South Island – November 2022 – Part 4

I’m finally getting around to writing up our 2022 South Island Holiday. Again, we went during the couple of weeks straddling November and December. Last year, we had a trip to the same part of the South Island at around same time of year. This time, John particularly wanted to spend a few days at Lake Ohau Lodge – to do some cycling, to just ‘hang out’ and take lots of photos, and to enjoy the Lodge’s delicious meals. And we also wanted to spend several days in Arrowtown, another one of our favourite places. 

This is quite a long story, so I have written it up in five parts:

Part 1: Wellington to Christchurch

Part 2: Christchurch to Arrowtown

Part 3: Arrowtown to Lake Ohau

Part 4: Two days at Lake Ohau

Part 5: Ohau to Oxford and home 

 

Part 4 – Two days at Lake Ohau

 

Friday 2 December – First day at Lake Ohau

It was a pretty early start, as breakfast was from 7:30 to 8:30 – unusual for us, as we tend to be night owls. But when we got to the dining room, we were the first people there.

It was a lovely day, and when we got back to our room, John started to get the bikes ready. I found an email on my phone that needed a lengthy response (Scottish Country Dancing club stuff!!!), so I went upstairs with my laptop as the only strong internet connection is in the lounge.

Ready to go. Note John’s reflection in the glass door …

We wanted to bike a short stretch of the beginning of Section 4 of the A2O trail. On the website, the whole section is described as Level 3, but it says that “starting from the Lake Ohau Lodge driveway, the Trail traverses the lower slopes of the Ohau Range, with stunning views back across the basin to the Ben Ohau Range – 6km of easy cycling will take you to Freehold Creek, 600m above sea level”.

We intended to do just those first 6km, as we know that the track gets very steep after that. But we didn’t even manage that. The beginning of the track is very rough, with big rolling gravel. John didn’t like it at all, it threw his balance out, and he reckoned it was not good for the bikes either, with the smaller wheels. So after about 1.5 km, we turned around and came back. 

We could not cope with the very rough gravelly track … (DP)

… but the views were certainly stunning (DP)

So then we rode 10 km on the road to the beginning of the lakeside section of the trail – that we have biked a few times now – and biked about 6 or 7 km to “our” tree. On the way we stopped for photos of course.

Ben Ohau on the right, and in the distance, the Ohau Range and the road to the Ohau ski field

Ben Ohau’s gullies and shingle slides make it very recognisable

 

“Our tree” is a big old willow on a beach of large round stones and lots of driftwood, where we enjoyed a break last year and marvelled at the silence and the beauty of the landscape. We said at the time that we should have brought a picnic. Well, this time we did bring a picnic – a packed lunch courtesy of Ohau Lodge. 

But when we arrived at this wonderful tree, we found that the site had been mutilated. It was now the marker of a fence that went all the way up the hill, and there was a cattle stop to get to the other side of the fence. Some of the large branches had been cut off the beautiful willow, and some small trees had been chopped down. The debris had been left there, of course. What a crying shame!

The mess left behind after the mutilation of the tree. You can see the fence behind John and all the way up the hill (top right of the photo)

We walked our bikes a little distance towards the beach, and we had our picnic lunch, though it was still only just after 11:00. But we did have a very early breakfast! We sat on an enormous log that had been sawn off the tree in the process of building the fence. 

The mutilated tree

The other, undamaged, side of the tree

After this we biked back, stopping at several little beaches to sit in the sun and enjoy the silence, until two groups of cyclists came past, and replaced us at this nice beach. They were all riding the A2O, and would be staying at the Lodge, so we would see them again at dinner time.

Camera at the ready (DP)

The perfectly circular inlet is the result of a geological phenomenon (but we’ve forgotten the details …!)

The large amount of driftwood on the shore is evidence of the fierce storms that can happen on this lake – Ohau means ‘windy place’ (DP)

What a sublime landscape

John was having a bit of a struggle, he was tired and his balance was giving problems. The 10 km on the road back to the lodge seemed like a long way. It was still only about 1:30 when we got back to the lodge. We had done 37 km all up, not bad really. 

While John took himself off for a snooze, I went into the lounge with my laptop, to reply to some emails (SCD club work!). After this I sat on the deck with a good book, enjoying the sun, until John emerged, and we had some flat whites from the bar. 

The view from the deck

Tonight we were the first to arrive for dinner (last night we were the last).We were allocated a table in the corner by the window, with six other people – a couple from Auckland travelling in their camper van and doing out and back bike rides; a couple from Australia, who had been travelling round NZ for the last five weeks, doing some hiking, biking and canoeing; and two guys from Christchurch who were doing the A2O the hard way, covering two sections a day. 

The view from our dinner table

Dinner was delicious again and the conversation was quite animated and varied, and it was 9pm before we went back to our room.

Saturday 3 December – Second day at Lake Ohau

In the evening of this last day in Ohau Lodge, I wrote in my diary: “There are days when I feel like a hundred years old. Today, right now, at the end of the day, it’s more like 125 years. I came off my bike today, and I am feeling the worse for it. A banged-up knee, and big bruises on both legs will probably show tomorrow”. 

