No New Years party for our friends and us, as Nienke and I had chosen to do the Milford Sound track during the christmas holiday. And we thought that while we were there anyway, we might as well add a couple of days extra to travel the South island. But to help our friends deal with the New Years party addiction at our place, we threw a party before the holiday. The picture is of the Indonesian fish preparation.
And as always, we loved to see almost all of our friends around us and they loved seeing each other again (and we presume us too). A good night again.
The plan was for me to drive our motorhome to Queenstown, where I would pick up Nienke from the airport. I was going to let the weather decide which route down south I would take. As it was beautiful everywhere, I drove south along the stunning west coast. Parked for the night at free campsites.
Unfortunately a lot of tourist do the same. Although I was usually alone when I parked on the most beautiful spots on the coast, around 6 several, so called self contained, campervans with mostly young german tourist arrived. They all seem to have a contract with the manufacturer of the vans to test the sliding doors. I do not see another reason why they would open and close the bloody things hundred times before midnight. Woooooosh, boom! Nah, das war es night, nochmals!
Did quite a few nice walks on my way south. Here are the beautiful rocks on the Motukiekie beach walk.
Crossing several bridges over the most beautiful blue rivers. Here the Mikonui river. De colour is so amazing because of fine silt particles (glacial flour) in the water.
It wasn't all happiness though. Nienke wanted a new book on her Kobo, Eleanor Catton's (writer of the price winning 'the Luminaries', for which she was awarded the Booker Prize) Birnam Wood. Honest as I am I bought it from Kobo of course (!) and downloaded it on Nienke's Kobo. Then did the same on my Kobo, but the result was that my Kobo was completely wiped. Turns out my, only a few years young Kobo glo, is not supported anymore by Kobo. A 'computer glitch' deleted all the books on my Kobo and just a few, no sense making, characters were left visible on my screen. My Kobo had gone in a persistent vegetative state. Contacting Kobo was surprisingly easy via a chat. Their help unfortunately was like asking an eskimo for advise on building a vegetable garden in central Africa. In the end I managed to get my Kobo working again by doing exactly the opposite of what they advised. I think I will stick with The Pirate Bay from now on. If you're thinking of buying an e-reader, do NOT consider a Kobo. It will be 'unsupported the moment it leaves the store.
Driving towards Wanaka you start to see the snowy tops of the alps more and more.
In Franz Jozef (really the name of a town here) I did an early morning walk to the beautiful Callery Gorge. The early morning sun beams created a spectacular scene.
Some strange signs along the track. Would that have anything to do with the German name of the town?
Very nice beach at Ship Creek (Tauparikaka Marine reserve) where I had a brief coffee break. The cafe where I had planned to camp was closed so I continued driving and spent the night next to the Cardrona hotel. In many places you can stay parked next to a pub or restaurant provided you are self contained and have a meal there. No problemo. The local stout matched the lamb burger very well!
Picked Nienke up from the airport next morning and headed for Te Anau, from where a boat would bring us to the start of the Milford Track. In the afternoon we did some final shopping for the track, as the weather forecast was horrible. Wind gusts of 70 km/hr predicted on MacKinnon pass, the highest and most exposed part. Oh, and rain all days. I had driven over half the island to get the right rain poncho's Nienke wanted so we should be right. Convinced we were well prepared, we enjoyed our delicious venison steak in the Redcliff cafe. Next morning we boarded the boat that would bring us to the other side of Lake Te Anau.
I did not reveal yet that we were going to do the luxury version of the track. Our loyal readers will remember that a few years ago we did the Routeburn track the luxury way as well, forced by two friends who refused to accompany us if there was no comfort after their huge effort (neither one of them has done another track again).
Anyway, I have tried to book the normal (carrying all your stuff, including food, and sleeping with all the other sweaty trampers in one small hut) Milford track for many years. Once a year DOC (the Department Of Conservation) opens applications for all the major tracks. Half the world is glued to their keyboards and in a millisecond it is all over. Everything fully booked. You sneeze once and your chances are gone. After trying 3 times, and missing out again, we decided to do this famous track with Ultimate Hikes. With them you sleep in a comfortable bed, you can get a shower when you arrive at the hut, there are flushing toilets and you get meals. And there is a bar.
We arrived at the first hut after a staggering 1.6 km walk. The shower wasn't necessary yet, but the salmon was delicious. From the restaurant we saw a wild stag roaming outside. What an amazing world.
