Days 1 and 2 - Over The Ditch Again. Wee Tiki Tour 2015

Sunday 

     After last years success it has finally arrived, time to set off upon the highly anticipated Wee Tiki Tour of 2015. An early start for Andrew and I, leaving home at 4.30am with our new bike bags jostled and wiggled into the one configuration that would see them fit in the back of the Subaru.

     We were not the only ones taking the early flight and met Richard, Sue and John at the airport (Jane was catching the late night flight)

     We were greeted at the airport by Julian, Kay, Kees and Julie. Richard headed off with Kees and Julie to stay at their good friends Alan and Barbs place. John, Sue, Andrew and I enjoyed Julian and Kays wonderful hospitality. We arrived with plenty of time to put our bikes together, the bikes fared well but not perfectly with Andrews bike arriving with a broken spoke and due to an overly enthusiastic quarantine officer who tore John and Sue bikes out of their bags at Christchurch airport a spacer/dust cover was lost off Sues bike. 

Monday 

     First stop of the day was a variety of the local bike shops to source new spokes for Andrew and the dust cover/spacer for Sue. The dust cover/spacer turned out to be quite a challenge as it's not a 'part', luckily a Giant supplier was found who took the piece off a new bike (after Giant confirmed that they could send him another one) - crisis averted. 

Andrew and I hung out in the bike shop while a spoke was made and fitted, turns out they were unicycle retailers, this made it much easier to keep Andrew occupied and out of trouble, much to the entertainment of the staff and Wee Tiki Tourers

1st ride of the tour was a quick 20km spin around Bottle Lake Forest which is on the eastern side of the city and offers a variety of non-technical flat flowing track 

Wee Tiki Tour 2015 about to take off

The first 5km offered ocean views as it meandered through the coastal dunes

Sue and John doing some stairs practice

After the coastal dunes the tracks took us into large areas of pine forest 

Even the recently harvested areas of pine forest proved a good spot for a break and  some blackberry picking

Some pretty cool bikers out on the tracks

1st fungi encounter of the tour is a beauty

After lunch at the Beach Cafe we had just enough time for a 16km ride around McLeans Island Bike Park. A smooth fast loop through forests, stock pastures and river banks, once again flat and non-technical

 Kilometers of  flat flowing tracks

 Enjoying the berms

Dinner was a BBQ at Julian and Kays. Kay is presented the crown for her fabulous catering and wonderful hospitality. Tour leader, Madam Julie runs us through the itinerary and we set the tone for the nightly itinerary meetings as being quiet, attentive and respectful...kind of...well...not at all.

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Day 3 - Craigieburn's a cracker

 Tuesday

At Julian and Kays house we started the day with a hardy cooked breakfast which we would need to fuel us on the upcoming Craigieburn ride.

 The cars were packed up and after Madam Julie approved our seat selections and told us that we were going to have to rotate during the trip we headed towards Arthurs Pass to Flock Hill Station










             The Craigieburn ride is a spectacular 24kms of Adventure riding

It started with a solid 8km uphill ride on the Craigieburn ski-field road

Up hill is almost done

At the top, the awesome single track started, technical with shingle scree, tree roots and the odd drop off or three

Heading out across the 1st scree slope

Andrew is the expert at finding a comfy spot for a break

 More scree slopes to be traversed

 Some sections of track were pretty tricky

"Were there any accidents?" I hear you ask, well yes, yes there were a few (all boys) but one in particular was spectacular . A member of the Tourers who will remain anonymous managed, while walking on the inside of the track, to throw himself over the top of his bike and then throw his bike over himself and repeated this until he fetched up against a tree a good ten meters down slope in a rocky gully. Amazingly there was no damage to either the tree, the bike or the Wee Tiki Tourer.

A bit more uphill

Madam Julie has a slow leak, Andrew is there to lend a helping hand

Phil the Tours official mechanic is on hand for track side adjustments

High point of the ride

Sue and Jan took the walking trail and met us for lunch

Jan and Sue on their way down to meet us for lunch

Lunch stop part way up the Helicopter Hill track

Andrew and Phil took their bikes up to the lunch spot so they could ride them back down

Time for the downhill, The Luge

Pretty happy bunch after an exhilarating downhill, I didn't enjoy the down hill quite as much as I got bitten on the ankle by a wasp at the very beginning of the down hill 

Jane enjoying her new ride

Sidle 73 - great little track back to Flock Hill Station

Lots of switchbacks

Clearing the creek crossing

Some of NZs Magical Fungi

Rolling back into Flock Hill Station

Kees fools me into pumping up Julies tyre

Some great accommodation at Flock Hill

These two cottages were our accommodations for the night, there was a bit of confusion initially when Madam Julie told us there was to be sex in each cottage..a moment of stunned silent followed as the Aussies looked nervously around until someone called out   " six, she means six!"

Football? Yoga? Help getting his G-Forms on? I've no idea but it looks like fun!

View from the cottages

A bumble bee hard at work

Relaxing after a big day

Madam Julie perusing maps...might be a change to the itinerary

Sues Yoga classes

Catered for ourselves tonight with salad, roast potatoes, beans and the most wonderful smoked salmon

Kees receives the sacred Tiki for the rescue of the Tourer who tumbled off the track, Julie is presented with the crown for an incident involving the creek, nough said (what goes on tour stays on tour)

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