30 Photos

2021-11-25T16:06:28.000Z • Murchison, New Zealand / Aotearoa

Kahurangi 500

A 500km loop around the Kahurangi National Park, taking in some of NZ's finest mountain biking. It's more of a challenge than a race, with the goal being to ride it in three days. It took every last bit of willpower I had.

Eileen Schwab

Bike

Day 1: Murchison – Karamea

I distinctly recall first hearing about the Kahurangi 500 challenge from our friends Mark and Hana a few years ago. That shit is crazy, I thought. At the time I laughed off the thought of giving it a nudge as entirely preposterous, and thought a week-long trip seemed far more reasonable.

So, here we were a few years later, 5am in the morning at the Murchison Holiday Park, alongside Mark and Hana, about to set off for a quick lap. It's funny how things escalated.

Hana, Mark and Andy ready to roll

Andy led the pack to Lyell and the beginning of the Old Ghost Road at a pretty swift pace. From there we split apart – Andy and I were riding together, but Mark and Hana were each riding on their own. We were all using this as a training ride for the 2022 Tour Te Waipounamu (even more preposterous). We stopped to sort snacks and insect repellant, and Mark took off up the climb, and that was the last we saw of him on the ride. We would cross paths and ride with Hana plenty of times over the next few days.

Climbing to the tops

Snaps were hastily taken, but we were on a bit of a mission to get to Seddonville and as close to the Heaphy Track as we could. All was going smoothly until the fast descent, where I hit the ground after my front wheel washed out in the soft dirt on the side of the trail. Hana caught us as Andy was patching up a gash on my forearm and we leapfrogged through to Seddonville.

I'd ummed and ahhed about taking aero bars on this ride and landed on using just the pads without the bars. I thought it was a reasonable solution for the combination of terrain, which was largely either mountain biking or fairly smooth roads. Unfortunately, I now found myself unable to lean on my forearm, so I just had to carry the dead weight around.

Ridgeline and Ghost Lake Hut views

Andy tackling the infamous stairs after Skyline Ridge, and the views from the Boneyard

Mōkihinui River on the Old Ghost

We had a reset, greasy feast of fish and chips at the pub and continued on the road to Karamea. Andy realised the error of his fish and chip hoovering ways on the next climb, having over-stuffed himself and needing to grovel uphill feeling very ill.

We rolled into Karamea and the pub in time for dinner and intended to carry on to the start of the Heaphy, but Hana easily convinced us a shower and bed for the night and an earlier start was the way to go. I had the most disappointing vege nachos of my life (an absence of beef or beans left just corn chips with sour cream and drowned in sweet chilli sauce) but the shower and bed were a real treat.

Bike

Day 2: Karamea – Canaan Downs

Getting up felt rough. The upside was not having to pack up a tent and the fact we'd kept the bikes packed and ready to go inside the room. We were moving by 4:40am, but Hana was already up the road somewhere. These sorts of hours were still pretty foreign to me.

Stunning West Coast scenes

It's not allowed to ride the Heaphy at night due to the risk of harming wildlife, so we reached it at the perfect time, just as daylight was creeping in. It's a mind-blowingly beautiful stretch of coast with pristine beaches, lush forests and Nikau palms.

Morning blue hour at the start of the Heaphy track

Snaps from the coastal track

In my tired state I managed to crash (again!? I really was making this hard for myself). This time the front wheel slid on a wet root. It was a slow-speed, undramatic crash, but my downtube-mounted bottle cage collided with my knee and the whole thing puffed up painfully. After a little while I took some painkillers and we climbed up to the plateau, but things weren't feeling too flash.

On the plateau between James Mackay and Saxon huts

Soggy at Saxon Hut

It was a bit grey and drizzly for much of the day, but a great ride through the diverse scenery the trail offers. We enjoyed the long descent to the end with Hana, and headed out on the gravel road towards the Golden Bay coastline for some easy k's. But they turned out to be not so easy – a little before Takaka I started getting sharp, stabbing pains in my injured knee that quickly became unbearable.

Rolling into town I faced a conundrum of how I was going to get out of there, as riding on seemed impossible. We sat in the park and ate some Thai takeaways. I looked at the accommodation on offer and pondered my options – all disappointing and inconvenient. Andy was keen to ride on, maybe even chase Mark down, and dashed to the supermarket for a resupply before it closed. I tested moving my knee and pedalled small circles in the park. It was a touch less dire than on arrival. Hastily I called Andy, just in case – whatever you're buying, double it, I said. Continuing didn't seem like the smart idea and I hadn't committed, but I wasn't ready to give up either.

Up the Rameka Track

We rode out of town a little while later due to a combination of stubbornness, a bit of reprieve from the pain, the complicated logistics of pulling out, and fear of the Tour Te Waipounamu that was a few months away – I figured that was kind of like doing three consecutive K500s, so if I couldn't finish one, what chance did I stand?

I dragged myself up the Rameka, starting off with a burst of new-found energy, but gradually faded till I was deep in struggle town. Going up the rooty singletrack in the dark with the pain levels flaring up again, I had plenty of time to regret my stupid choices. We reached the top late, and to my amazement, Hana decided to carry on towards Motueka. That seemed ridiculously out of reach for me – I was absolutely cooked and we pitched up right there.

Bike

Day 3: Canaan Downs – Murchison

Objectively, this is the easiest day of riding of the K500, but it was the hardest one for me – of the loop and my life.

The day dawned grey and drizzly and would only get worse from there. We hit the gravel road out to Takaka Hill at 5.45am. The main road was deserted and it was freezing and wet up there. The descent was meant to be one direction at a time, with a shuttle provided for cyclists, but that shuttle wasn't making an appearance at this hour and we needed to keep moving in this weather. We descended carefully, sticking to the hard left, but I still had one of the most harrowing moments of my life as a van came around a blind corner, hugging the inside line. It might have been one of the more harrowing moments of their life too, sorry driver.

A flooded ford on the Porika track

It rained relentlessly and as we made our way down the Motueka River West Bank Road I focused entirely on finding tolerable ways to pedal to reduce the pain in my knee. Still, my hip recoiled in pain with every pedal stroke. I was too close to pull out now.

We raided the Tapawera 4 Square and found Hana sheltering in the band rotunda in her sleeping bag, having made the call to pull out. Her bum was sore, the weather sucked, Mark had also had to pull out with achilles troubles, she could get a ride back to Murchison, and she already knew she could do it. The need was no longer so strong and I couldn't blame her. I on the other hand, however foolishly, still had something to prove to myself. By now I was resigned, or committed, to more painkillers and groveling through to close the loop.

Andy looking as thrilled as I felt, somewhere along the Porika track. No more photos exist from this day as I was too miserable and couldn't work my phone with so much rain!

It was with huge relief and satisfaction that we arrived back at the holiday park in Murchison around 7pm. We showered and drove the kilometer down the road to meet Mark and Hana at the pub for a well-earned feast and to share stories of our various misadventures!