Lower Land Snooping

Leg #1 - Karamea to Fox

The trip from Karamea and through Haast Pass was long and wet. I split the trip over two days parking up in a motel for the night at Fox as the West Coast rain was unrelenting. The rain continued the next morning with Haast Pass feeling more like a bath than a ride.

Reference Link : SH6 - West Coast

Leg #2 - Fox to Gore

As I neared Cromwell however for the first time in two days the sun came out which was a most welcomed sight.

Leg #3 - local GPS logging

Basing myself in Gore, numerous routes were GPS logged around the area over a week period. Lots of interesting new routes were ridden.

Reference Link : Chaslands Highway

Lost Gypsy Gallery

This place is crazy cool. A talented electrical engineer with one hell of an imagination has created a garden of contraptions to walk through, look at and interact with. It costs a mere $5 and is totally worth every cent

Reference Link : Lost Gypsy Gallery

This is the inside of his workshop/bus. This is also filled with odd and unusual things and is free for a looksee

Reference Link : Lost Gypsy Gallery

Leg #4 - Gore to the Landsborough River

After a successful few days of GPS logging it was off to view the Landsborough River. With so little information about this river available I thought I'd see first-hand if this was a river worth fishing. The route there was Southland back-roads then through Haast Pass

Reference Link : Moa Flat Road

Reference Link : Moa Flat Road

This was an immaculately tidy Impala

Stopping for lunch at the Tin Goose

Reference Link : Tin Goose Cafe

Not too many of these around

Reference Link : SH6 - Haast Pass

Reference Link : SH6 - Haast Pass

Reference Link : Landsborough Track

Reference Link : Landsborough Track

The route up to the Landsborough was not easy going in places, some sections had been washed out and were boldery screes rather than tracks. In this photo I had to take a detour around a washout, underneath was soft sand and decomposing slippery logs of which the bike quickly dropped into; and deep.

It proved to be one heck of a wrestling match pulling it back out only to sink even deeper moving just 1 foot further. With much sweat and at a few flavourful words =) I managed to get away again and set up camp

After living on the West Coast for two years and spending a lot of time in the back country flyfishing, I'm fairly well accustomed to sandflies in high numbers but this place was insane!

Pop your hand outside the tent for just a few seconds and your hand is crawling with the little buggers!

The recent rain had bought river levels up with both accessibility and clarity no good for flyfishing. So the next morning I meandered out in search of clear running rivers

Reference Link : SH6 - Haast Pass

Reference Link : SH6 - Haast Pass

Stopping in at the Hard Antler for brunch

Reference Link : Hard Antler Bar & Restaurant

Reference Link : Hard Antler Bar & Restaurant

A good feed to fill the belly for a day of riding

An old Indian outside Johnson Motors

Heading up Haast-Jackson Bay Road

Reference Link : Haast-Jackson Bay Road

Arawhata River Bridge

Stopping and at the Cray Pot for a good coffee

Reference Link : Cray Pot

After the coffee I had a look down Neils Beach Road

Reference Link : Neils Beach Road

It was then onto Jackson River Road which was magic

Reference Link : Jackson River Road

With all the looking around the day was soon disappearing but I'd managed to scope out a few interesting looking tributaries to fish the following day. After a quick chat with the owner of this boat it was off to get a good nights sleep and get the fishing gear ready

Next day, rod in hand

The next day starting off with cracker weather and clear running water. Just riding along the road I managed to spot a few reasonable size brown trout from the seat of my bike, this was promising. My plan however was to go much further up and fish some smaller and more remote tributaries. I was unsure if these smaller streams I had lined up held any fish but they were certainly visually inviting.

One of the fish sitting up behind a rock

Parking up the bike and heading off on foot

The majority of the day was spent covering a lot of ground up small streams however it appeared I had walked past the point of which the fish reside. Although no fish were seen or caught it was a magic walk through some pretty stunning native bush

I poked my nose up this walking track for a quick looksee on the way back to the motel.

I literally couldn't stop myself and ended up walking right to the very end to the lookout over Lake Ellery

Reference Link : Lake Ellery Walking Track

On my return back to the bike and back to the motel this fairly decent sized fellow held its ground right in the middle of the walking track

Leg #5 Haast to Ross

Departing the motel the weather could not have been any better for a ride

Reference Link : SH6 - West Coast

Reference Link : Whakapohai River Mouth Track

Reference Link : Whakapohai River Mouth Track

I decided to stop for brunch at the Salmon Farm Cafe

Reference Link : Salmon Farm Cafe

Reference Link : Salmon Farm Cafe

This this was the best meal I had the whole trip, super yummy

Reference Link : Lake Paringa Campsite

After brunch is was a casual cruse up the coast checking out numerous side roads along the way

Reference Link : Forks Okarito Road

Some of the more remote tracks had some trees down and required some sawing to get by

Reference Link : Okarito - Tai Poutini NP Track

Up near the Saltwater Lagoon Track there were hundreds of spiders erecting their rel estate over the native trees

Tell us how you really think!

The day's end point was Ross Motels. I always enjoy staying here, not the most modern or flash motel but super friendly hosts

Leg #6 - Ross to Karamea

Today was a return to home leg kicked off with a big breakfast at the Roddy Nugget

Reference Link : Roddy Nugget Cafe and Bar

Not too many pics were taken that day, I enjoyed the ride and scenery too much and rolled in the door late afternoon winding up a successful GPS logging trip

Lower Land Snooping

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