From Arthur's Pass to Greymouth - A Bike Ride

Most years I ride my bicycle from Christchurch over Arthur’s Pass to Greymouth. It is a challenge timed to follow my December birthday. I ride one-way (about 260km), mostly east to west, and travel back on the TranzAlpine Train.  

I had to flag the event for a couple of years owing to major heart surgery for a dissected aorta during which a malfunction caused a stroke.

Last December I reinstated the ride a few days after my 67th birthday.

The best of it is staying at YHA hostels. My first hostel stop on this trip was YHA Springfield Smylies, about 70km from Christchurch. This is an old Springfield house oozing with character.

I felt welcomed by hostel manager Colin, his wife and two children. Often treated to one of the better rooms, I was amazed at the levels of comfort offered to modern-day backpackers.


 
Day two dawned a tough one with Porters’ Pass providing a formidable obstacle. It is 84km to Arthur’s Pass, a strenuous day I have completed on several occasions. This time I planned to break the ride halfway at Flock Hill. That turned out to be a good choice once a strong wind blew up from the west.

Arthur’s Pass became a pleasant morning ride. I paused for coffee at the Bealey Hotel, put on the map in 1993 when its colourful proprietor, Paddy Freaney, claimed to have photographed a long-extinct moa. I did get to photograph a couple of moa pecking the grass against a magnificent backdrop. As realistic as they were, the moa were skilfully made from wire mesh.


 
YHA Arthur’s Pass manager offered a great welcome telling me bicycle travellers get a generous discount with YHA’s Low Carbon Traveller Discount. YHA Arthur’s Pass is a long-time favourite. I was delighted to see the quality of recent refurbishments.

An early start next morning had me heading to the 920m summit of Arthur’s Pass and down into Westland through the Otira Gorge. Descending the Gorge is a 16 per cent grade and I thought, ‘this is no place for heroics.’

All gloriously downhill to Jackson – 33km from my starting point – where I stopped for brunch in the famous Jackson’s hotel. Around mid-afternoon I could have stopped for the rest of the day and that night at Moana, about 60km into my ride, but the next day’s weather forecast was terrible. I needed to reach Greymouth before the weather deteriorated.

Pressing on after a Moana refreshment stop, I paused to phone YHA Greymouth Kainga-ra and book in. I arrived at the hostel five minutes before the rain bucketed down. I had pedalled 103km for the day.

Next morning I had a coffee in the main street. I sat opposite the newspaper building with its telling murals. One depicting the 1896 Brunner coal mine disaster was particularly poignant. A few weeks previously an explosion in the nearby Pike River mine had claimed 29 lives. Greymouth was mourning.

Roy Sinclair

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