Arthur’ s Pass.
behind and they had a couple of days booked in Blackball, I don’ t know who booked their itinerary, but New Year in Haast and two nights in Blackball definitely got the‘ WTF’ award.
JANUARY 3 Rain. By this time the weather gods had played ball long enough, I’ d been lucky. Watching the forecast, it appeared to be better southward, and I decided that a few days back with the loved ones in Christchurch while the weather sorted itself out, was a great plan. Not so good, that southward idea. I avoided the worst of the approaching wet by heading back almost to Greymouth and then taking the inland roads towards Lake Brunner, and then joining the main highway just shy of Otira, and onto the glorious Arthurs Pass highway. I saw incredible skies with sun and billowing cumulus, priapic in the mountain air, on one side, and roiling black doom-cloud on the other. I scuttled up the road between opposing cloud-forms, hoping for the best. Buses, trucks and campers conspired to deny me a smooth run, and as I got higher, the temperature plummeted, the doomcloud swept in from the left, and the road at times almost disappeared. The helmet fog-and-rain-dance continued( as before on the Desert Road), and my waterproof gloves were drenched and freezing- with no heated grips to add some warmth. Over the Pass I was surprised not to see snow, and vis’ was down to metres, as the wind became another buffeting menace. Normally I love the roads down past Klondyke Corner and beyond, but today the closer I got to the plains, the more intense the wind and rain became. At Lake Ida, my helmet visor froze solid, and I was suddenly blind; very swift on the brakes while attempting to wrestle the bike to a stop and praying the road didn’ t veer off. I continued on, slower, blasted by rain, miserable, sopping wet, and bitterly cold inside
94 KIWI RIDER