Day two was going to be different. 16 km, but mainly flat. The day started a bit cloudy and misty, but the rain never came. Photo opportunities did.
Some of the most stunning sceneries. As you walk through a valley, there are waterfalls on either side. And the native vegetation was beautiful. We were surprised to see (and hear) so many birds as well.
This is the toutouwai, or the South island robin. It is a nosy and trusting little bird and it is protected as an endemic species. Like the piwakawaka (fantail) it likes the presence of humans, as when we walk by we disturb insects they are after.
We made almost a thousand pictures this holiday, so we made a small selection. Hope you won't get bored. There were 50 people in the Ultimate hike group. People of all ages, even quite some kids. Participants were mainly from the States (just my luck), Australia and a few Kiwi's. We mainly had contact with a nice Dutch woman from Aussie, another Aussie, a French vet from Auckland and a nice guy from Singapore. The Americans were mostly complete families. On christmas we had to listen to their christmas carols in canon. And we tried to get away from that all.
There were three guides to help the group. They were there for blisters, entertainment and moral support. One of them walked in Santa clothes. All the huts owned by Ultimate Hikes are manned by staff who stay there for a longer period. The chef basically prepares the same meal every night, so they are well trained. They even have a well stocked bar. I know, it all sounds like quite a challenge.
Everybody can stick to their own tempo. You do not have to walk in the group, but they won't let anybody behind. Nienke walked in a small group with the previously mentioned people. I walked at the front with the leading guide in Santa clothes. When the sun came through he started to perform a walking striptease. Santa got a heat stroke. I left him behind at the tea break, I was not on call after all.
Great to have that shower at the hut, but the staff did not expect me yet, so unfortunately the bar was not open yet. No internet to read the news, so while waiting for the other I just played a game of scrabble on my phone.
A rendang of angus beef, complemented after dinner by a proper crème brûlée. In the middle of nowhere! Everybody was quite surprised and almost felt sorry for the real rampers who were pouring hot water in their dryfrozen bag of what was supposed to look like Maroccan lamb. These were probably the oldest participants, but bloody fit. A day after the Milford track, which they had already done a few times, they were going to do the Routeburn track. I take my hat of for them!
Day three, the day we were going over the much feared MacKinnon pass. No rain and no hard winds. Someone must have tickled Jupiter's feathers quite a bit as it was in fact really nice weather. Like so often in New Zealand, you can't trust the weather forecast more than a day ahead.
I kept the back pack cover on so that Nienke could find me easily. The height difference this day was 700 m. up vertically, followed by a 900 m. descent vertically on the other side. I joined a group of younger men at the front and with Mina as guide we marched up the mountain.
The views were amazing again. We were so lucky, as we had already accepted that we would be drenched to the bone and would not see anything.
Nienke walked mainly with the French vet Louise and Kenny the man from Singapore, and stuck to their own speed.
The native forest was much denser then elsewhere in New Zealand, giving the forest a bit of a spooky look at times.
The so called 'true trampers' would say that it was very easy for us, because we did not have to carry our own food on the track. How wrong they were. The huge three course dinners and the massive breakfasts were carried on the inside. And everybody had to make their own lunch. Because we could chose from about 40 ingredients for our sandwiches, people carried the biggest lunch packs I have seen in a while. There were some real piece of art amongst them. Sometimes it was difficult to find the bread amongst the salmon, avocado, bacon, etc. All of that topped up with extra fruit and some bags with chocolate fish and aeroplanes. I'd say that we carried probably more than the sweaty, stinky, grumpy, jealous whiners. By the way, next time when I'm on the other side again, I'll come with some inside stories about those spoiled brats........
Just arrived at the monument on the MacKinnon pass, 1154 m. high.
There is a kea sitting on top of the monument. This is one of the two species of New Zealand parrots. Quite a cheeky bugger this one. Don't lose anything out of sight as the will quickly try to demolish it. When Nienke and I were skying in Methven people had put their windscreen wipers up to prevent them from freezing to the windscreen. Quite a lot of them came back to their car to discover that the rubber on the wipers had vanished completely. And if it is not a kea stealing you unattended lunch, it will be the weka (woodhen) who roams around where ever people are pausing. You'll lose your sandwich or even your camera (happened to one of our group) if you don't pay attention.
