Like this:

Hiya!!

Wooohoo. Pfff. I’m still all ‘motioned and all that. (that’s an inconnus joke translated into English, I think it’ll be lost on pretty much everybody, even I am not sure what I’m saying…) Yesterday I decided to go skydiving, you know, I thought why not. It’s just, incredible!! I’ve got an awesome video too where you can see me going woo and waa and generally going nuts… 60 seconds of freefalling is awesome, even if you fall through a cloud and ice forms on your cheeks. (I was thinking it was getting a bit cold!)

But anyway, enough of this non-chronological malarchy, I’ll go and retrace my steps for the last week:

Photos here btw!

Day 24 – nov 10 – Hokitika to Harihari – 80.70km

That day was quite nice. That’s about it really ; ) I stopped for lunch at the Bushman centre, which is a restaurant and shop and museum sort of place, with a good sense of humour so I’ve posted a few of their signs on flickr! They have a “roadkill” menu: “you kill’em we grill’em” : ) Their speciality being the roadkill possum, but I went for something more conventional: rabbit. (that’s right Antony, I ate rabbit!)

In the evening I stopped at the Wild side hostel, some middle of nowhere place. The couple tending to it are complete hippies, especially him. He showed me where he builds furniture, makes honey, fixes his motorbikes, grows stuff, etc etc… There was no one else in the hostel, which was bliss: I now formally hate people. Goddamn people, they’re everywhere! Anyway, I can’t remember the guy’s name, but he offered to take me in the evening to see some natural hot pools they’ve got (which are better in the evening apparently). I assumed we’d go with his wife, but as it turns out we didn’t. The hot pools are basically hot water seeping up from the ground, on a particular spot on the bank of a particular river. Now, sometimes you have to actually dig into the bank to make a pool, so we took shovels. So here I am, walking in the dark with some random hippie, in a place with no mobile network (so my brother hadn’t gotten his usual where-i-am text), with shovels on our backs. I did wonder at one point which one was the one that’d knock me unconscious, and which one would bury me! I know, paranoid but… you never know… it was pretty dark… Anyway we got to the pools and there were already natural holes, so we weren’t going to dig after all. As I took my clothes off, it dreadfully dawned on me that, being the complete hippie he was, my guide for the evening would probably go nude. A second after the thought formed in my head, he said “excuse my nudity”, and off he went into the pool, all bits flying in the wind. I was wearing my very conservative swimming suit, pretty much a pair of shorts and a tee shirt – I don’t want to give anyone any ideas!! And of course, as soon as he got in, he lit up a joint… a true hippie. It was quite fun anyhoo, but unfortunately, as we got out, I got eaten alive by sandflies – the local blood-sucking insect. I didn’t realise exactly how badly until the next day – but it was very bad, almost on a par with my horrible thailand experience a few years ago, but no, not really, not nearly as bad as thailand… that was just horrible… anyway a week on I’m still scratching so still pretty bad, goddamn sandflies, goddamn hippies trips!

Day 25 – nov 11 – Harihari to Franz Joseph – 67.56km

Franz Joseph is the first glacier I reached in New Zealand: they’ve got two major ones, Franz Joseph and Fox Glacier (my target for the next day). Now, between Franz Joseph and Fox Glacier are three hills, ascending 200m each, which were described by my bible as “narrow, winding, and often steep” – ie, in lis speak, “not fun”. I asked at the information centre on how to take a bus to Fox Glacier, but mostly out of curiosity and to know my options. The girl working there did a huge sigh of relief and said “oh i’m really glad you’re asking that, the road there is horrible, it’s really narrow, there’s lots of stories of accidents, buses falling off, etc etc…” So I thought, crickey, just the excuse I needed to take a bus, haha! No seriously, she did have me a little worried, because the thing is, it might have been 3 weeks of cycling by then, but I still – STILL – stop every 10 meters on a steep uphill! And when it’s winding it’s pretty tricky, because you can’t stop anywhere, you’ve got to stop where cars can see you ahead of time and not run you over, and also where there’s room enough for a car to safely overtake you. Now, those constraints coupled with the fact that I can’t ride very far uphill means it can be a struggle sometimes making it all the way round the bend to the next safe place to stop. It turned out the bus would take 45min, and cost 8 euros… so I booked a ticket for the next evening, and felt a bit guilty and disappointed that I could no longer, strictly speaking, say that I’d cycled round the South Island.

