Sharon’s Blog

Started our ride at one end of Lake Hawea on Monday AM. Yet another Lake Tahoe…just on the other side of the hills from Lake Wanaka. It was incredibly windy, and we started straight up a hill. Then it was nice and rolling for quite some time with spectacular views all the way. Have gotten used to riding on the left hand side of the road, BTW. Did I tell you they have their brakes backwards on the bikes here? They switched ‘em for me before we started so I wouldn’t go flying over the handlbars on a downhill. I am making peace with this bike – can shift the gears without dropping the chain now and am getting used to it feeling so HUGE, but I still miss my bike. Malcolm had me chanting “I love my bike, I love my bike” before we left and I suppose it helped.

We rode for what seemed like forever, but was probably only about six or seven miles – the wind was brutal. Then there was this biggish hill (by Sharon standards) that Jenny talked me into trying. I was about 2/3rds of the way up, could barely breathe anymore, but thought I was going to make it. Then this giant tour bus blew by me. There really isn’t any shoulder here, so it scared the hell out of me. He gave me enough room, but I was huffing and puffing and being blown so much by the headwind, I didn’t really know he was there until he was right next to me. So my heart rate, already pretty maxed out, went through the roof because of the panic. I made it another little ways, but hopped off before I could quite make it. My legs were like jelly…

Then it was pedaling downhill into the wind from the lookout. Met a nice guy from Texas up there who thought we were nuts riding in that wind. But the scenery was worth it. At one point, it didn’t look real, but more like a computer graphics generated movie. It’s all so crisp and perfect. The pictures won’t do it justice. Dave, Helen and I were behind the other three and rode almost all the way to the turnoff to Kids Bush – through more rolling hills all the way there. When we pulled into Kids Bush, the others were nowhere to be found…they missed the part about waiting at the turn off. We had to drive all the way in to the campground several miles down a dirt road to find them. Got to see lost of cows and sheep, and get vistas of the lake going back the other way we wouldn’t have otherwise, though.

There’s a great road sign here…just a giant exclamation point. Encounted my first one on the road to Kids Bush. It was to mark where you might run into a giant water runoff from the mountains that would drag your car down into the lake. Was dry when we went by, but you could see how serious it might be during the snowmelt. My question is, how do the cows and sheep know when to get out of the way, though?