The next phase of my adventure was a mountain bike ride at Welcome Rock. In my searching around for stuff to do I had come across Welcome Rock which is a private station which has built some huts and a 30 km MTB trail. You can rent the huts and ride the trail for about $150/nt. For $46 you can just ride the trail as well. They will shuttle your bags to the hut as well, but the cost some coin, so I decided I would just ride my stuff in…being cheap and all.

It was in a great location for me as it was then only 1.5 hrs to Kepler trailhead.

I booked the Slate Hut for two nights; I figured I would drive down from Kitt Bush and spend the night. Then the next day I would do the ride and just hang out there. I was hoping for a clear night so I might be able to do some astrophotography. The location is about an hour south of Queenston just outside of Garston. You turn up Nevis Rd. and continue to the historic Garston Ski Hut.

I stopped in Wanaka for a cup of coffee, which was really good, and to recombulate the gear from hiking to biking. Plus I needed to kill a bit of time so I didn’t get there before check in time.

As I drove the south, the clouds really started to build up and it was definitely looking like rain. I was hoping to get there before the skies really opened up and I had to ride there in a torrential down pour. I turned up Nevis Rd for the 7 km climb up to Garston hut. Nevis Rd is used a lot by bike-packers and is supposed to be an amazing ride from Cromwell to Garston…and beyond if you are crazy.

The road is a gravel road and pretty steep, but generally in good shape. You can definitely get a regular car up to Garston hut, but I couldn’t vouch for anything after that. I was glad to have the Ute.

At the Garston hut, I repacked my things to take with me to the Slate hut. It was not raining yet, but you couldn’t see much other than clouds. After futzing around trying to decide what to bring, I did settle on my camera with the hopes of getting some astrophotography the following night. I wasn’t very judicious, so the pack was heavy. I thought the ride was going to be pretty flat.

Turns out, it wasn’t all that flat and was a bit tricky to navigate with a big heavy pack on my back. About 1 km into the ride, the fog moved in and it was absolutely pea soup. I couldn’t see a thing. I kept going and was getting a bit crabby with the experience as now it was raining and I was sure I should be at the hut. I crossed and road and saw two hikers a little further down. I had to traverse and tricky rocky section and then finally got a glimpse of the hut. I got there around 1:30 pm.

I piled into the hut and settled in. It was basic but pretty nice. There was a room with two bunk beds and then a fold down Murphy bed in the main room. I moved the table out of the way and used the Murphy bed so I could stare out the window at the pea soup.

It was pretty cold in the morning and still drizzly, so I lounged around waiting for the weather to clear and warm up. I had all day, so there was no hurry getting out on the trail. Finally around 10 am it cleared a bit and being bored out of my skull I decided to give it a go.

The trail, in general, is pretty easy riding. It is a bit overgrown and a bit rutted in places making pedaling a bit tough. It didn’t help that I decided to put my flats on instead of my SPDs as they are quite a bit wider. That and I kept smashing them into my shins because I forgot how wide they are in comparison. Ouchy.

I rode like a grandpa as I hadn’t done much MTB lately and being out there by myself I really didn’t feel like doing a big digger. After dropping down the valley, you climb back up to an old water race and mining area. The trails follows along the water race until you intersect Nevis Rd. The only incident I had on the ride was getting stabbed by the spear grass a few times. Felt like I was back in Phoenix riding.

The climb up Nevis Rd. wasn’t particularly hard and provided some good views along the way. I dropped down to Garston Ski Hut and swapped my small camelback for my regular day pack so it would be easier riding my gear back in the morning. The ride back to the hut made me realize why I was crabby carrying a big pack. It was definitely a pretty good climb.

The hut has a wood fired bath tub, so I decided to give it a go. It took forever to heat up (3 hrs plus). While I was just waiting around for the tub, it occurred to me to check the DOC website to see if, by some small chance, a slot had opened up in the Iris Burn hut on the Kepler Track. I really wasn’t looking forward to camping there as the reports were that the sandflies were pretty bad. When I looked, there was one slot open in the hut! Whoohoo! I snagged it. I guess it was good the tub took so long.