Day 26 – nov 12 – Rest day in Franz Joseph – bus to Fox Glacier

The good thing about the bus, was that instead of spending the day sweating away getting to Fox Glacier, I could instead spend the day sweating away climbing Franz Joseph glacier! I booked a half day guided hike. Fiona, a nice girl in my dorm I’d met the night before and gone for drinks with, was on the same hike so we stuck together. We spent most of the hike admiring the guide’s glacier’s fantastic features… see flickr : )   (all these mountaineering guys everywhere, my my my are they lovely!!)

I then took the bus, and paid a lot of attention to the road on the way: as it turns out, it wasn’t narrower than anything I’d ridden before, nor any steeper – I should know better by now but to trust the advice of people who don’t cycle… Once I got to Fox Glacier, I got told the hill I did climb a few days ago was far worse than the franz joseph ones, but there you go. It was nice to have a bit of a break anyway, and I wasn’t really fancying the idea of all the climbing either way…

Day 27 – nov 13 – Rest day in Fox Glacier – 21.56km

On that rest day, I decided to view the glacier the easy way: sitting down in a helicopter : ) I took a ride that also involved getting some pretty good views of Mount Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand. We also landed on the neve: just like a lake feeds a river, an ice lake, or neve, feeds a glacier. It was incredible to stand on all this whiteness! The views were of course gorgeous. You’d think one would get jaded of all these gorgeous landscapes in New Zealand, but that’s the thing – because it’s constantly different, it never bores. One day you’re riding along some rugged coastline and tropical rainforests, the next you’re at the foot of mighty snowy mountains.

I spent the rest of the day riding around the area to do various local walks, some of which were fantastic. I went to Lake Matheson, where you can see the “View of Views”, a very famous, postcard view of Mount Cook being reflected on the lake’s waters. However you have to get to the lake when the winds are down, so about 5am – I don’t think so!!

Day 28 – nov 14 – Fox Glacier to Haast Village – 126.10km

That would be A HUNDRED AND TWENTY SIX KILOMETERS, yes sir, in one day, sir. (anyone who actually cycles and know that’s not so incredible, please shut up now!!) Anyway, that day, I had several options. Either I kept it a short, 60km day, but that meant stopping at a DoC campsite in Lake Paringa. DoC campsite have very basic facilities: toilets and tables pretty much. Now, I don’t mind that for a night or two, but the main thing is, I was told the site was sandfly-infected. By then, my sandfly bites from the hippie hot pool trip were seriously itching, and I was waking up every night from my feet hurting so bad. I felt I’d paid my dues to the world of sandflies already. The next village on was Lake Moeraki, but as far as I could tell, that only had one lodge, and no camping. I could try and push on until that, but with no guarantee of being able to pitch a tent. The third option was basically to press on til the next village that deserves that name (more than 3 houses) – Haast village, 126km away. I was doing pretty well during the day, and it was a fairly flat ride bar two big hills, so I figured I’d press on. I pulled into Haast village pretty late, and pretty glad to get there too! And pretty pleased to have finally passed the 100km bar, by quite some distance ; ) (and with no pain in the knees, woohoo!)

Day 29 – nov 15 – Haast Village to Makarora – 81.40km

What better ride to do, after a long, 126km ride? Well, how about an 80km ride up a mountain pass?? Not like I had much choice, in New Zealand there’s usually only one road from one place to another… Haast pass is also the smallest pass to get from the west coast to the east side of the kiwi Alps, so I did pick the easiest option. The start of the ride was a fairly flat 50km alongside Haast river – incredibly beautiful! The road was getting increasingly tucked in by soaring high, snow capped mountains – and always following this translucent blue river.

