Rainbow Somewhere over the
The going maybe a bit slower and the ride a bit rougher, but Stu Hunt reckons doing the Rainbow and Molesworth loop on two wheels is worth taking your time over.
They say when you drive somewhere you’re watching the movie. When you ride there, you’re part of it. And the big sky country of the South Island’s Rainbow-Hanmer Road and the Molesworth Station is a widescreen epic.
Adventure riding might once have been the domain of those hardy souls who threw some saddlebags and a sheepskin on their trusty thumper to embark on some dusty trek wrapped up like Bedouin tribesmen.
But adventure bikes have evolved – even if there’s plenty of riders out there who still insist on slumming it.
Australia’s extremely popular Postie Run involves thousands of kilometres on CT90 ‘‘Postie Bikes’’.
There are companies that offer overland tours of South America on Honda ‘‘Monkey’’ bikes.
Ed March has garnered growing fame for riding across continents on ‘‘step-throughs’’. It’s less about skill than perseverance. (Check him out on YouTube, he’s unhinged but highly entertaining.)
While, in theory, you could do this ride on a scooter, and we did see a couple of hardy riders trying to do exactly that, for four middle-aged riders the bike choice was a little bit about power, but a lot about comfort.
Two V-Strom 650s, an Africa Twin and a Tenere 700.
The two Suzukis are capable – like labradors. The Honda and Yamaha have a little more of the cattle dog about them.
Balance is important – staying upright is one of the main goals and torque is handy. Comfort though, when your ageing tendons have all the flex of a freshly strung tennis racquet, is key.
The Rainbow Road officially begins at St Arnaud, south of Nelson. It’s described as a wilderness driving experience, which translates to beautiful, but hairy in parts.
For many years The Rainbow-Hanmer Road was home to the Rainbow Rage mountainbike race, but from December 26 to Easter weekend it’s open to all-comers who want to chance their arm.
It’s a two-day ride, unless you start early and don’t linger on the scenery, but it’s not a headdown, bum-up sort of gig. It’s one that commands you to stop and pay homage to the view.
The ride is lumpy early on and strafed by fords and creek crossings.
The stretch from the entrance to the start of the Rainbow Skifield access road is narrow, but sealed.
Treat this as a warm-up because this is the last time you’ll ride at pace for a bit. The minute you leave the seal it rapidly gets rocky and rutty.
From there, though, slowing down isn’t such a bad thing. It requires a bit of concentration, you don’t want to misread the road or repeatedly hit rocks at the wrong angle (refer back to staying upright), but it’s impossible not to get lost in the scenery.
Cavernous river valleys give way to beech forests, which give way to waves of tussock. It’s an alpine environment so it’s a lot of cold colours and hard angles. Overcast skies gave it an almost gothic feel, but there is something magical about it all the same.
The gate to the Rainbow Station is locked. Pay ahead and you shall pass. Conveniently there’s a honey stall here so souvenirs aren’t out of the question on this trip.
It’s worth noting the bumblebees are as thick as sandflies, but a lot easier to swat away.
(Fun fact, if a bumblebee finds your visor gap at 50kmh you’ll have some idea what a rubber bullet feels like.)
As luck would have it some of the more challenging sections have a ‘‘chicken route’’, but it depends on how adventurous you feel. Unless there’s been some serious rain none of the creek crossings will go past your axles.
Climbing to the top of Island Saddle and you’ve cleared the worst of the rough stuff. Plus you’re on the top of New Zealand’s highest public road, at 1347m above sea level. Provided it’s not too windy hang around for a bit, look back and get lost in existential metaphors about where you’ve been and where you’re heading.
The view from the top is expansive to say the
least, and the big plus of being on a motorbike is that you won’t be out of breath when you get there.
From here on you’re in the warm and often windy embrace of Canterbury, and it’s a smoother and somewhat quicker ride.
