I'd bought a new mountain bike but it seemed every tree in Sticky Forest hid a person waiting for me to fall off.
It was time for secret training.
Let's go to Barn Bay, I suggested to my friend, teacher Jen Rawson.
"What's there? How do you get there?" she replied.
HEADING SOUTH . . .
Barn Bay - home to Hector's dolphins, Fiordland crested penguins and sandflies the size of sparrows - is about 70km south of Haast.
It is a nationally significant pounamu (greenstone) and kai moana (seafood) collection site and sand dunes and wildlife rate highly for their biological value.
You could fly from Haast to Barn Bay in about 20 minutes.
You could go by sea.
Fishing boats regularly visit the bay's intriguing rock-stack islands.
You could drive on the 4WD track through the Cascade River and the rainforest.
You could take a pleasant and straightforward five-hour walk.
Or you could bike the track, although you might hop off a lot for creek beds strewn with boulders and trees and mud-bottomed puddles that swallow bikes whole.
We started late, it was getting dark and, embarrassingly, our friends Rob Ormandy and Simone Maier were walking faster than us.
We caught up when they shot a deer, so we stashed bikes and backstraps in the trees and walked the last few kilometres together to our accommodation, a private house built by a fisherman decades ago and one of just two licensed to occupy the Department of Conservation reserve.
We awoke the next morning to sparkling blue skies, a calm sea, singing cicadas and blessed isolation.
SEALING THE DEAL . . .
I have to confess I had another motive to visit: A revamped proposal of a century-old dream suggests a 198km-long, 7.5m-wide state highway be built from Haast down to Big Bay, then along the Pyke River to Hollyford.
I wanted to understand more about this frequently shelved project, first mooted in the 1870s.
In the 1990s, the Westland District Council surveyed and costed a more practical alternative that has the same end points but traverses coastal rather than alpine terrain in the mid-section.
Last year, public submissions provided the council with an incentive to dust off the files and set aside funding for a feasibility study.
Millionaire Christchurch businessman Earl Hagaman commissioned a $15,000 report by David McLernon, of Octa Associates (the Octa Report), suggesting a toll road could be built for between $225 million and $315 million.
Mr Hagaman, the founder of the Scenic Circle Hotel chain, argued the road would be of national significance, boosting the $21.7 billion tourism industry and significantly reducing driving time to Milford Sound.
About one million domestic and international visitors make the 600km return journey to Milford from Queenstown each year, mostly by the only road, State Highway 94 (the Milford road).
The Haast-Hollyford road would intersect with the Milford road at the Hollyford turnoff, with motorists only doubling the final 16km.
Tour buses travelling from the West Coast would have no need to go first to Queenstown, cutting five hours, or 355km, and lakes Hawea and Wanaka from the journey.
Minister of Economic Development Gerry Brownlee likes the idea but wants significant public support before promoting it to Cabinet.
He has asked the ministries of tourism and economic development for more information.
Opposition is brewing within the New Zealand Forest and Bird Society and the Otago Conservation Board.
But the never-say-die Westland council is pushing on.
On Thursday, it considered a report on ways to further advance and promote the idea to Government.
HARD ROAD . . .
The road's history forms a not-so-small chapter in the story of West Coast settlement in the 1870s, promoted by then Prime Minister Sir Julius Vogel.
Settlers from Poland, Russia, Italy, Germany, Scotland and England set sail for Jackson Bay with dreams of escaping famine and failure in their homelands.
They landed on a wet, windswept and wildly remote coast with minimal supplies and no common language.
The outside world was accessible only by sea.
Boats rarely came and few had any idea what the settlers were enduring.
Earlier, in 1865, Otago provincial leaders had identified the need for a road between Otago and South Westland's goldfields and sent forth Vincent Pyke to explore.
Pyke came back with an idea for a Clyde-Haast railway that was never fulfilled but provided some basis for a road to Wanaka, which opened 100 years later.
A Haast-Hollyford road was considered key to further Westland development.
