Rainbow TrackDúhová cesta

The Rainbow Track is a mountain road over 100km long, crossing a mountain range on the northeastern side of New Zealand's South Island. It starts in the spa town of Hanmer Springs and, after 100km through wilderness without any human settlements, ends near the village of St. Arnaud.

On our bikes the whole route took us two full days, mainly because of the terrain (gravel at best, but genuinely huge rocks in places) and the weather.

We started on the morning of December 24th and pedaled uphill all day long. Worse than the climb, though, was the headwind, which gusted up to 100km/h - there were moments it literally knocked us sideways off the saddle. Under these conditions, covering 50km took us about 10 hours, meaning we were cycling at pretty much walking pace. At the highest point of the mountain pass, the road turned into what was practically a hiking trail, both in gradient and surface, so whether we liked it or not, we had to push our bikes.

On the other side, on the way down, Kika discovered her brake pads had worn down practically to bare metal, not helped by the very steep descent and rough terrain. Luckily, we soon found an abandoned mountain hut with mattresses and even a small stove.

That's where we spent Christmas Eve. Kika, fittingly, on smoked salmon, and me on buckwheat with an Indian curry. In the middle of the mountains, in a hut with a crackling fire in the stove, it really was a lovely Christmas - even without presents and without carp.

In the morning we set off again, telling ourselves it surely couldn't be worse than yesterday's wind. Naturally, we were proven very wrong. Not only did yesterday's headwind fail to let up, but after a short while of pedaling it decided to team up with a proper downpour. And if anyone ever tells you rain can only fall from above, send them to New Zealand. For us it rained all day from the front, and in places even from below.

It took us 7-8 hours to reach the campsite in St. Arnaud, which is quite a lot for a route of about 60km. The scenery was truly beautiful, but we don't have many photos since we spent the whole day battling the elements. Overall, the Rainbow Track was without a doubt the hardest part of our trip.

At the campsite we wrung out all our clothes and pitched the tent in the middle of the downpour. Luckily, our sleeping bags stayed dry inside their Ortlieb bags, and the tent - which a Kea parrot had chewed on a few days earlier - handled the rain better than we expected. We collapsed into our sleeping bags, completely worn out by New Zealand's elements.

In the morning we woke up as early as five to the sounds of New Zealand's birdlife. Their song is truly unusual to our ears - but judge for yourselves:

, and after yesterday's suffering in the rain, it felt to us like a sign of a sunny day to come.

We wrapped up the Rainbow Track leg by riding into the town of Nelson, where our next hike awaits - the Abel Tasman Trail.

For those of you who want to listen even more to the morning sounds of New Zealand's birdlife, you can download the full recording here, about 30 minutes long: