October 10, 2019
Mum woke up early and booked a QUAD BIKE tour. Mum remembered Mark and Kel doing it when they visited Franz Joseph. It was pouring down rain and I thought this was perfect weather to burn outs in the mud!
At the quad bike office I had to be sized up to see if I could be a pillion. Grace’s legs were too little so she had to go with the guide in the buggy.
We put on our own rain gear and theirs as extra as it was POURING RAIN! We all looked like fat little penguins.
Mum, Penny and Paul had to do test laps so the guide could see if they could ride a quad. There was other people on our tour from Australia. When every one passed the test course we were off!!!
We rode out and along the river bank. Then we came into a rainforest section and the path was really narrow. The flooding water was all over the path it was very windy with super tight bends! We couldn’t get any photos in that section otherwise our bike would stalled in the water.
We came out of the rainforest and back along the river bank. The bank was all grey gravel with big rocks and sticks. We all had to follow the guide in a single line.
We stopped for a break. At this point on a clear day the guide said you can see the glacier. But today in terential rain and low lying fog we couldn’t even see the mountains!
Penny said she went up the bank of the river maybe a bit too fast as her front wheels went flying up in the air …….. more than one metre. If Penny fell off she would have been washed away in the flood water!
Grace was up the front laughing the whole trip as the guide was fanging the buggy through the water and mud.
I was the pillion on Paul’s bike. I think Paul thought he was on a ski doo at times, but we weren’t on fluffy snow we were in thick mud! I wish I got to ride my own quad bike.
The guide said we better get back as the water levels was rising quick.
Mum was last to get back she drove slow like Nanna Sue does!
By Finn
