Haast Pass Landslide

We were keen to get over the road closure and passed the landslide so we set off early this morning.

We left the house at 7am and it was icy cold ❄️

There was a snow gate and a queue just outside our hotel. The actual landslide was about 10kms away. We jumped the queue, pushed our bikes around the gate and cycled to the landslide.

We got there just in time, arriving at 7.55. They opened the road at 8am.

One of the workers explained we weren’t meant to be there, but I explained, if we hadn’t cycled there we would never make it for the opening. The road opened 8am, 12pm and 4.30pm.

They let us go.

For the first 20 miles or so we managed in the cold as we’re cycling up Haast Pass. We had to miss blue lakes as they were “no entry”, assumedly due to the landslide.

We cycled uphill which made the cold tolerable, but the downhill was cold, cold. Icy cold hands, numb feet and throbbing fingers. Every now and again we had to stop to shake them and try get blood back into our hands.

By 11am the sun was out and it was glorious. We ate lunch with a view but the flies were so annoying, they kept biting us so we quickly moved on.

Haast Pass was cold but it was also beautiful 😍