ROUGH MILNE MITCHELL

Experiencing landscape, the e-bike way

TONY MILNE FROM ROUGH MILNE MITCHELL, CONSIDERS THE INCREASING ACCESSIBILITY OF THE LANDSCAPE ON TWO WHEELS.

This summer past, I had one of the better days of my life. Of course, it didn’t supplant the arrival of my two children. The fact that we live out of wedlock fortunately takes that out of the equation. Company notwithstanding, it was the mode of transport that made it.

I’m an infrequent cyclist and more often do so while on holiday. Cycling through the parks, promenades, lanes, streets, river trails and around the waterfront of cities abroad stirs fond memories. Several years ago, we biked the Otago Central Rail Trail, hauling our children along on tow bikes.

A fantastic experience of frosty morns, followed by sun-drenched days, open landscapes with big skies, swooping magpies and warm cheese scones in Hyde. Not to mention the odd decision I made to grab a pint in the Commercial Hotel in Ranfurly. Nothing odd about that, cycling does raise a thirst. It was the fact I wore my white tennis shorts. I digress.

Back to our recent summer’s day. Rebecca and I hired e-bikes and cycled, pedal assisted, from downtown Nelson, via the railway reserve, out along the edge of the incoming tide of the largest semienclosed estuary in the South Island. The Waimea Inlet.

Leaving the ebb and flow of the tide, a cheese scone (of which I am partial) and coffee were enjoyed on the balcony of a country café. Back on cycles, we found the estuary edge again. Skirting beds of oioi (the New Zealand native reed), a winding gravel path and boardwalk we followed, past a fertiliser factory, too.

Down a country lane, over a river bridge and along a stopbank track, we were at Moturoa/Rabbit Island. Here we lay on towels, read our books, and in the temperate water of Te Tai-o-Aorere/Tasman Bay, we did bathe.

Refreshed, and with lunch beckoning, we threaded our way through the back roads of the fertile Waimea Plains, the landscape a fabric of production and summer haze. Bucolic almost. I did point out the new Appleby Fire Station, apparently it was obvious, and I needn’t have.

Lunch was among the vines at Brightwater, a platter of local produce accompanied by wine and cider, borne from the verdant local land too. Satiated and in saddle, we hugged the true left bank of the Waimea River before crossing it on a purposebuilt swing bridge. Through vineyards, along the fringe of industrial Richmond, we reunited with the edge of the Inlet.

The tide was now out; salt marsh vegetation and cockle beds lay exposed.

Enjoying the downhill finish back into the town centre, a careful negotiation of traffic crossing the dedicated cycle lanes, we had our bikes back on time. Imbibing with a mango and lime cider, we reflected on our day’s experience. A thoroughly pleasant 80 kilometres adventure, a vignette of landscape types unlocked, enjoyed and experienced from our hired e-bikes.

Despite my mother suggesting we were ‘wusses’, who, along with my father, is still pedalling unassisted, we have since bought an e-bike each.

TONY MILNE Rough Milne Mitchell Landscape Architects

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