Probably my nicest shot of the trip. Our guide Mina with one of the men from my group. Mina was very happy when I sent her the photo as she seldomly had pictures of herself to send to her parents in Japan.
We all had lunch at the top and I decided to join Nienke's group for the descent. They had told us that that would be quite challenging and two are smarter than one.
It didn't take long before I was given my marching orders by the ladies. The 'We do not need help from men' was quite clear.
So while the ladies enjoyed the hundred different varieties of fern I picked up my own pace.
They must have heard from the previous hut. I was the first to arrive at Quintin's Lodge and the bar was already open. I had two well deserved beers after I dropped of my stuff in our private room. Not sure if Nienke had the energy to do the extra one and a half hour to see the Sutherland Falls, so I decided to get there on my own. Would be able to get some nice shots before 'selfy-crowd' would take the opportunity to make image 4637 of their face with a vague waterfall in the background.
Meanwhile Nienke and her friends were being followed by a kaka, the other NZ parrot. A whole bunch of them in fact. Having quite a discussion by the sound of it as well. The parrots that is.
These are the Sutherland falls, named after one of the guys that discovered the track. They first found MacKay's falls and threw up a coin to see who got the falls named after himself. Sutherland lost, but then later they found these big falls, much bigger, in fact the highest in New Zealand.
Next morning we started of using our new fancy rain ponchos in the drizzle. After half an hour we could stuff them back in the backpacks as the sun had taken over again.
Nienke found some nice paddo's under a tree.
This was day four of the walk and we knew it would end at the boat ramp where we had to wait for the boat later in the afternoon. The spot was called Sandfly point, for obvious reasons. You may understand that I was not at all in a hurry to reach the end of the track. So I walked up with Kenny and the ladies.
It's amazing how some of us get eaten alive to the point of exsanguination, and other are not affected at all. There are 19 species of sandflies in New Zealand and only 3 of them bite humans. You guessed it, those three are usually where I am.
Never knew I was so popular with the females. Just like with mosquitos it's only the females that bite, as they need our blood to develop eggs. Per bite about 30-70 eggs. You can imagine my reluctance to donate blood voluntarily. I used the repellent intensively ('breath taking' according to my roommates) and I was only bitten once on this trip. By a sandfly who did not stick to the rules. The itchy bitch bit me right through my shirt.
As we did the walk in summertime there were multiple bridges to make it easier for us. In wintertime DOC removes the bridges to prevent them from getting damaged by the floods. And Ultimate Hikes do not operate in wintertime, so that is when the real trampers do it!
Great to have a hobby photograper with us because we still have not got on top of the 'selfies-technique'.
Nienke, Kenny and Louise.
This part of the track was blasted out of the cliffs with dynamite. In wintertime, when there is ice, it is extremely dangerous. A granite wall on one side and a river some 15 meters below on the other side. Funny how they tell us not to disturb the nature. It must have taken a while after the dynamite for the nature to restore itself.
Lunch time. Again the sandflies were unaware of their scientific description. They are not supposed to be out there in the sun, as all the articles say the are around at night and dusk and do not like the sun. I guess they are just illiterate bastards. Kenny shows here how you eat your sandwich on the track.
We had lunch near a nice waterfall and that gave us the opportunity to bath our feet in the nice cold water. A few were even brave enough to take a dip. I didn't mind the cold, but feared getting into a hypovolemic shock if I exposed my whole body to those flying mini-vampires. So I passed.
Apart from the sandflies it was an amazing lunch spot.
It also meant that we were nearing the end of the walk. The waterfalls turned into a friendly streams.
Walking out of the valley, following a the stream full of ducks and black swans towards the Milford sound.
And we made it. This is the start on the other end, although practically everyone starts where we did. Just some day trampers start on this side. We met quite a few of them, happily greeting us. But of course, the were met with a glance of disdain by us, the real trampers.
33.5 miles or 54 km in 3 days (day one doesn't really count). We have now completed 6 of the 11 great walks in New Zealand. The Milford track, the Routeburn track, the Able Tasman track, the Rakiura track, The Waikaremoana track and the Heaphy track. High on the list are still the Whanganui river track, the Paparoa track and the Kepler track.