Then, I reached Pleasant Flat. The start of the 12km climb. Ok I’ll admit, the number is a bit random here, I know it’s 30km to Makarora and a good half of that was up, right? Hehe. You go check ; ) There’s a bridge there called “The Gates of Haast”: where trouble begins. (in case you’re wondering, yes this guy called Haast went through this area a long time ago and named pretty much anything after himself) I knew, from my dear bible, that I had 4km of steep climbing, then 4km of flattening out, then 1km of steepness again to the top. So while I was struggling uphill, my mind kept playing tricks on me: “the road is flattening right there isn’t it? yes, yes I think it is” looks back “oh no crap this is still so so so steep….” I even pushed the bike up at one point, but I figured that was not a very good ratio of effort to ground speed, so I kept pedalling instead. I did eye up any flat bit of land on the side of the road… “hey I could camp right there and finish this tomorrow right??” The views were very rewarding, that said. It was an effort but I was in rather good spirits the whole way. It eventually did flatten, in fact it went downhill, which annoyed me, because every down would have to go up again to the top!! The top itself was very anti-climactic. I had expected a nice sign that would say “Haast pass – 10,000m” or something, but nothing as such. Then it went downhill, and then I crossed the border from westland to otago, which I knew was after the pass – I figured I had crossed it by then – I was very disappointed not to see a sign because I was pretty sure I would have cried and I wanted to take a shot of my tears of joy and effort : ) A bit further on, I did reach some area with a sign – I took shots there, but that’s definitely not at the highest part, so the emotion had worn off. Damn signs. Still, I’m pretty proud, I lugged all that useless stuff up a mountain pass, and no matter how small a pass, that’s still a pretty good achievement for me : )    (of course I could have never done it without my Surly)

Day 30 – nov 16 – Makarora to Wanaka – 66.56km

The change from the west coast to the east side of the Alps is drastic: in place of rugged bluffs, deserted, driftwood beaches, rainforests of fern trees and moss, all I see is barren hills and lakes. It looks pretty much like Scotland, which isn’t a very original thing to say – that’s how the area is described in most guide books… Still, it’s incredibly beautiful. I love desolate landscapes like I love sad songs: they fill me with joy and hope somehow… it rained most of the way though so I didn’t stop for many photos, shame. It was pouring down when I pulled into Wanaka, so I chose a hostel but I’m regretting this now – wish I’d camped…

Day 31 – nov 17 – Rest day in Wanaka – 19.65km

I decided I’d go skydiving in Wanaka – I had decided I’d go skidiving in New Zealand a while back but I hadn’t really chosen where. The usual place is Queenstown, the aventure capital, but the area around here is lovely and it was meant to be a fantastic skydive, so what the hell. So far, I’ve been very lucky with the weather: when I stopped at the glaciers for 2 days’ rest, I had two days of blue skies and sunshine, which really makes a difference. It is lucky in a place where it rains 2 days out of 3, especially if you’re visiting in the rainy season… My luck looked like it was about to turn though – the skydive at 12 got cancelled because rainy clouds were coming in – you don’t want to hit a raindrop when freefalling… I knew from the forecast that the bad weather was meant to last all afternoon, so I thought my weather lucky star finally abandoned me.

No such thing though: it suddenly cleared up, and the 3pm flight was a go! I rushed to the place, and was quickly kitted up. I chose to be filmed with a handheld camera on my tandem skydiver. A more expensive option is to be filmed by a third person skydiving with you, but I thought that was over the top, and also, I had stupidly assumed the handheld video didn’t include all the on-the-ground “say something to your family” crap: I just wanted the skydive footage! Unfortunately, it did include all the on-the-ground crap, and as you can see on the video (if I ever manage to put it online! unlikely today…), I am not really keen to say much, and in fact I don’t have much to say really, beyond “I’m scared!”. I was quite nervous, but also incredibly excited.

The flight up to 15,000 feet was worth it in itself: we could see the amazing lakes and snowy mountains in the distance. We then got ready to jump… it was getting pretty cold up there so I didn’t mind by that point ; ) I was basically hanging outside of the plane, attached to my tandem, when he swung us back a couple of times, and off we went! It was breathtaking!! We hit a cloud, and it felt quite cold on my cheeks: the video later showed I had actual snow forming on my face… the instructor put his hand below my face to protect me from snow/rain drops. Some still hit me – it does hurt a bit… The cloud also made it more real how fast we were falling, as I could sometimes see features pass by remarkably quickly… The freefall lasted 60 seconds, but it felt like it was over really quicky. We spun around a few times, and I just kept screaming “woohoo”, “hahahahaha”, smiling all the way to my ears, and pulling tongues. I think I might have been in a hysterical, excited state ; )

When the chute drops open, it becomes a completely different experience. Suddenly all is silent, and you feel like you’re floating. I hadn’t really thought of the dive beyond the freefall part, but it’s really fun all the way down. He gave me the controls of the parachute at one point, to go right, left, up, down… all this above Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea, and the Mount Aspiring National Park. Incredible!! I was jumping about on the floor when we landed – when asked if I’d it again, I replied I definitely would! It’s actually quite weird to see myself, and hear myself on video – I have a strange accent!! What’s that all about?? Anyway, skydiving was truly incredible. And I’d definitely do it again, but probably not in New Zealand – it’s quite expensive… I’ll try it in some other land.

