TA Day 27 - Haast to Albert Town

 86.9 miles, 5344’ climbing

Lodging: Zula Backpackers, Albert Town

After croissants and coffee in our hotel room, we headed out alongside the Haast River which had a huge, wide bed. It must be wild in flood stage, but the flow was relatively tame this morning. The sun was coming up behind some peaks ahead of us. The sky above was clear, but there were low hanging clouds on the hillsides. We had intermittent views of the river through the forest, sometimes with a few clouds illuminated by the rising sun, sometimes with reflections on the river of the warm morning colors. The road climbed gradually into the Mount Aspiring National Park. It was absolutely beautiful. 

We wound our way up the Haast river for about 30 gently climbing miles. Traffic picked up mid morning. After 30ish miles, we crossed a bridge and had a very steep, humid mile to climb, rather brutal. Then the grade leveled off, and we rolled up through the pines to Haast pass for our checkpoint photos. A quick descent along another river took us to Makaroa where we stopped for lunch and saw a few other TA riders doing the same. 

It was 30 further miles to the holiday park at Lake Hawea, tough miles in the sun around large reservoirs surrounded by grass and scrubby bushes.

The Lake Hawea holiday park was our first possible camp site, but it was far from stores or restaurants. We continued to Albert Town, about 6 miles. We were really tired of cars and trucks passing us all day,  so we happily turned off onto a cycle trail. Local cyclists and dog walkers were using the path. We took checkpoint photos at the swinging bridge, then found a room at Zulu’s Backpackers in Albert Town, very convenient to groceries and dinner, and very comfortable.