But back to the beginning of what was actually a lovely day … 

At about 9-ish we biked up the road towards the top of the lake. It was quite fresh in the shade, but soon we were out in the open and it was lovely. The sky was clear and Mt Cook was visible all the way as we rode towards the head of the lake.

A few drifts of cloud were still hanging around …

… but Mt Cook was clear

We had to cross a ford, where a stream was crossing the road, or perhaps rather, the road was crossing the stream … We debated whether we could do it without getting wet by stalling or falling over. We did go through OK, with just a few splashes onto our feet. 

The top of the lake and in the distance, the Hopkins River, which flows into the lake further over to the right

We got to the head of the lake, and this was Lake Ohau Station, a farm of over 8,000 hectares of really beautiful flattish land surrounded by impressive mountains, which runs 5000 merino sheep and angus cattle. 

Beautiful flat farmland … (DP)

… and what a backdrop! (DP)

Nothing to say – just silence and sunshine and Mt Cook way in the distance (DP)

We carried on for some distance in this flat area. When we got to a long dip towards a bridge, beyond which the road continued into a long wide valley, we decided it was time to turn around.

This is where we turned around

When we came to Ohau with the Pure Trails tour in January 2015, the tour leader took us up this valley in the van, so we knew there were some steep descents, meaning steep climbs on the way back, which we were not keen to tackle. 

The lines on the hills show that this was once a glacier

A selfie – for the record …

The way back was lovely, until I came to grief at a cattle stop. There was a lot of accumulated, large, round gravel just before the stop. I skidded in the gravel, and keeled over towards the right. I thought I had smashed my knee, so I sat there for a bit. I called out to John, but he had gone around a corner, and didn’t hear, and unusually, he did not ride back to see if I was in trouble. He thought I was taking photos, as often happens. 

My knee had landed in something wet, and couldn’t figure out where the water had come from, until I saw that the crash had smashed my water bottle. I didn’t know how to get up, as I can’t easily lean on my hands (arthritis), and I needed to get up on my knee, but I couldn’t do that on the gravel (too painful). So I took off my jacket, folded it over a few times and kneeled on that, which worked. 

I picked up the bits of broken drink bottle, and limped, and pedalled over to where John was waiting for me. The first-aid kit always lives in my bike bag, so I was able to put a plaster on my knee – the wound was clean thanks to my leaked water bottle. My knee felt OK for biking, but I thought I should keep it moving, as I didn’t want it to seize up.

The way back

 

The remains of an original farm building

I managed the long uphill OK, despite my bunged-up knee – thank goodness for e-bikes!

When we got back to the ford, we worried that I might go for another skid in the gravel leading up to it. But John tramped the gravel into a somewhat more solid approach, and we got across OK. We got back to the lodge by about 11:40, having biked 22 km. It was a lovely ride, despite the crash.

We had some coffee in our room, and spent some time watching some swallows (welcome swallows) which were flitting back and forth outside our room. We discovered two nests under the balcony above our room. I think they were feeding young, as they kept coming in and sitting on the edge with little titbits. 

A welcome swallow with a titbit for the babies in its beak

The swallows’ nest

Later we went upstairs to sit in the lounge with our laptops, a book for me, and drawing materials for John. By the reception desk there were a couple of dozen suitcases and backpacks, delivered by the shuttle service, awaiting the people cycling the A2O. After a while, cyclists were starting to come in. I heard the lady in the bar offering toasted sandwiches to some people who had just arrived, so we ordered some too, and some flat whites. Perfect.

A quiet afternoon was spent reading in the comfortable lounge

Again, dinner was a highlight. The food was excellent, and our table companions were very interesting to talk to. There was a couple from Canterbury University – he a researcher into, among others, the native mistletoe; she a publisher for Canterbury University Press. 

I was particularly interested in what he told us about the native mistletoe. He had led several research/conservation projects about this endangered plant. It flowers for only a very short period every year, and this was the exact week that this happened, so we were very lucky to see it. The plant propagates by birds tweaking the buds to get at the nectar; the buds burst open and the pollen dusts the birds' beaks, which then gets spread about. They also eat and spread the seeds. But because the birds are endangered by such pests as possums and stoats, it means the mistletoe is endangered too. 

The native NZ red mistletoe (DP)

Another couple was from Auckland, travelling with a man from Christchurch, who was a scientist, so he and John had quite a long conversation. The Auckland woman was a rep for Random House publishing company. Editing and publishing are some of my interests, so I would have liked to chat with the University Press publisher and the Random House rep, but it was just too noisy, with a couple of tour groups also there. 

When we headed back to our room, Mt Cook was nearly clear. It was hard walking down the steep path to our room with my left sciatica, and my damaged right knee. As I said at the start – I feel like 125 years old.

I said to John “I have had a lovely holiday, but now I am looking forward to getting home".