After all this excitement, I celebrated with my companion of many struggles, my little Surly. (I know, the obsession is odd, my eyes lit up and I smile when I think about my bike… erm… maybe I shouldn’t write that down…) Wanaka is a gorgeous little town by the side of Lake, well, Wanaka, so we went riding on a path by the lakeside. Surly pretended to be a mountain bike, and I pretended to be a mountain rider, but I don’t think we fooled anyone – that’s just not our turf, and this was a gentle off road! Fun nonetheless, and beautiful as ever. (I need to learn more english adjectives: gorgeous, beautiful, amazing and incredible aren’t going to cut it much longer are they…)

Day 32 – nov 18 – Rest day in Wanaka

My New Zealand guide book has so far been a fairly reliable source – describing things pretty much the way they are, and leaving the choice up to me in terms of what accommodation I’m looking for or what activity I want to do. So when it described the area’s best day walk, I was very tempted to do it. I don’t really want to delay myself, so I figured, ok I stay in Wanaka one more day, and instead of riding to Queenstown in 2 days, I’ll do it in 1 (112km, easy peasy). So today I went and did the Rob Roy Valley Track, which follows a, erm, aaaa, mmm, a “pretty” gorge (yes!) to the Rob Roy glacier, which is an avalanche type of glacier: big blocks of ice hanging at the limit of a cliff. I was hoping one would fall while I ate my lunch, but I wasn’t so lucky, damn.

Soooo! Here I am! Pretty happy. I’m finally forming some muscles: the changes on my thighs and calves are becoming obvious. I’m quite peeved though: it’s not particularly esthetic, I’m dangerously erring on the side of the 1970s russian swimmer look! If you think my goal for this trip is as lowly as to get fantastic legs, you’re wrong – I’m not that shallow. The goal is to get a fantastic ass, and there’s no sight of that!! Goddammit… That said, the knees, and body in general, are holding up pretty well. The riding all the way from Fox Glacier to Wanaka was harduous but very enjoyable, and I’m starting to feel I can handle bigger distances. Shame I’m getting to the tail end of it: only 11 days of riding left really, to keep 10 days up in the north island. Although I will look into skipping Australia altogether, so I can stay in New Zealand til dec 23, and ride in the North Island, but I doubt they’ll be able to do anything cheap about it so close to christmas time.

I’ve changed my plans for the route as well. Based on various talks with people (ha, goddamn people, they’re everywhere! but some are nice…), it looks like the Catlins, at the very southern end of the island, are beautiful. And it also looks like riding all the way to Milford Sound is fairly suicidal, and that’s cycle tourers telling me that… so I’m only going to ride as far as Te Anau. From there, I’ll bus to Invercargyll, and ride a couple of days in the Catlins. Then I’ll bus to Dunedin, and enjoy the Scottish heritage there: I’m glad I’ve changed my route because I was initially not going to see Dunedin and it does sound worth the trip. From Dunedin, I think I’ll ride the Otago rail trail: an old railway that has been adapted for trampers and cyclists. I like the idea of an easy two days’ riding without a car in sight! I’ll then bus my way to Omarama (back towards this way), and cycle back to Christchurch, with potentially some bussing involved at the end as the last couple of days aren’t really all that interesting. So, basically, I’m going to take buses to get to the interesting rides, and hop along that way, instead of continuously riding until time runs out and I have to bus the beautiful parts. It makes more sense that way I think. But that can change… it’s the plan for now anyway.

Soooo! That’s it folks!

Lis

PS: Surly is getting a little servicing right now, as it’s squeaking a bit and its gear cabling has gotten a bit loose – but all in all it has held up so well, and not a burst tire in sight, touch wood! (of course I know how to change a burst tire, erm, you know, erm…)