Duncan Macfarlane, the Government agent at Jackson Bay, and Gerhard Mueller, Westland's chief surveyor, focused on the alpine route in 1876 and 1884 respectively.
Some construction occurred at the northern end in 1885, and again in 1891.
By 1898 there was a metalled horse-track between the Cascade and Barn Bay.
In the 1970s, the northern end was bulldozed for asbestos-mining exploration and to salvage wrecked fishing boats.
Some work occurred at the southern end during the 1930s, at the same time work began on the Milford road.
World War 2 intervened and the Milford road was finished later.
The Hollyford road end was abandoned.
Westland's history is peppered with tales of unkept Government promises of infrastructure and how inaction affected lives.
Irvine Roxburgh wrote in his 1976 book Jacksons Bay: A Centennial History that "on central Government alone must be placed the responsibility for the misery, hardship, suffering and ruin that overtook hundreds of men, women and children in this part of the world.
It was simply governmental neglect which, over a few years, spilled over, and finally engulfed the tiny settlement".
Alice McKenzie's book Pioneers of Martins Bay: Life in New Zealand's Most Remote settlement (1947) contains some of the best accounts of settlers' experiences.
Her father Daniel McKenzie went to Jackson Bay in 1873.
Two years later, two-year-old Alice followed with her mother and siblings.
A year later Mr Mackenzie moved his family south to Martins Bay, convinced of its better prospects.
Over the years, Alice recorded births, deaths and marriages against the constant backdrop of rain, shipwreck, starvation, and a multitude of farming, fishing, boating and forestry accidents.
She also recorded the settlers' desire for a road over the Haast-Hollyford route.
An appendix to Pioneers of Martins Bay by Dr F. G. Hall-Jones noted settlers suspected Otago provincial leaders would never support the road because it would lead directly from the Wakatipu goldfields to the Jackson Bay harbour and on to Australia, leaving Dunedin merchants "far out of the picture".
Most of the McKenzie clan left Martins Bay in the early 1900s but sons Malcolm and Hugh McKenzie were the last pioneers to leave, after selling their leaseholdings in 1926 to celebrated bushman Davey Gunn.
Their sister wrote "they really wasted their lives by staying ...
No fortune could be made out of cattle farming".
But on a visit to the abandoned settlement in 1947, Mrs McKenzie (she had earlier married Peter MacKenzie, who spelled his name differently) predicted timber and tourists would provide a prosperous future for Martins Bay.
She hoped it would only be a matter of time before the road went through to join the other roads being built to link Haast to Wanaka and Hokitika.
"Martins Bay will then come into its own.
"Others will reap where my father and brothers have sown," Mrs McKenzie wrote.
With the Milford road completed, Mrs MacKenzie had reason to be optimistic.
The Haast Pass to Wanaka opened in 1960 and the road to Hokitika in 1965.
Mrs McKenzie died in Dunedin in 1963.
Her Haast-Hollyford road vision remains unrealised.
GOLD IN THOSE HILLS . . .
South Westland is now a 2.6 million ha world heritage area and listed on the Automobile Association's list of 101 Must-Do's for Kiwis.
"South Westland is so grand," says the AA website, "the UNESCO declared it as important as the Grand Canyon, Great Barrier Reef, Mt Everest and other global natural treasures."Haast is a series of villages along the 50km road from Haast River to Jackson Bay and home to 297 permanent residents (2006 census) who are mainly occupied with tourism, farming and fishing.
About 100,000 people visited last year, according to data collected by the Department of Conservation's Haast Visitor Information Centre.
Hollyford, a former road-workers camp, is the road end of several popular tramps and sports a small museum founded by Davey Gunn's son, Murray.
There is also a backpackers outfit for trampers operated by the Hollyford Museum Charitable Trust.
About 2000 people tramp the backcountry Hollyford Track each year, while more than 12,500 people tramp the nearby three-day Routeburn Great Walk, according to Doc data.
