For pictures from Mendoza, click here. Quick final post. I´ve got 20 minutes to wrap up this blog, pick up my laundry at the Bubbles Lavados up the street, and meet the group for supper, and a briefing on tomorrow´s activities. We arrived early in the morning to this beautiful city. Jody and I opted out of any city tours or any responsibilities. Instead, I got some laundry together, and explored the city on my own. Local busses, trolleys, and just plain locals in general. I´m really enjoying practicing communicating down here. I ended up getting a private tour of the city hall by a security guard, who took me to the roof of the building for some very impressive views and chit-chat, even though we were both out of our language comfort zones. It was quite cool. I then went to a very large park honoring San Martin, the man largely responsible for liberating Argentina. There is a mountain-top monument to this, the greatest of National heros. The location is known as Cerro Saint Gloria. It was a nice view, and nice moment. Then, local busses back here, and now I´m writing you. It was a bit funny, because a lot of the tour group opted to take a bus tour of the city, paying a bit of coin for it. My personal city tour, using local busses and my own two feet, was almost the same thing, but cost me 3.5 pesos, instead of 25+ pesos paid by the rest of the group. Of course, I didn’t go quite as far, but I still saw most of the main sights, and even crossed paths with them twice! Well, gotta go. Just realized it´s October 31st. Hope everyone´s having a spooky night, and I guess we´ll see you in less than a week now. Till then, enjoy the week!
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27/03/08
Hello folks, and welcome to the in-air version of ActiveSteve. The lights have been dimmed low as people try to get some shut-eye. I’ve got Stadium Arcadium cranked, as part of my in-seat entertainment. I just watched a most incredible movie called “Into the Wild”, based on a true story and book by Jon Krakauer. Absolutely remarkable. I’d say it was inspiring, but given that the lead guy dies after poisoning himself by accident by eating the wrong plant… well, you can imagine where I’m going there. However, his experiences up to that point were nothing short of soul awakening for me I’d say. SEE THIS MOVIE. Of course, it doesn’t help my lack of desire to go back to the working world any more, but that’s okay. I’ve wanted to see this movie for some time after being told by many people on this trip that I should watch it. However, I’m just a touch ahead of myself on the blog front, so sit back, and allow me to roll the clock back a few hours and fill you in on my last half day in New Zealand.
07/03/08
Of all the possible hardships that a cyclist faces while on the road, I have to say unequivocally that the most damning thing for me is wind. There is nothing quite as frustrating as a constant force pressing against you as you try to make forward progress. It is even more frustrating when that forward progress is in an uphill trajectory. So begins and ends the entire story of my day. It was probably the hardest emotionally of almost all my days on the bicycle. I only covered 63km in the same rough time that it took me to cover 93km yesterday! Boy, am I glad that I decided to add an extra 25km onto my ride yesterday, rather than trying to slog it out today. I don’t think I would have made it. I really can’t put the extent of my frustration into any words or pictures, so you’ll just have to trust me on this one people! Anyway, read on and check out the accompanying map for my ride from Kurow to a Merino Sheep and Cattle farm 9km north of Omarama.
07/01/08
Good day folks. Well, another day has passed here in summery New Zealand for me. I spent a full day in Taupo exploring the sights by bike, and boy, am I tuckered out once again! Remember how I said that I don’t really take days off? Well, today was another prime example. I ended up putting almost 70km on the bicycle yet again, although I didn’t have to lug my trailer around with me this time. There are a number of things to do around Taupo, but I just concentrated on the things on and around the main river. This includes a bungy jumping zone, waterfalls, a dam, jet boating, and rapids that are controlled by said dam.I didn’t do the bungy jump this time, but I did have some other fun. You can look at my map and read of for more tales of excitement from the land down under.
04/03/08
Hello once again from Dunedin kids! Today was basically another day off from the bike, and a day in which I decided to take a trip on one of the Worlds Great Train trips on the Taierei Gorge Railway trip, departing from Dunedin and heading into the wilds of the river gorge for a couple hours. I must admit, getting up in the morning was something pretty difficult to do with my slightly hungover self. Luckily, my plans for the day were pretty minimal, apart from the rail tour. That would be over sometime around 1:30, so I’d have the rest of the day to myself. I passed the time with a trip to the movies, since it’s Tuesday and movies are cheap, and got my laundry all done. Also dropped back into the Art Gallery to kill some time, and had a bite to eat. Read on if you’d like a few more nuggets of info on my day and don’t forget the map.