The Omarama Saddle gets bad press on the sounds to sounds Facebook page. It marks the break between the McKenzie and Central Otago, and comments are about the hard climb, the wet feet from the fords, and even two stories of guys having been helicoptered out.
I found this day to have been one of the best of this adventure 🙂
The Statistics
The temperature mirrored the Alpine climb, with the summit freezing cold. Descending into Central Otago, the temperature rapidly increased and I found myself dropping clothing that were essential just moments earlier.
The Ride
Another early start to the day because I’m not a super fast rider, the alarm when at 5:00am and I was out the door before 6:00. Starting in the darkness before morning gives me the most chances of getting where I need to be before darkness descends in the evening. And today, I had a lot of climbing to do.
Learning from my mistakes in Geraldine, I had brought a coffee milk and cheap hot crossed buns from the local four square the previous day, and I gobbled one bun down before I left.
I’ve found I ride better through not having a big breakfast in the morning. I’m liking eating just a simple apple and then some OSMs on the road.
As usual, there was fog all around me as I cycled 18km in the dark to get to the parking area for the climb. The gravel road was it’s usual pot marked and pitted self, as I bounced along in the dark.
Hitting at daylight
The timing was perfect, and I got to the Omarama Saddle just as day light broke. After another bun, some gulps of water and a quick reconsideration of my life choices, I kicked off into the rough track that would ultimately bring me into the Central Otago.
The initial start of the ride is not too bad – yeah it’s bumpy, yeah it’s muddy, but it wasn’t bumpy/muddy AND steep, which was a massive plus.
And then you get to the climbing bit, which was for me, the walking bit.
Counting the beat
I’ve learnt from experience in this ride to not look at the distance in kilometers to the top, but rather the distance in height to the top of the ascent. In this case, the steep bit kicked about 700m, with the top being 1258 (even though the guidebook says 1250).
My trick is to break that slope into 10 meter chunks: if I’m climbing 100m, I break it into 10, 10 meter chunks. And I throw a celebratory “woo-hoo” every 100 meters. That way, I’m not focused on pushing my bike up a 500 meter climb, I’m focused on pushing it solidly up the next 10 meters, and breathing hard or whatever when I get there.
The good thing about this technique is it’s not just an achievable goal I’m doing every 10 meters. Every 10 meters gets “locked in” and can’t be taken from me. When I’m 100 meters further, I got there by “banking” every meter I’ve made.
And, three hours later, I got to the top.
Geronimo!
The other side of climbing up is coming down. Every stupidly steep peak implies a stupidly steep descent, and this one was no different.
I’m a reasonably good mountain biker, but descending this hill put all my skills to the test. Rocks, rain-rutted groves, it was all there to cause damage at speed. My bike is going to need some new break pads after this ride.
Time to get your feet wet
Having travelled from McKenzie Country into Central Otago, I had to cross 31 water fords before this rides end. Being initially high up, they started small, but each for progressively bigger and bigger as water accumulated.
The road itself was large river boulders, and was barely passable for a road, slowing my travel.
Mainlining New Zealand Outdoors
Even, given the constant soaking from the water, the boulder rock road, and fatigue of the climb, this day was my best day. The reason is that the endorphin rush experienced back in Amberly was back in full swing, and this time, aimed at over coming this adversity.
And Man! What an exciting rush!
Tourists go to adventure tourism to get this feeling, by I was getting the heroin version of this adventure feeling straight from navigating this environment itself.
By the time I’d passed the conservation park this part of the ride was in, I was pumped on pure adrenaline and my wheels were humming.
People I met
Almost up at the top I met a couple of young locals out for “a look for animals”. Not sure you can do that on conservation land, but I wasn’t an authority.
And then I met Adam.
Adam is from Ireland and had been over here for about 4 months. And he decided to ride the reverse Sounds to Sounds up to Christchurch. I have no idea where he started from.
I met Adam around ford 25. He had just replaced his jandals with his cleated riding shoes, since he didn’t want to get his cleats wet. I think he was a bit disappointed to hear he had about 25 more of these fords to go.
The other thing up was his big packs. I run Aeroe Bags which are water proof. I could drop them in the water, and the contents would be dry. Adam was running some other cheap type of bag that he was taking off, carrying across the ford and then labouriously returning for his bike.
On the other side of the ford, Adam was taking off his jandals, drying his feet, putting on socks and his cleated cycle shoes, affixing all his bags, and then carrying onto the next day ford.
And we was going to have to do this 25 times of he wanted his stuff to stay dry.
The third thing he wasn’t all over was the distance he had to travel, there amount of elevation he had to climb, the time of day it was, and the hours of sunlight he had remaining. And what happened next when it’s dark and cold and he’s wet.
I gave him my stats on time I’d taken, distance from Omarama I’d travelled, and the amount of sunlight remaining.
I suggested he look to stay on the top hut and tackle the hill in the morning when he’s fresh. He reckoned he was pretty fresh and would kick on.
All power to the man. I hope he made it.
The rest of the ride
Fueled by two Jimmy’s pies, an isotonic drink and a Boss Japanese coffee in Oturehua, I was good to go.
Vic had made it all the way to Alexandra when she rode this route. I didn’t quite get that far. Missing by 30 km, I made it to Omakau and, for the first time since the molesworth station, I slept in my tent.
I was pretty buggered, but man! This was the most exciting, exhilarating day!
I can’t wait to drop in all my photos and videos 🙂