Our proud team. When the small boat picked us up the wind and the tide came in from the west, creating huge waves. To the point that the waves flew over roof of the boat. 'Haven't lost a passenger yet' yelled the female captain. Well, we did all make it to the shore, but some fellow passengers were a bit green in the face. Would you believe that the company had a bus there ready to bring us from the boat ramp to the hotel, 300 meter further? After 54 km? What a nonsense.
We still had one more day to go (although not a walking day) and because of that we stayed in a hotel in the Milford sound. This was the view from our room. We have been in worse places......
Nienke made this nice shot during an evening stroll. The high peak is called Mitre Peak, one of the most photographed rocks in the world.
The last days was a boat tour on the Milford sound. This american family came prepared.
We had done this boat trip many years ago with Nienke's parents, but things had changed.
Planes and helicopters disturbed the serene rest. Apparently Milford sound airport (a grass strip) is the busiest airport in New Zealand in the summer. With about 20 big boats for tourists cruising the sounds as well it is not surprising you won't see dolphins or pinguins. Only a few seals. For us Dutch kiwi's the experience was rather disappointing. We recommend potential visitors to do the Doubtful sound instead.
Last picture in the Milford sound.
A couple of hours later we were cruising along Lake Wakatipu to meet up with our friends who moved to Arrow town last year.
Nice to see where Cam and Jen moved to. As they had given up on trying to top the restaurant quality food we got on the walk, we decided to go out for dinner. A lovely tapas restaurant in Arrow town. Thanks for a great stay Cam and Jen. So good to see you again.
Travelling without a plan again. Just heading for wherever the sun shines. Cruising along the Clutha river, picking up some fresh fruit along the way. Never knew there are white cherries. We decided to take the route I took with my friends a few years back. That way Nienke could see the real Otago as well.
Me coming out of jail in Ophir
Ophir post office, still functioning!
Hoping our bed on wheels would not get stuck on the old bridges.
Ending up in St. Bathans, an old gold mining town.
Getting a nice cold beer at one of the most famous pubs in Otago, the Vulcan.
This is what was left after the gold diggers moved to a better spot. With water canons they blasted the rocks into water runs so they could find the gold. When they moved away again they left a nice little lake behind. After much discussion it was called; the Blue lake.... Still, we're not as bad as the Aussies at naming (just laugh about Danny Bhoy about the Aussies).
As the temperatures were soaring and our camping did not have a shower, a dip in the lake was the solution. We do not use the shower in the motorhome as everything will be wet then and we'll run out of fresh water quickly.
Nienke multitasking; drying her towel, protecting herself from the sun and helping out the local scarecrows.
Next stop was the Waipiata pie factory. Pies are a big thing in New Zealand, also a major contributor to our countries obesity problem. These pies are fine however. We took two frozen venison pies (filled to the rim with venison) with us for the night.
I had a Black beer, beef and aged cheddar pie and Nienke a beef and blue cheese pie. No fries, cause that would be bad. This factory (in fact a pub with a very large kitchen) lies on the Otago rail trail. They took the rails away and now it is the most famous cycle route in New Zealand. Passing several small villages, each with lovely pubs, galleries, shops and restaurants.
One for Nienke's old shed collage.
The only inland salt water lake in New Zealand, south of Middlemarch. Why? Because Nienke found it on the map.
This is the old coach route from Middlemarch to Macraes, going through some typical Otago country. Needless to say that we did not see another car. Last time when we were down south with 'the Boys from Otaki we went over a hill and almost had a head on collision with a herd of sheep. The farmer was too lazy to have someone in front of the herd, as the law states. The sheep at the front got singed by the hot rubber tyres. Would have been a fluffy disaster.
Had to visit shag point to see the seal colony there.
The seals must have a good in-house decorator.
Always a nice spot. Did not see any shags. Odd, with a name like that!
Just before Oamaru we saw a sign 'Totara estate', heritage museum. Well, why not. It turned out to be a very interesting visit. They served a lovely Devonshire tea there. The estate was founded by W.S. Davidson who came up with a way to export frozen meat to England. It was the start of prosperity in New Zealand. The sheep were slaughtered on the farm and the remains and blood were fed to the pigs. All the animals, topped up with chickens and rabbits found their way to England where the growing population caused a high demand for food. The guardians, dressed up in 18 century clothing, had some great stories to tell. The gems you find if you are not in a hurry!
