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26 Mar 2018
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Location: RTW, From Vancouver BC 2012
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You ride almost all the way back to the main road and there is a cut off for the Skippers Canyon road where the sign says “ Caution back country road, conditions vary, and vehicle damage possible.”
 Screen Shot 2018-02-27 at 22.45.41 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE0696 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE0697 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 w4WD-Skippers-Canyon-road-Start by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
This is the New Zealand road where rental car insurance is not honored, Skippers Road’s 16.5 km is mostly one-way, narrow and steep with sheer drops of several hundred metres.
 NZ South Isand-90 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-91 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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26 Mar 2018
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The surface is good gravel for most of the way the last 5 km is dirt and would be challenging after wet weather. The first 5 km the road is steep and narrow and we were happy to only run into 1 vehicle. We were lucky the rest of the way as we did encounter 2 others, but never is a one lane section.
 NZ South Isand-78 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE0736 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE0766 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE0777 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE0796 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE0809 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE0816 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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26 Mar 2018
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The road ends at the cemetery about 2 km past the bridge.
 NZ South Isand-86 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE0814 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-82 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-84 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-85 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-83 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
On the way out we did have to wait as we saw a truck coming down a long winding 1 lane section. The mid section of the road runs along the river. 2 km from the end is the Skipper’s bridge. The road ends at a car park where you can access back country hikes and there is a historic cemetery. All in all we had 3 days to catch up on email and blog, photos, and uploading, as well as read and relax. We also did a bit of maintenance and cleaned and polished the boots and seats, washed the suits, and repainted some of the rusty metal on the light protectors and mounts for the accessory lights.
 NZ South Isand-89 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-88 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-81 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Skippers Canyon Video!!!
https://youtu.be/cqc-1zApZl0
Last edited by saralou; 13 May 2018 at 10:47.
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6 Apr 2018
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We rode back to Wanaka and parked on the sidewalk and walked over to Vodaphone to get more data. We have used our 8 G because the wifi is so bad here we have used the phone to tether and uploading photos has burned thru it. Then we went over to Relish recommended by our friend foodie Mark from Hong Kong. After I set up the phone I got a message from Ellen of Twomotokiwi “I see you are in town where are you?” Apparently she had seen us ride by and was running down the road after us. She found the bikes parked, but could not find us. Great reunion.
 IMG_2115 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We had been communicating with them on line since 2010. They left NZ and started in Alaska. We passed each other on a rainy cold day near the end of the first week of the trip at the end of June 2012. They leaving and us going to Dawson City. Both of us decided not to turn and chase the others down as we would certainly see each other again soon. Flash forward to October 2013. They are in Colombia and need parts for the KTM. We have been home working since May and happen to have a KTM parts dealer nearby. We are shipping our bikes from Panama where we left them in April to Bogota. This is where we finally met. We also traveled together after the Moto GP in Rio Hondo Argentina in April 2014. We arrived chez Dellis and had a great evening talking about our trips, what reentry is like, and future plans. Much wine and great food was enjoyed.
 IMG_2113 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-92 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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6 Apr 2018
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We see from the forecast that it will actually be sunny in the next few days in the Milford sound area and so we will book it over there. Today we are headed back over the Crowne Range road (5 degrees at the summit) and back thru Queenstown and down the 6 past Garston 171 km to the village of Mossburn. It was 8-10 degrees and windy most of the day and we had to stop on the lake to add layers before we could eat our picnic lunch.
 Screen Shot 2018-03-15 at 15.58.31 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2117 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-93 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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6 Apr 2018
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We arrived to the literally one horse town with a unmanned self pay gas pump, 2 coffee shops, a take away, and a hotel. We booked in here even thought it is 170 km from Milford, because it is only 10 dollars more a night than camping is in Te Anau the closest town to the sound and 53 km from here.
This way we can unload the gear and not worry about it as well. The Railway hotel is old school with single beds and shared bathrooms, but it is clean warm and comfy. We had dinner in the hotel bar and ran into a couple from Oregon that we had talked to on the Skippers road last week. They like almost everyone , but us is headed to the Burt Monroe Rally in Invercargill this weekend. They had also just today gone up the Mavora Lakes road that we plan to do the day after tomorrow and they said it was great!
 NZ South Isand-94 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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9 Apr 2018
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When you are about 60 km from Milford the park gets more fjord like with tall snow capped mountains and impressive vistas.
 Frame-10-02-2018-17-35-49 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Frame-10-02-2018-17-36-42 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
About 30 km from the end of the road we did a 34 km in/out dirt road to the lower Hollyford and walked 10 min in to see the falls.
 Frame-10-02-2018-17-43-22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-109 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-110 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2125 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Frame-10-02-2018-17-46-05 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-95 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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9 Apr 2018
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About 5 km later you are stopped at a light for the one way alternating tunnel. This is a bit creepy and it is one lane, dark, and dripping from the ceiling in this bored out passage.
 Frame-10-02-2018-17-46-28 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Frame-10-02-2018-17-46-52 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
It lets you out at the top of some switch backs about 15 km from the dock. We had to do some fancy passing to get to the parking, get our gear and walk 500 m to the dock with 5 min to spare before the catamaran sailed. It was a 2 hour cruise up and down the ford and just out into the Tasmin sea.
 NZ South Isand-97 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2131 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2133 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-106 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-105 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-104 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-102 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-103 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-101 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-100 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-108 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-107 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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9 Apr 2018
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We made it back to the bikes by 330 and then headed south. We stopped and did the short hike up to the chasms, that is a narrow gorge which a raging river has carved out. There was much less traffic on the ride back and it had warmed up to 22.
 Frame-10-02-2018-17-48-48 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We stayed in Te Anau to get some dinner and then had what seems a very long 53 km ride back to Mossburn. Bagged we hit the hay before 10.
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9 Apr 2018
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Contributing Member
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The weather is holding out and the plan today is to ride up to the Mavora lakes and then continue on the Mt Nicholas road, which ends at the Mt Nicholas Station.
 Screen Shot 2018-02-09 at 23.51.40 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
There is a ferry dock here for the Catamaran and we had booked passage for the bikes and us back across the lake to Queenstown on the last sailing at 4.
 FILE0894 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
The road is a very good gravel road 41 km to the lake turn off.
 FILE0911 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE0914 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE0919 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Here the road continues at time thru dense forest and along the lakes.
 FILE0938 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE0957 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-111 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE0966 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE0980 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2147 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-112 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-113 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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9 Apr 2018
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We made it in plenty of time and even rode to the steamship dock another 12 km farther on in Walter Peak. We could not get a guarantee from them earlier this week for a booking as using the ramp to load the boat is dependent on the lake level and it has been too low. Despite that they did say it would have been high enough today, but the entry is much more challenging and the boat much more crowded than the catamaran.
 FILE1146 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE1162 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 NZ South Isand-118 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE1172 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE1176 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE1184 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE1200 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2153 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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