Milford Sound, home to just 120 residents (2006 census) but pulling in about one million visitors a year, was described by writer Rudyard Kipling as the "eighth wonder of the world".
But the New Zealand Transport Agency says "one of the most incredible and frequently overlooked features" of Milford Sound is the road journey, reaching 945m above sea level at its highest point, the Homer Tunnel.
The elements have killed people and destroyed structures and an internationally recognised avalanche management control programme ensures the road mostly remains open in winter for visitors.
BRANCHING OUT . . .
Some of the Hollyford road's early appeal rested on the possibility of transporting logs to market.
But logging is now banned in publicly-owned forests and the focus is tourism - although not exclusively, because mining in Mt Aspiring National Park is back on the Government's agenda.
Otago Conservation Board member Hoani Langsbury called the proposed road a smokescreen for mining interests at a meeting in Tarras last week and the board has recorded its opposition.
New Zealand's conservation estate is a major drawcard not just for domestic tourists, but for the 2.4 million international tourists who visit each year.
The tourism industry is New Zealand's biggest foreign exchange earner (worth $21.7 billion) and employs 1 in 10 people but there is pressure for the conservation estate to make a bigger economic contribution.
Supporters say the road would provide more commercial tourism opportunities.
More people would be able to enjoy the world heritage area, of which more than 1.25million ha would remain untouched.
They argue it is only accessible to the very fit or those rich enough to fly in.
Forest and Bird advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell, of Wellington, says it is shallow to argue the backcountry land should accommodate the not-so-fit-or-mobile.
By that reasoning, there would be gondolas to the top of Aoraki-Mt Cook.
A spectrum of tourist activities is important, many Doc attractions are available for the less fit and mobile in the "front country" and a valuable industry is already servicing backcountry travellers, he says.
Although Forest and Bird would oppose any resource consent applications for the road, it is not anti-tourism.
Its website chatroom suggests alternatives, such as a cycle lane the length of State Highway 6 or a "great ride" for mountainbikers.
Mr Hagaman commissioned the Octa Report because of the need expressed by Prime Minister John Key last year "for national infrastructure development".
The report notes "enormous tourism potential" from the road, particularly if integrated with the Government's cycleway initiative, "in a world class, environmentally friendly way".
But even when the Helen Clark-led Labour Government was in power, developers were planning ways to pump more tourists into Milford Sound.
They all come in at about the $150 million mark, and variously involve gondolas, catamarans, monorails, tunnels and trains.
And several years ago, West Coast resident Maxie Douglas proposed a car ferry from Jackson Bay to Milford Sound.
Westland District Council chief executive Robin Reeves says using the sea as a highway has some appeal but it could cost as much as the road to build wharfs to accommodate vessels able to withstand storms and transport lots of tourists and cars.
The council would love something to happen at Jackson Bay wharf so it could earn more revenue from it but has its heart set on the new loop road.
"It is going to be built because we have a promise made by the Prime Minister - not the current one - the one in 1965.
"Keith Holyoake was the Prime Minister at the time and he opened the last leg of the Haast Pass road at Knights Point and said he would be back in 10 years to open the rest of the road.
"Well, time's up.
"We'd like to remind him of that," Mr Reeves said.
With all the will in the world, the council cannot resurrect Mr Holyoake to keep his promise.
Nor can it build the road, because it involves Crown land and only central government can take it on as a state highway or special-purpose road.
Last year, Deputy Prime Minister Bill English mooted the Haast-Hollyford route as a possible contender for the Ministry of Tourism's $50 million cycle-trail initiative, noting the Central Otago Rail Trail earns $7 million for the local economy and creates about 75 full-time jobs each year.
Mr Reeves said the council had not seriously pursued that idea yet as it is concentrating on another near Greymouth, which was one the 13 successful funding recipients announced last week.
Mr Reeves agreed cycle trails were a good idea, especially ones with gentle gradients and frequent exit points to pubs and beds.
"(The Central Otago Rail Trail) gets your 55- to 65-year-old Aucklanders coming down and staying in ensuite accommodation and enjoying their lattes all the way."A Haast-Hollyford trail would require more experience, independence and self-sufficiency.
