Shakedown Tour and 5 days to go

My Steed, carrying ~25kg

Many years of talk, and a few months of action and i'm nearly off! I've traveled to New Zealand many times with family but mostly just visiting family with a few short trips mixed in. I hope to rectify this with a 3 month trip covering the full length of both islands.

Before I left i knew i needed to do a min tour, to make sure all the vital things were all sorted. My shakedown tour was 230km and 2500m climbing over three days from Tues 30th Sept to Thurs 2nd Oct from Lilydale - Lilydale via Warburton, Marysville, Lake Mountain and Reefton.

Day 1: Lilydale to Feiglin Campground Acheron Way 78KM

With my panniers packed i set my alarm for the next morning. I was unsure how long my first day would take me, so i decided to get one of the first trains out to Lilydale. Note to self: bring something to apply the brakes, as holding a bike for an hour is not pleasant.

By 8:20am and i was rolling! Riding fully loaded ended up only feeling weird the first 30 minutes or so. The first time i got out of the saddle it was a bit of a shock, but very easy to adjust for. Funnily enough after the tour riding without loaded front panniers felt really wrong and twitchy, and that was only after 3 days!

The Lilydale - Warburton Rail Trail is a beautiful trail. If you haven't done it, do it now! This 40km stretch of gravel bike path takes you through (and towards) some of the most pleasant places to ride. Even on a week day there were plenty of walkers and cyclists out, although most were out for a gentle ride, so i even managed to overtake one cyclist! 2:15 hours later i was in Warburton, where i had a quick chat to the mechanic at Cog Cafe. I asked if he knew of any water up the road, this was going to be the first test of my legs, and i had 600m to climb so I kept my weight as low as possible. He reckoned there was a spring in one of the clearings part of the way up Mt Donna Buang after the hairpin at Acheron Way.

With that info i set off. The climbing was slow, but i never found it too much of a grind. Halfway up Mt Donna Buang i stopped for lunch where Acheron way starts. I really need to come up here again and have a good look at the rain forest gallery, from the lookout the area below looked amazing! After lunch i headed up towards Donna Buang. I hadn't planned to go this way but i needed some water so on i went. And on and on. After 5km and 250m climbing my legs were starting to fade, so i decided to turn around and stop at some water I'd seen on the way. Turns out i would have had to go another 2km to reach the mentioned water, but what i found was pretty good.

After getting back down to the intersection I headed along Acheron Way. This is a great cycling road. Both times i've been along it it has been almost deserted. The first 10km or so is all gravel, including a decent amount of descending. The whole road is great to ride along, but i was still very glad once i got to the sealed section. 

Sooo Smooth!

Very soon after this, and before 2:30pm i rolled into Feiglin campground. This was a basic clearing with space for a few tents, but i had it all to myself! I picked a nice even spot and got my tent all sorted. Turns out i picked a very nice spot. An hour or so after I arrived a rather large storm came through, including strong wind a fair amount of rain. At first i thought there was some thunder around, as i heard a whole lot of loud cracks. Quite quickly i realised i was hearing trees cracking in the wind. I was relatively sheltered so i didn't feel the wind too much, but a tree 30m away did!

Not the most reassuring thing for your first night camping solo...

Luckily the wind died off quite early, although the rain stayed all night. Dinner was cooked whilst inside the tent and i was in bed just after the sun.

Day 2: Feiglin to Big River 64km

Marysville Rd, it may be sunny but it wasn't warm!

I awoke feeling pretty good, unfortunately it was still raining, so it wasn't until 9:30am that i actually got rolling. The first hour was fairly easy, but on the approach to Marysville i had my second real test of my legs. I lost the gps data from the first bit of the day, but i was seeing 10+% for 1km or so. I stopped in Marysville for a coffee and cake before starting my climb up to Lake Mountain. 

I decided to put my leg warmers on during a patch of rain, as it was still very cool down here and i had another 1000m of climbing to do. And i never regretted it as after the first hour it only got above 5 degrees once for the rest of the day.

I had never climbed Lake Mountain before, and i wasn't sure i'd do the full climb as i'd wasted a lot of the morning in the tent. I'd read climb guides so i knew the first part is very hard. Turns out that my gearing is enough to get me up extended 10% gradients, although if i was gifted a few lower gears they would be greatly appreciated.

Once i got to the intersection to the summit i decided that i did have enough time to get to the top so off i went. This section of the climb is very gentle so my speed picked up a little. While riding the sun managed to peek through enough to start making the wet roads steam!

A steaming road! And it was only 5 degrees!

Towards the top i started seeing a bit of snow. Apparently the rain i had down in Marysville was snow up on the mountain! Ah well, another chanced missed to ride whilst its snowing. A little while later i arrived at the Lake Mountain resort! Unfortunately the cafe was closed, although the buildings were open so i stayed inside and had a small lunch before rugging up for the descent.

The end is near!

I don't have much experience descending, so i never get too fast, but unlike Donna Buang i found this descent really relaxing (note i didn't go down to Marysville). The 10km of road back to the turn off is largely gentle flowing bends with good vision so the brakes didn't need much of a workout. I still had one more climb to go 2km at 7%. Once that was done it was virtually all down hill to my campsite, including 6km and 250m vertically down a gravel road to Big River. Descending on gravel has never been my favourite thing, and this road was particularly rough, although i was generally pretty good at finding the smooth spots. Big River campground turned out to be a massive campground, which i had all to myself. If i'd had a little more time i'd have gone a little further down the road to one of the smaller campsites, but i was tired and the sun was beginning to set.

Camp setup and dinner cooking!

A few hours after sunset i heard a vehicle go by, and then turn around. Seems some bogan's had seen my tent. Thankfully they went further away, although they made a lot of noise for a while including using a chainsaw...

Day 3: Big River to Lilydale 88km

This morning was much more productive, with myself all sorted and moving by 7:30am. First job was to backtrack up that 6km of gravel. With that sorted i was greeted with 20km of descending with a few small climbs mixed in on an amazing road along the Reefton Spur. I had a huge grin for a long time going around the many flowing corners. If i could only do one section of this ride again this would be it. 

From the bottom there was just 20km of gentle undulating road into Warburton, where i stopped for a while for a coffee and muffin.

Looking up at mountains for the first time since Marysville

 After far too long i got up and continued on my way back to Lilydale. The weather wasn't quite as nice as the Tuesday, but at least it was dry.

The longest bridge along the rail trail

Throughout the whole ride my legs generally had felt pretty good, never really feeling like i was nearing my limit. That was until 20km to go, when i started feeling really fatigued. I thought it might have been lack of food as i hadn't really eaten lunch yet so i stopped to have a bite. Turns out i had just been climbing for a while, as when i got back riding the descent started, although the food stop definitely helped. With Lilydale in sight i was done, so i treated myself to some potato cakes and dim sims. When i got back up i could barely walk! I guess the k's finally started to take their toll as i hadn't felt any stiffness in my legs up to that point. I managed to get back to the train station and had a short wait before heading home to a much needed shower and rest.

With my shakedown done i'm now confident that i can handle the full thing, although inevitably there will be new challenges to overcome.

Anyway my preparations are nearly complete, although i need to knock a few things off my list before i head off on Monday!