Do you have a taste for adventure? Charlie and Ruth sure do. Last year they hopped on their MeloYelo ebikes and rode over 1,300kms from Tasman to Bluff! Their inspiring story was an easy choice as one of the winners of our recent customer story competition.
Read on to hear, in their words, exactly how they did it. Who knows, it might spur you to head off on your own epic adventure!
EXPLORING NZ CYCLE TRAILS IN OUR RETIREMENT
Since retiring we have cycled using push bikes a few of the NZ cycle trails, particularly the local Tasman Taste trails and we think it is fantastic that so many retirees are taking up cycling which many would not be able to do without an ebike.
MAKING THE SHIFT TO EBIKES
Now in our early 70’s my wife started investigating e-bikes that would cope with trails and MeloYelo ebikes ticked all the boxes and included accessories which on other brands often come separately. So, Ruth went for a Tranzit. With the roles reversed and me now saying “Wait for me!”, it wasn’t long before I put my order in for a MeloYelo bike. I went for an Ascent in case I wanted to ride more challenging tracks.
Ruth on her MeloYelo Tranzit
So, with our MeloYelo bikes arrived and checking out the km range of the bikes we looked for an adventurous multi day ride. And what could be more adventurous than cycling from home (near Mapua, Tasman) down the South Island to Bluff on an ebike?
PLANNING THE ADVENTURE
The plan was to follow the route of the South Island Tour Aotearoa, which headed for the West Coast to Queenstown and then on to Southland and Bluff. It followed a mix of cycle track and road and took in at least 2 established cycle trails, the West Coast Wilderness trail and Around the Mountains trail from Walter Peak station on Lake Wakatipu.
This needed a fair bit of planning to judge battery range, distance, and available accommodation with power for charging bike batteries. Of course, needing power meant a solid roof over our heads, which pleased my wife as it ruled out camping! And it pleased me because we already had full pannier bags and didn’t need the extra weight of tents and sleeping bags.
It did mean though, that all accommodation had to be booked beforehand which was risky, because it was all or nothing and if we had serious bike problems or sickness the remaining accommodation would need to be abandoned.
EXTENDING OUR RANGE
We planned, by using an excellent guidebook (by the Kennet brothers) with distances, elevation graphs and suggestions for accommodation, food etc. and this helped us to see when we needed assist and when we could ride in zero. In this way we extended our range to 100kms on 3 out of the 17 cycle days. and 8 days 80kms or more. With careful monitoring we never ran out of ‘juice’ which was quite an achievement and credit to MeloYelo batteries. It also allowed us to plan and book places to stay even though we had to modify the distances given for the push bike cyclists who would regularly cycle 100kms+ /day.
SETTING OFF
Early on the 2nd of January 2023 with full panniers of food, clothes and spares, we got into the saddle and set off down the back roads for our 70km ride towards our first night’s stop in Tapawera and our ultimate goal of Bluff.
Charlie on his MeloYelo Ascent at Spooner’s Tunnel
A 1,300KM ADVENTURE
We stayed at 17 places, took 20 days, and cycled over 1300kms.
(Tapawera, Gowan Valley (nr Lake Rotoroa), Murchison,
Maruia, Reefton, Greymouth, Hokitika (via Wilderness trail), Harí hari, Franz Joseph,
Paringa (Pine grove lodge), Haast, Makarora, Wanaka, Cardrona hotel, Queenstown, Mossburn (via Round the Mountains) Invercargill)
We had a couple rest days both in Greymouth and Wanaka which allowed us to catch our breath and sort out washing and supplies.
ANY HITCHES?
Fortunately, we had no major hitches and the bikes performed well. Local bike shops in Hokitika and Wanaka were very accommodating in making room for us in their busy day and giving our gears a ‘tune up’.
We were fortunate to have only one puncture, just outside of Greymouth and I had to call out the AA (which will now attend bikes!) as I had no spanner for the rear wheels but with the spare inner tube fitted we were soon on our way (and I now carry a ring spanner!).
MEMORABLE HIGHLIGHTS
Cycling through the long Spooner’s tunnel on our way to Tapawera.
Wilderness trail with river valleys and of course the Cowboy’s Paradise.
Magic of the West Coast, and no rain!
Getting to the top of Haast without a sweat
Good rest up in Wanaka
Ah the Crown range, done and dusted at 1076 metres (needed to stay at Cardrona hotel to recharge before the big one!)
Rarely seen views of Lake Wakatipu on Around the Mountains track.
Finished. Great feeling to get to Sterling point Bluff.
The excitement was building as we cycled through Southland and on the last day coming into Bluffs Sterling Point, we had achieved our goal and we were ecstatic and relieved which can be seen on our faces and the MeloYelo ebikes did us proud.
“I did this!” Ruth at the Haast Pass summit.
SPECIAL THANKS TO
- Graeme McLeod (MeloYelo Invercargill agent) kindly allowed us to dismantle and pack our bikes in his garage ready to be collected by Mainfreight and we flew back to Nelson a tad quicker than our outward journey.
- David Morrison-Jones (MeloYelo Nelson agent) for technical support
- Ross and Jillian McLay for backup & keeping in touch with our Puffing or Bluffing blog.
- Mike Watson of Nelson giving our bike a ‘makeover’ when we got back home.
