Wheeeeeeezzzz!

Good’di!

(that’s a kiwi greeting, trying to reproduce the accent! they can’t say vowels properly down here : ) )

Here I am in Kaikoura! A little victory picture:

And my knees do not hurt me, woohoo!!! Here’s the link to the latest flickr photos, and a little day-by-day recap:

Day 1 – oct 18 – Christchurch to Waipara – 62km

This was a very boring start of the tour. The sky was grey, it was drizzling, the road was flat, which was easy enough but very dull. I was still near Christchurch so the area was quite populated and there was a lot of traffic. So, unremarkable! When I pulled into Waipara, I looked for the supposed campsite there. It turned out to also be a hostel, and with the price difference, I figured I was better off taking a bunk bed! Waipara Sleepers is a good little hostel, where you sleep inside train wagons! It was empty bar a couple camping it. I got free hot bread and free fresh eggs in the morning! Little soldiers (mouillettes) for the road is awesome!

Day 2 – oct 19 – Waipara to Hanmer Springs – 86km

So, day 2 was getting serious! It started with ascending Weka pass (about 200m ascent), which wasn’t as hard as I expected! Then onto rolling hills, and a bit more flatness but there were snow-capped mountains in the background, and it was sunny, so it was enjoyable.

Of course, there was drama on day 2. I was ATTACKED! YES! Here I am, happily riding along, trailing far too much stuff on my loaded bike, when I feel a strong thump on the back of my helmet. My first thought was, damn, some nasty kid threw a stick at me! (weird first thought I know, I have a thing with being scared of kids being very cruel to me… don’t know why, I wasn’t teased that much at school…) Anyway, my second thought was, some ignorant driver in some very comfortable vehicle (the bastard!) threw something out of the window without care. I was already fuming about the lack of consideration of youths today, when I saw the culprit: a magpie! (une pie!) And not just any magpie, an Australian magpie!! (are all Australians out to get me or what?? ; ) ) I’d heard that in Spring, during the mating season, magpies use cyclists as nose-diving targets (cibles au pique…). But I’d been told they don’t touch you. That one, however, had an approximate 7/10 hit rate! Faced with the only alternative being to push my bike uphill, I chose to just pedal really fast and duck my head… damn magpies. A few more aimed at me during the day but they didn’t actually touch me, thank you very much!

I knew I was stretching myself a little by trying to reach Hanmer Springs in a day (over 80km and all uphill – even the flats were basically very slow uphills), but Hanmer is a thermal and ski resort, and I really fancied going to the hot pools after a long day’s riding : ) I was very proud to make it into town! The hot pools were delightful, especially as the evening came on and the sun was very low – the light on the surrounding mountains made it look all the more impressive.

Day 3 – oct 20 – Hanmer Springs to Hawkswood – 88km

On day 3, I wanted to get back to the seaside route to Kaikoura, as opposed to getting on the inland route to Kaikoura, because that was going to be one hill after the next for 80km with no real backup in terms of accomodation. However that involved riding on a little bit of road that was not covered in my bible.

Let’s talk about my bible: a book called “Pedaller’s paradise: a cycle touring guide to New Zealand’s South Island”. It basically details every major route, gives you the gradient for it (la pente), and gives you useful information like what sort of food is available on the way, as well as accomodation. It’s priceless when it comes to planning the next day! And it means that big hills are not really a surprise.

However, I was going to stray from the bible!! I looked at the map and thought, I can figure out the gradients myself: easy peasy, when the road follows a creek it’s mostly flat, and when it crosses land from one creek to another, it’s basically a hill, although it could be very small. I wasn’t wrong: in the spot where I thought there could be a hill, was indeed a hill. A big hill. A very big hill!! I should have timed how long it took me to ride up it, just for laughs. I stopped every 10 meters, but you know, 10 meters here, 10 meters there, and before you know it, you’re nowhere fast!! That said, it was quite pleasant somehow. I’d rather take a big hill, than ride bloody flats. Flats are boring. Unless you happen to somehow be surrounded by hills, despite the road being flat (keep dreaming), there’s not much to look at on a flat road. And it’s fairly relentless: sure it’s not too tiring, but you never stop pedalling. Whereas with that big hill, came a big downhill! My fastest speed yet: 67 km/h !  : )

So, Leader Road, my little straying adventure, was very quiet, and very pleasant despite the hill. I was still very glad to reach The Staging Post, my shelter for the night. Unfortunately, all the bunk beds were taken, but she offered a caravan, with tv and cooking facilities! I figured this would be expensive, but when she said how cheap it was, I thought “Wow, I’ve found myself a true bargain!”. Haha, touching naivety. You don’t get much for free in this world unfortunately ; ) The caravan turned out to be covered, and I’m not kidding, with dead insects. I tried to lift a pillow to clear a space, and there were more dead bugs. Every nook and cranny had a spider-looking thing in it, dead or alive I don’t know. I thought to myself, I’m lazy, but not that lazy: I’m pitching my tent! I picked a spot with a view on the still snow-capped mountains : )

Day 4 – oct 21 – Hawkswood to Kaikoura – 63km

Day 4 was going to have the steepest hills yet. Three of them in a sequence, over 20km. I struggled up all of them! But of course with each came a very fun downhill : ) On the top of the last one, I could see the sea! And in the distance, the Kaikoura peninsula, which I was headed for. Very exciting to see your target 20km away! And riding at 40 km/h without using a muscle, to reach the sea, is fantastic!