Walking through the lovely streets of Oamaru we stumbled upon the Grainstore Gallery where we could admire the work of Donna Demente. Truly amazing. You don't see it from the road. Climbing up a small staircase you enter an entire floor full of beautiful and somewhat bizar art.
Another museum in Oamaru is dedicated to 'Steam-punk'. Outside a weird looking locomotive that could have featured in 'Back to the future'. Throw in a coin and it starts spewing fire and smoke, accompanied by the sounds of a steam train leaving the station. In the background you sea a big zeppelin.
Just a few examples of the exposition.
Another weird train
Nienke had to try out a motorbike.
After a whole afternoon of walking in musea, shops and other sights worth the effort, we ended up in the Craftwork brewery where the had a great selection of Belgian style beers. Time for a tastting!
Did an evening stroll along the harbour. This old wharf would have been proud to wear the name 'Shag point' as it was loaded with the creatures. Smelly point would have fitted very well too. We did not go to the penguin colony, been there, done that. A bit weird, people sitting on the tribune waiting for the Blue penguins to arrive. Not necessary either, as they live everywhere. A few early ones were spotted by Nienke swimming in the harbour. We had our motorhome parked right on the harbour front and during the night we heard them making quite some noise in the bushes around us.
New Years eve, what are we going to do? Well, there was a New Years party in the park in Oamaruwhich boasted 3 bands. So that's where we went. Rain. The past few days were great, but rain was going to spoil New Years eve. The first band were from Brasil. I'm afraid they will be forever banned from Brasil, terrible. Luckily the children supplied the entertainment. The second band was OK, but the rain got worse and worse. And so it happened that we ended up in bed at 10 with a book and were sound asleep before midnight. Old geezers......
As the weather in the alps was good we directed our travel accommodation towards Mount Cook. Found a nice camping spot at the bottom of Lake Pukaki, the bluest lake in New Zealand. And with a great view of Mount Cook.
Unfortunately also on a load of tourists making thousand pictures of each other or themselves. I just don't get it, how can someone spend an hour making selfies? I pity the people they are going to show those shots.
There were about 40 motorhomes on this free camp spot, both our neighbours were Dutch (it's a free camping spot allright). The sunset behind over all the people that came too late and could only envy us over our prime location.
In the left corner you can just see the two peaks of Mount Cook. The white peak in the middle is Minarets. And the lake we look at is the Tasman glacier lake.
Everybody did the few short walks near the carpark, but we looked at the map and thought that we must be able to get closer to the glacier. Found a 4WD track on an Australian website for the most dangerous roads in the world. I guess in wintertime there is a real danger for avalanches.
Very nice indeed. Just a few hours walking. The glacier borders on the left of the water and is covered with stones.
A chain over the track prevented cars from getting further, and that was a very good warning. A flood had taken about 30000 cubic meter of rock away, including the track to the Balls hut.
Walking up to the culprits (a couple of waterfalls) for lunch. On the left side of the picture you can see the canyon the flood caused.
You can imagine that if the ice starts to melt towards the summer, that all these tiny waterfalls now, become fierce and angry rivers, capable of washing way a few pebbles.
I told you we did not use the shower in our motorhome. So the alternative is a lake or a shower on a camping. I am not particularly keen on campings. The toilets are often dirty and the showers are not much better. When you are going to take a shower, you bring only what's necessary as you also don't want your stuff to touch anything. So my little shampoo bottle, a comb, my shaving oil and razor in one pocket and clean underwear in the other one. Already put a new shirt on (otherwise one of the two will definitely fall on the floor) and the towel around my neck. Of course in the cubicle that is left for me, there is usually only 1 hook, so the chances of things falling are already increased. Now it is very important to hang things on the hook in a certain sequence, to avoid the almost inevitable splash of your things. The used undies first, t-shirt after that and then the shorts. Glasses in the shorts. Shampoo. oil and razor on a ledge or between your teeth. Towel on top of the shorts. Darn @$#%@^, where is that bloody coin. In the shorts of course. Towel falls first, but miraculously I catch that, but the shorts fall, glasses safe, but the new undy is wet. Manage to hang everything again and get a shower indeed. Manage even to get a shave and wash the soap of before the water suddenly stops. Grab the towel carefully. Nothing falls. The new underwear is not very wet so I decide not to go commando this time. Balancing on my crocs I manage to get the first foot in, but my little toe of the other foot catches the undies and I lose my balance. Now everything is on the floor except my towel and undies. You guessed it, I'd rather take a dip in a freezing lake.
