This is the start, in Greymouth, next to the Grey River

I bought some pannier bags and a carrier recently and this is my first ever multi day bicycle trip

The weather forecast showed 4 consecutive days of decent weather and indeed the weather today is awesome, as is that Suzuki Jimny just to my left in the photo, the bicycle carrier I bought recently performed as expected

There are some nice buildings in Greymouth, this is the Speight’s Ale House

The Greymouth Clock Tower

Old relics of mining (?) along Richmond Quay

Boats in Sawyer’s Creek

Yes, Rachel is here too! She was keen to do the trail as well, we have just left Greymouth and are now heading south

Greymouth’s airfield, plenty of space for landing out with a glider

And we continue, the track is easy to ride

Crossing the Taramakau River

Looking right

The train bridge going over the river

The Taramakau River

Shortly after crossing the river and at the beginning of the Greymouth Kumara Tramway we see this cute garden

A selfie

An absolutely wonderful part of the trail goes through this forest, towards Kumara

I mean, this is beautiful, innit?

Another bridge

We are getting higher now

And not long past Kumara we reach the Kapitea Reservoir

Where we call it a day after over 41 km of cycling and pitch the tent

And Rachel heats up a meal

And I filter some water from the reservoir to drink and do dishes with, after that it’s off to bed, tired, need a good sleep!

It’s still cold and there’s a lot still mist in the valley

I sent up the drone for some aerial shots, the Moonlight Pack Track is basically following the Moonlight Creek up until the ridge (Paparoa Range) in the distance

The mist is slowly dissipating here

Not so much lower in the valley though

Me, my beloved little tent and Jimny and one other dude still sleeping in his car

A cute scarecrow like figure made from tools like shovels that were found in this area

Close-up

Close to where the McCarthy Creek and Garden Creek meet

I’m in Brunner now, well known for its mine, and the mine disaster here in 1896

I’m lucky with the weather, at least so far, grey skies and rain are forecast

Anyway, this is basically what’s left of the gold mining here in Brunner

I especially like the bridge over the Grey River

There’s some short track here of which I forgot the name, this is part of the track, I’m wonder where it will take me

Ah, not far, the track has collapsed only 5 minutes in

I’ll do the Brunner Mine Site Walk instead, a loop track, these are the Beehive Coke Ovens

They had these special dome shaped ovens that allowed for very high temperatures, which was good for the coke, or something, I don’t remember all the details I read on the signs

There used to be a lot of these ovens here, all in series with each other for added effect, most of them gone now

The bridge, clearly in the old days a train was able to cross the river here

Wagon used to transport the coal (coke?), Tyneside Chimney in the back

Tyneside Chimney

View towards the ovens where I was before

Here, a map, that’ll make it easier

Old engine parts just lying about the place

I’m always amazed they were able to build bridges like this so long ago, I wouldn’t even know where to begin making those wires

Lots of triangles

10 of these wires is enough to keep the bridge up

Sad stories at the Brunner Mine Disaster Memorial

After my visit to Brunner I went to Rununga, there is a walk to some waterfall here

Some interesting trees and also a very pungent smell in this area, sulphur I think

The Coal Creek Falls from above

This is about as close as I can get to the falls, they’re better than I expected

The hike back, it’s less sunny now, must be that predicted cloud coming in

On my way back to Christchurch, I stop in the little village of Kumara for some photos

This would probably still sell for a fortune here in NZ

Rockfall shelter seen from Candy’s Bend

Otira Viaduct

Looking the other direction (south) towards Arthur’s Pass

Near Paddy’s Bend, looking east over the Waimakariri River towards the Black Range and beyond where I often fly

Craigieburn Range, looking south

Looking back to where I came from, what a beautiful area this is! I normally only see this area from high above, I forgot how nice it is to actually drive here and look at those massive mountains from ground level

Near Porters Pass, lots of low cloud in here, thanks to the Easterly, Mt Torlesse in the distance, now only the rather boring drive back to Christchurch remains, it was a good little trip though, enjoyed it a lot!