The ride from from Whataroa carried on with more stunning scenery. The highway was lined with ferns, going through native forest and farms, misty mountains in the distance.  If there is one road trip every cyclist should do in NZ, this is it. 

I rode with a group I’d stayed with at the Whataroa hotel. It was a good pace for me, cruising at 17-20km/hr. We got to Frans Josef glacier about 10am. It was either a second breakfast or an early brunch, but either way, we tucked in hungrily at the local cafe. 

There were three fun climbs and descents between Frans Josef and Fox glaciers. Enough to give the legs a workout but not enough to require a change of crank length. 

For the non-unicyclists following my blog, an explanation on this. I am riding a ‘standard’ unicycle, which means no gears, no freewheel, and a fixed wheel size (29″). This is what I race nowadays. In the past, I raced unlimited unicycles, which can be geared, and be of any wheel size. The bigger the wheel, the bigger the gear, so most unlimited riders would use a 36″ wheel on the road. Likewise, many riders use hubs with shiftable gears (1:1 and 1:1.5 ratios). There are also freewheel unicycles, which are biggest thing in unicycling right now, but haven’t proven themselves in long distance touring yet. 

What I have,  a standard 29″ unicycle, is as basic as it gets. The drive is fixed. You pedal forward, you go forward, you pedal backward, you go backward. Brakes are allowed in standard class, but I figured that if I’m keeping things simple, I may as well leave them out. The only extra item I have is a handlebar. It’s the most basic wheeled vehicle (with the exception of ultimate and BC wheels), which is what appeals to me. If I wanted a freewheel or gears, I would ride a bike, which have better developed gearing mechanisms and ratios. 

That’s not to say my ‘standard’ unicycle is completely gearless. Unicyclists can alter the crank length to vary their cadence or their leverage. Short cranks allow you to pedal faster, while longer cranks allow more leverage at the expense of a lowered cadence/speed.  I am riding triple hole cranks, switching between 100, 125 and 150mm crank lengths by moving the pedal position and seat height. For the majority of TA, I have been on 100mm, except for off road sections (Timber Trail, Big River and coming down Maungatapu Saddle), when I used 125mm. I have not used the 150mm option. 

Back to riding…I arrived in Fox Glacier and rode up the track to the lookout. I was shocked at what I saw. Where has the glacier gone?  The last time I was here during the SINZ unicycle tour in 2007, we could walk to the glacier. Now it’s off in the distance, with warnings not to cross into the valley in case of sudden flood.  It’s retreating fast and perhaps my children will not get to see it before it’s gone. 

It was another 33km to my accommodation, the Pine Grove motel. It’s a rather random motel in the middle of nowhere, but handily located between Fox Glacier and Haast. The distance between the two towns is over 120km, which is a bit more than I wanted to ride today.