Next day we headed for Fairlie where my friend made me familiar with the famous salmon and bacon pie at the Fairlie bakehouse. Nienke had to see this. There must be more readers of our blog than we know, tourists everywhere. It was packed. There were about 50 people in a queue outside, another 20 in the shop and more cars arriving. Luckily we found a window on the side of the shop and Nienke got the last 4 salmon-bacon pies of the day.
With one pie safely stored in our stomach and the others in the freezer we drove to Conways Flat, south of Kaikoura. But first we picked up some nice wines on Torlesse winery in Waipara. We could have stayed there, but they could not make a nice platter for us anymore, so we ended up on this nice cliff, right above the beach a good 10 meters lower. So glad the brakes are in order.
Nice stroll over the beach in Kaikoura, I worked here several times after the earthquake.
Couldn't pass Nin's Bin (world famous for the crayfish) without a visit. Crayfish out of a carton box and a nice pinot gris from plastic glasses. Who cares with this kind of weather and view.
Next day we went to Ward beach. We had not been there after the earthquake. It had changed completely, came up 5 meters. There were boulders here as well, but no tourists making selfies and no smell of fried food in the air like in Mouraki.
Just us.
And a few dolphins playing in the bay.
Got woken up by some tractors before 5am. A few people were launching their boats from the beach. Wide awake, so decided to get out and make some pictures of the sun coming up.
Pretty good.
Very happy with myself I crawled back into my bed and fell asleep again.
Our trip through the Marlborough sounds went not as planned. Rain. The whole day. Watched a film together.
Early next morning we managed to get one reasonable shot, but take it from us, the Marlborough sounds are usually beautiful.
We had another day before we had to jump on the ferry, so we decided to try our luck on the other side of Picton. Narrow road, you would not want to do this with a bigger motorhome. Some really sharp hairpin bends and after Port Underwood the road was unpaved. Slippery wet mud. Ah well, our beast needed a good wash anyway.
Lunch in Port Underwood, at a table put in front of a house in memory of someone's mother. No cafe, this his 'home ' brew coffee with a 'home' made omelette.
Last time walking over a beach looking for gem stones. I found a few that may contain some pounamu (green stone, or jade) during this trip. At home I'll try to do something arty with it.
A little sink at the dump station in Picton. I like the sign; Hand wash only, no dishes, clothes or babies. Kiwi's......
Farewell shot of the South island. Picton, the St. Tropez of New Zealand.
And welcome back to Wellington.
Not much later we were enjoying sunset from our deck. Not a bad place to be either. For those that made it all the way to the end, thanks for reading. We know it was a lot, but this was a great holiday. Hope you friends in New Zealand you got some inspiration, hope you guys in Europe don't freeze your asses of!
These are the Sutherland falls, named after one of the guys that discovered the track. They first found MacKay's falls and threw up a coin to see who got the falls named after himself. Sutherland lost, but then later they found these big falls, much bigger, in fact the highest in New Zealand.
These are the MacKay falls, as mentioned before.
Travelling without a plan again. Just heading for wherever the sun shines. Cruising along the Clutha river, picking up some fresh fruit along the way. Never knew there are white cherries. We decided to take the route I took with my friends a few years back. That way Nienke could see the real Otago as well.
Hoping our bed on wheels would not get stuck on the old bridges.
This is the old coach route from Middlemarch to Macraes, going through some typical Otago country. Needless to say that we did not see another car. Last time when we were down south with 'the Boys from Otaki we went over a hill and almost had a head on collision with a herd of sheep. The farmer was too lazy to have someone in front of the herd, as the law states. The sheep at the front got singed by the hot rubber tyres. Would have been a fluffy disaster.
In this video you see us standing in some kind of elevator, giving you a very spatial experience.
Driving along the SH80 (State Highway 80) to beautiful Mount cook.
With these narrow bridges in New Zealand you always hope to get out of it with a mirror on either side.
We had another day before we had to jump on the ferry, so we decided to try our luck on the other side of Picton. Narrow road, you would not want to do this with a bigger motorhome. Some really sharp hairpin bends and after Port Underwood the road was unpaved. Slippery wet mud. Ah well, our beast needed a good wash anyway.
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