On the banks of the Whataroa River
Yup, I'm on a different river. Ya just never know what a day will bring and that's sure true on the road. Got up fairly early, totally perplexed about what to do. Got no answers in my sleep. Couldn't just lie in my bag. Tired of not moving, not going someplace. Needed a plan. Got packed up and headed back up this rocky road I had come down. It was a chilly morning and I had 2 small creeks to cross. Maybe Blaze will just go right through them and I won't have to get off and push. The first one yes...but not the second. Brrr, that water's cold. Refreshing way to begin the day! Further up the lane I see a guy in a truck. So what's the story! Gonna be Tuesday, optimistically. (Or longer, I'm thinking.). Then he mentions that copters have been giving lifts over the river at 5:00 for $50 NZ. ($40 US). Fair deal, I think. Ya, they'll sling your bike underneath. OMG! Is that safe, I think. Good to know. Now more to ponder. How the hell will they sling this top-heavy loaded bike under a helicopter and land it on the other side and not damage it? I feel incapable of making this decision. Blaze is just too valuable to take these kind of chances. I'll hitch back to a town and either stay thee til the bridge opens or hitch to the top of the pass leading to the other coast...and who knows where I'll end up. Not optimal. But beats sitting here. Wish I had someone to bounce ideas off of. Bruce. My buddy. Maybe he can help me think about this. And I have service. Yippee. He says Go For It! They know what they're doing. It'll be fine. Ok. Deep breath. Ok. Lets go back down to the river and see who's there. Who's that coming down the road? Ben and Laura. We're gonna try to get a copter lift. Me too! Lets go get on the noon flight!! So down we go. Look there's a laundry truck and a copter picking up bags of laundry. Can you take us and our bikes over? Sure $50. Deal. But how's this going to work? Oh we'll put bags of linen in the bottom of the rope netting bag and stack your bikes on it. Sure. Is thus gonna work? Guess we'll find out! Ok. All loaded. OMG! The load is unbalanced! The bikes are tumbling! Everything is all jumbled! How will he drop that down without damaging our bikes?
We're all white as sheets standing there watching our prized possessions...our only possessions...get dangled from the bottom of a helicopter and flown across a river! Only in the movies! What will we find when we get over? Now our turn. A helicopter ride! Yippee! OMG it's lifting off! This is fabulous! I took a video. What a view from up there. In my next life I want to be a copter pilot. Yup!
There are our bikes. They've taken them out of the bag. Nothing major looks wrong. Laura's has a rear fender issue that got resolved. Ben's gear bag got ripped. And one of my mirrors broke off. Not bad considering what we thought was happening. Not bad at all. What a crazy exciting day! One of the many highlights I'm having down here:)))
So we cycled into the small village of Hari Hari for a celebratory lunch. Fish and chips! Yum. We high fived! We clicked bottles! We were pretty ecstatic! We're on the other side! We made it!! Time to pedal to the glaciers. And so we did. But not together. I'm too slow to bike with others but that's okay. They don't need me around and I like my alone time too. But it was fun having others to share that copter ride with.
So tonight I'm camped by another river at a Glacial Flights place. With the view of the snow capped mountains behind me. And a quickly glowing river in front. Idyllic. And a yummy dinner. "Mommy salad" my daughter, Dana, calls it. It's when I just put everything I have on hand into the mix. Tonight it was: red pepper, cucumber, tuna fish, apple, nuts and dried fruit, raw broccoli, garlic, cheese, mayo ('cause I lost my olive oil bottle...maybe it fell out) and vinegar. Oh ya! Delish! On a hard roll. To die for! And Nutella for dessert. Does it get any better?
WHAT A DAY!!!!!!!!!! Whodathunk????
Bubbling BagLady
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