Lake Tennyson is a short turnoff at the end of the gradual descent after the saddle and worth a look. It’s a picturesque pond really, but there’s plenty of information panels about the rabbiting that used to be the big drawcard back in the day. It amuses me that the rabbiters were in their church whites and Sunday-best smiles to be photographed next to their haul on the fence.
From there to Jack’s Pass you can grab a little
more throttle and get it done, but watch the hill. The road into Hanmer may have plenty of lazy bends, but the gravel is thicker and a little skatey if you stray out of the tyre tracks.
The bright lights of Hanmer offer plenty of options for slaking your thirst, but the hot pools are truly a sight for sore joints.
Day two is a bit bigger. The Acheron Road through the Molesworth Station is a little over 200km. You can either head back over Jacks Pass or tackle Jolies Pass if you have the minerals. In truth this is much tougher in a car than on a motorbike. Still there’s
nothing wrong with easing into the day.
The Acheron Road is a much travelled road in summer, so there’s a bit more traffic to accommodate, but the road is wider and easiergoing with fewer corrugations.
There are a few gates to open and shut which forces plenty of stops, but this isn’t really any sort of hardship. One plus of being the slowest is you close more gates than you open. In theory anyway.
The first hour or more is flattish roads through wide open country. It’s easy to feel small in countryside with a fuse this long and skies that engulf you like a colossal dome painted cotton blue. In short it’s cowboy country. Swap the bikes for horses and it would be like something out of Lonesome Dove.
One advantage of such space is you can see what the weather looks like ahead. We were riding into the teeth of a heavy rain warning, so the clouds were far from puffy and white. More dark and daunting.
That rain never did eventuate in anything more than an occasional sprinkle. But it had me pondering if it did heave down would it mean less dust, but more mud, and does one compensate for the other.
Truthfully though, the road is so hard-packed with no enforced ‘‘cross it the hard way’’ fords that the worst of it would be staying warm.
Once you reach the point where the road follows the Awatere and the Clarence Rivers, the view takes a dramatic and breathtaking turn. There’s more hill riding where the road shoulder plunges steeply to the valley floor and between admiring each glimpse of the grandeur of nature’s sculpting you contemplate the terror of plummeting off the edge.
This is where sightseeing and caution catch up with each other. But isn’t that always the way – the best views are the ones that give off that almost static crackle of danger.
I hugged the hill.
There are plenty of places to stop safely though and even the odd patch of tarseal at this end of the road to get a taste of normality.
The end comes up faster than you think and the ride out is that typically Tuscan-esque, vine-lined, dappled sunlight vista that Marlborough has become so famous for.
If you’re not sick of the gravel there is a shortcut into Blenheim via the Taylor Pass Forest. But, this is a forestry road, so it will loosen your dentures.
After spending so much time off piste it takes a little bit of adjustment rejoining the rat race and having to share the road.
Adventure riding sounds like it should be a lot more edgy than this and if your calling is a much tougher test of dirt riding prowess then there’s probably plenty of goat-tracks and firebreaks you can scramble up to get where you need to go.
Events like the annual Kriega Dusty Butt South Island High Country Adventure Ride can scratch that itch. Or get hold of Ed March.
But for the sheer restfulness of leaving stresses behind, escaping the hustle, cutting up a bit rough and getting lost in the scenery the Rainbow/ Molesworth ride is hard to beat.
Travel information
The Rainbow Station is open for travel between the December 26 and Easter Weekend. The charges are vehicle $40, motorbike $20, bicycle/mountain bike $5 to be paid at the toll gate. Access forms are available on https://www.rainbowstation.co.nz/ get-access and must be filled out before you get to the gate.
Acheron Road through Molesworth is normally open 7 am–7 pm daily from the Saturday of Labour Weekend in October, to Easter Monday or the second Sunday in April, whichever is later. No caravans or vehicles over 7m long, and you need a permit to tow a trailer. It can close without warning. Check the road’s status on https://www. doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/ marlborough/places/molesworth-reserve/thingsto-do/tracks/acheron-road/