If anything breaks, you could be carrying your bike for days.
Those kind of people were not likely to spend a lot of money locally, Mr Reeves suggests.
"If you are going to build something cyclists would use, we would need infrastructure along the way, for example toilets and accommodation, which is not really what the road is about," he says.
MAKING INROADS . . .
To build the Haast-Hollyford toll road, one needs: $225 million-$315 million dollars.
The promoters want the Government to pay.
The extent of proposed public/private partnership is not clear.
Inclusion in the New Zealand Transport Agency's programme.
Seven nationally significant projects were announced last year, addressing critical routes around the five largest population centres.
They receive a combined investment of $4.5 billion until 2012.
Only one is in the South Island.
Planning consents and legal road status.
Consents would be needed from four territorial authorities and the Department of Conservation, including obtaining materials from within the national park.
The route also needs to be resurveyed and gazetted.
198km of roadworks.
Just 108km needs to be formed between Cascade Valley and Humboldt Creek but the unsealed roads at both ends also need to be brought up to highway standard.
A 198km unsealed road would have a higher crash rate and less motoring appeal.
Annual maintenance costs between $1.1 million and $1.85 million.
New Zealand Transport Agency Otago Southland highways operations manager Murray Clarke's "best estimate" of annual maintenance costs for this route is $10,200 per km.
Costs will vary depending on weather and the terrain.
Issues include swamps, high rainfall, river floods, rock falls, erosion and snow at the Hollyford end.
The estimate excludes flood damage, emergency work, winter maintenance and long-term pavement rehabilitation.
40 bridges, totalling an estimated 1224m.
The bridge required for the lower Cascade River channel, where 4WDs cross, could almost rival that of the Haast River, which is spanned by a 737m-long bridge, the seventh-longest in New Zealand.
The Octa Report suggests a 150m bridge across a narrower, contained section of the river higher up near the Martyr homestead.
Long bridges would also be needed at the Martyr River (74m), Rainbow Creek (70m) and the Hope River (60m).
Six 50m-bridges are on the list.
A five-year construction period.
Road-builders say it's all been done before with picks and shovels.
With modern machinery and political will, the Haast-Hollyford road could be finished five years after it is started.
IT HAS ALL BEEN DONE BEFORE . . .
Road builders say it's all been done before with picks and shovels.
With modern machinery and political will, the Haast-Hollyford road could be finished five years after it is started.
Greymouth road worker Graham Piner helped bulldoze a track from the Cascade to the head of the Pyke River in the 1970s for asbestos mining exploration.
"We had our battles but with the machinery today, like hydraulic excavators, we would have had no problems at all," Mr Piner said.
Mr Piner and colleagues worked for six months in a big D8 bulldozer and smaller TD20 bulldozer to form a track as wide as the D8 blade, before the mining project was abandoned.
No large trees were pushed over and, apart from a couple of places, the track is now barely visible, he said.
The track followed beaches where possible, sometimes along the half- or low-tide mark.
The rocky parts were more difficult but "it was not impossible country to track, that's for sure.
Not to Big Bay, anyway".
"But I've never seen the track from the Pyke River on," Mr Piner said.
A modern road would clearly not use the beaches and would need to cut through higher terraces, avoiding swamps as much as possible.
"It would take longer to build the bridges because you have to put in the piles and they don't spring up over night.
"But you could get to Big Bay (from the Cascade) in five years."
Te Anau's Wayne Carran, a road worker for more than 25 years, has seen interest in the road wax and wane at least three times.
At the moment, the desire for it is about as high as it has ever reached.
The difference this time is a person with money has made the call, Mr Carran said.
"With the right people, anything is possible.
"People keep forgetting but it has all been done before without the hydraulic diggers and the tools we have today," he said.
The coastal route would not be as tough as the Haast Pass and the Pyke River segment was "perfect road-building country".
FOR AND AGAINST . . .