I rewarded myself with some bread and nutella. Food is very important when you’re cycling all day long, you know – as some advert says here: “you have to be smart about what you’re actually putting in!”. Right? So, in typical Lis fashion, I’m doing it completely wrong. Most of the time, I don’t even have a lunch to speak of, just two slices of bread and either a can of tuna, or some nutella. A tomato was my treat once (for the top of that very big, random hill, except I had it before the top because I was exhausted!). And when I get into somewhere, I usually faff for ages getting my stuff sorted, then finding a shop to decide what to eat, so that it can easily be 1h30 before I get a decent meal in, after cycling. Wrong, wrong, wrong! But, I’m still pedalling so, it works! When I can’t find any shop, I fall back on my pasta and ketchup diet.

Accommodation wise, so far I’ve been hostelling it almost every night. I figured, the first week will be hard enough, so let’s take it easy and not camp just yet, when I can help it. I could get a taste for the comfort though : )

Day 5 – oct 22 – Rest day

I planned on spending a couple of days in Kaikoura, visiting. Right off the shore of Kaikoura is a very deep ocean trench: within 1km of the shore, the depth drops to 3km! (or some other deep number, I can’t remember!!). This means that a lot of cold, nutrient rich water wells up to the surface. The consequence is large, healthy populations of all sorts of interesting things: fur seals, sperm whales, albatrosses, dolphins… so Kaikoura’s main trade is taking you out to watch all these things.

On that day, I signed up for a whale tour. Their boat has a very nice, 3d imaging system that shows you the shape of the ocean bed. It also reads the depth, so I literally saw it drop from 165m to 800m in a few seconds. We spotted five different sperm whales! You don’t actually get to see much of the whale, it’s a bit like an iceberg: only the tip. What you do get to see every time though, is the tail sticking out, when the whale is done with reoxygenating, and takes a plunge for the depths. Everyone takes photos like crazy, and I was even worse: I had the big camera shooting away, and on top of it the little camera taking videos ; )   (in fact on the video you can hear me clicking away!)

The rest of the day was spent making a failed attempt at a hike: leaving without water on a rainy day is just kind of a crappy plan… Hanging out at the hostel is good fun though, you get to meet lots of people, and you don’t have to think much to make conversation, I can almost do it in my sleep now: “So where are you from? How long are you in NZ for? Are you travelling round the world? Where have you been so far? Where are you headed? Will you work as well in NZ?” and if you’re daring “What do you do back at home??”.

Day 6 – oct 23 – Rest day

On my second rest day, the plan was to swim with seals. And this is fairly brave, because the water here never gets above 13 degrees. I don’t even want to know how much it was to be honest, all I know is I stayed under the hot shower for a good 30 minutes, they couldn’t believe me. Well, I’m sorry, but I had to wait until blood was flowing into all the parts of my feet, right?? On top of all, the seals didn’t play fair. They mostly stayed on rocks! I kept thinking, why the hell are we freezing our asses off to watch seals laze on rocks?? Thankfully, I got 50% back for not having actually swam with seals. With it, I bought a crayfish! The local delicacy : )  So, tonight, me thinks: crayfish, mayonnaise, white wine, in the hot tub! (there’s a free hot tub here!!)

So, this is it so far! Verdict: cycle touring is more fun than I expected! I had read how in the first few days, all you want to do is quit, and this is normal, etc etc. I was convinced I’d have to constantly fight the urge to quit, but to be honest, it’s really not that bad. I’m not going fast, but I don’t mind, I’m not racing anyone. And I take lots of rest days, because I do want to visit as well! My knees have been very very good so far: they’re not hurting at all! I’m going to slowly stop putting anti-inflammatory cream all over them, and calm down on the knee support, so I can build up the muscle they need to not bugger themselves!

I have only met another couple cycling touring, it’s still early in the season. They cycled from Christchurch to Kaikoura like me, and then stopped for 2 weeks! They’re working at the hostel I’m at. They went “ooo” when they saw my bike : ) “oh really, it’s a very good bike, oh I didn’t even know, I didn’t get it on purpose you know, I mean it really has nothing to do with the millions of dollars I paid for it or anything…”

Tomorrow, I’m off! There’s a cyclists accomodation 80km up the road near Ward, so that’ll be my first stop! Second stop is the little town of Picton, in the Malborough sounds. This is a place worth visiting too, so I’m stopping for a couple of days to do a bit of scuba diving and hiking (talk about “rest” days!). I might even stay three days, and visit wineries : )   (they actually have organised cycle tours of wineries: sounds awfully stupid to me, with all the wine tasting! I’ll be bussing it thank you very much)

After Picton I’ll continue to head west, towards Nelson and Abel Tasman National Park, where I’m hoping to be able to do some combined kayaking and hiking trip.

Well, that’s it for now! Bye from the other side of the world!!

Lis, on wheels that are a bit muddy but still very pretty