
Hope the weather behaves nicely and I can do the ~70km on one day.
Want to stay uo there for 5 days or so to to some treks (can't do the whole circuit up there, as there's pretty much snow at some higher parts).
Should be lovely in that region after what I heard and read...
Looking forward to getting up there or better to arriving there :)
I will return to the Shortbread Hostel here in Nelson afterwards to get the stuff I leave here (needed the place in backpack for some of those outdoor cuisine meals...) and see if I can find some fruit picking work or something like that around here.

We'll what comes up.

good night and thanks for the attention ;)

more news shortly (hopefully) on this channel :)

then I finally arrived in the quiet Maitai Valley.
Lovely place, but strong wind from straight ahead... *d'oh*

No photos of the steep parts of the track as it was no joking arounf there with all that deep hole your had to ride around and try to avoid. Had to make some pauses to let my brakes cool down again...
That would be really nice thing to fo with a fat downhill bike, but with mine I'm a bit cautious as I don't want to brake anything of the bike or me ;)
Aswell those little fords are quite tricking as you can hardly tell how deep they are and where there is the best way to get through + they are not announced anyhow...

*jiiippiiieeee* I can see the sea :)
Now it's just matter of my brakes to get me down there safely (or a least as safe as possible) ;)

still stunning, even if it's been hard to get here so far

almost at the top by now

not just a little bit windy here... That's more like a nice little storm... At least it's not snowing (yet...)

all the way like that. Think of it as steeper (much steeper!), really loose (the front wheel is already sliding when I push the bike) and loooooong...

no comment...

same position then the photo before! Just turned into the opposite direction...
So will be sunny and too warm for the clothes I'm wearing at the moment for the next 15min, and then it will start to rain again... *sigh*

that is about 2h later... 1 1/2h of bike pushing on a gravelroad that would be hard enough to do with lighter backpack and without a bike aside *puuuhhh*
Got geared up for rainy, cold, windy weather before...
Having a nice 4WD car that would surely be seriousl fun, but without it's just hard hard work!

Gravelroad again, but so far good to go with nice views around

start was nice (besides the almost ruined little bikebag that was injured by some damn bird stealing the half of my mueslibar *grrrrr*), but I'm curious what the 4WD part wil be like

Found a trail leading over some saddle directly from my campsite over to Nelson caled the Maungatapu trek...
Said something about 4WD trek and that it would be quite steep and unridable in places but nice overall. Well that seems to be a must-try :)
Only 37kms...
Shouldn't be a problem...
But can get "ambitious, but rubbish" ;)

Pelorus River
10m from my tent and I would have to swin in here ;)

home sweet home
Not much space left in the sleeping cabin when I put my thermarest in...

... but I was hoping for a bit more waterfall then that little thing... And that was the bigger one of the 2 ;)

It said there were 2 waterfalls within 45mins of walking, so I wanted to have a look what they are like.
The way itself was nice....

took a little walk dierectly by the campsite

Found a nice place for my little home on the campsite @ Pelorus Bridge.
Except the sandflies it's a lovely place here (seems it was a good idea to take something against itching with me, besides the spray against those little beasts ;) )

having a 2nd breakfast only some kms away from Havelock.
Think I will go on a bit...

that's much better to get started... Smooth ascent on a nice road with great views, not much traffic, good music and fine weather :)

1st pause on the Marlborough Drive from Picton to Havelock

the little shelter at the end of the track was much appreciated by everybody

30mins before it was a real nice sunny warm day...
Plan was to go on from here directly in direction of Nelson, but with that wind I changed my mind and went back to Picton again for a night at the Tombstone backpacker which was a lot more comfy then the alternatives ;)

almost no pedalling to get here during the last 1h.... :)

scenery could hardly be better :)

if there are some trails on those mountains?!?!

As always the day started with a "nice little climb"
This time it took around 2h to get to the top in the end...
Would be nice to have the possibility to wake up first and do the work later! ;)

woke up in the middle of the night (think it was ~4 in the morning) and decided to have a quick look outside...
Haven't seen soooo many stars for quite a while.
Shutter speed of 60secs can be a looooong time when you're standing outside just in your boxer shorts... ;)

decided not to ride on till Te Mahia, but to stay in the Treetops backpackers here in Portage Bay to have a nice, early end of the 2nd day and to have more of that unbelievably great riding left for tomorrow ;)
Turned out to be a good idea as the sunset was amazing...

the way I came from

really curious if there is better riding to be found throughout NZ :)

thats how the trail was like for kms........

Absolutely stunning to ride a trail with so much flow and those views to the sides :D

view back to the photo spot before some hours later

the way followed that hill to the left for the next hours...

2nd day
started with a steep ascent again :(
but weather is much nicer :)

nice little bay right down the campsite

thats the way to go

this rainforest setting is soooooooo cool :)

who can spot the bike? ;)