The road would open Haast to the world but residents, happy with their relaxed lifestyles, have mixed feelings about the changes it would bring.
Most approached declined to comment.
Some feared criticism for voicing an opinion, some didn't want to appear negative, others didn't want to respond to political drumbeating by outsiders on a topic that has died many natural deaths.
Cascade Valley farmer Maurice Nolan said he would decide if he would comment next week, once he'd read this newspaper.
Haast Tourism Group chairwoman Neroli Nolan said the group had not formed a view and individual members may hold different opinions.
Eamond Johnston of Johnston Motors focused on positives.
"If the road doesn't go to Milford, it stays an exclusive, quality experience.
"The numbers (of tourists) will continue.
"New Zealand will keep the jewel in its crown a bit longer.
"If the road goes through, a lot more people will get to see (the World Heritage Area).
"And those along the way may get some financial benefits," Mr Johnston said.
Kerry Eggeling, Haast's Westland district councillor for the past 18 years, shares the community's mixed emotions and ambivalence.
As soon as a bridge goes over the Cascade River everyone would want to go there, causing operational problems for farmers and opening up the areas to rubbish and waste.
"The Westland District Council supports it because of the benefits to the Coast.
"Locals may not share the same view.
"Certainly the business locals, the tourism locals, would be more than interested in it.
"The farming-related locals do have a different view," Mr Eggeling said.
When he was elected 18 years ago there were about 50 tourist beds at Haast.
Haast still only attracts a small percentage of tourists but there have been improvements.
Now he thinks there are about 600 beds and, including camp and campervan sites, up to 1000.
Mr Eggeling said he couldn't stop change.
"Look at Wanaka.
"People in Wanaka didn't want what happened to Wanaka but it has happened anyway.
"Haast is already changing and there are one-million-dollar baches here.
"Yet we still only have a one-teacher school and struggling freight service.
"People bring all their stuff with them and take our fish away.
"They are not doing our economy any good," he said.
The new tourist loop was a "hell of a better run" than the Queenstown double-back and maybe Haast could become a new stop-over point, with bed capacity for 2000-3000, he said.
The road would force land values up, open new markets and transport routes, and make cellphone coverage possible.
"I sort of think it will (go ahead).
"I believe it will.
"It's got to happen.
"It is the last frontier in New Zealand.
"There's engineers around New Zealand and overseas who would love to have their names on a job like this ...
"But at the end of the day, I am betwixt and between.
"As far as the whole of Westland goes it would be the best thing out.
"
But I am like Maurice and the others.
"There would be change.
"But we are not going to be able to stop things changing," Mr Eggeling said.
NOWHERE ELSE . . .
The track to Barn Bay leads to a magical beach on the frontier of nowhere - albeit a nowhere rich with history of human endeavour and disappointment.
As we drove the unsealed Jackson road portion of the route, my friend Simone Maier, who grew up in Germany, noted there are no roads to nowhere left in her homeland.
New Zealand's tracks to nowhere appealed and it would be sad if we lost them too, she said.
We laughed as we discussed roading construction standards in our respective countries.
If a sealed road ever went through - and we were struggling to imagine it - would the rough Central Otago standard of chip so hated by road cyclists prevail?Or would it be the fast hotmix enjoyed by cyclists and inline skaters in Germany? In Germany, there are sealed roads just for cyclists and skaters, Simone assured us.
Now we were in the realms of Neverland.
It was clear the Haast-Hollyford road would not be a smooth road.
Note to readers: Farmers' permission must be obtained to get on to the Cascade-Barn Bay route.
The track is not road reserve.
Although a surveyed route, it has never been gazetted.
It crosses a mixture of private freehold land, pastoral lease and conservation estate.
The owners of the two privately-owned houses at Barn Bay have licences to occupy the conservation estate, as set out under the draft conservation management strategy for the West Coast.
It may take five or six days for the experienced to walk between Haast and Hollyford.
It is a backcountry route, not mountainbikable, and has no cellphone coverage.
