Monthly archives: January 2008

25/01/08
Greetings all! Your humble narrator is back once again to regale you with another tale from the land down under. Today was another great day for me, as I managed to get all my biking done by just after 1pm! That was in spite of pedaling 75km, and having to climb up two biggish hills. I don’t know if I’m getting more in shape, or if it was the days off the bike or what, but I really felt good today. Perhaps it was also the good night of sleep that I had. Whatever the reason, I’m in a good mood today, and have already planned a full weekend of fun for myself here in Nelson. Yup, even though I’ve only been biking a day and a half, I’m spending 3 nights here, so that I get 2 full days. However, it is with good reason. Read on to hear more, and don’t forget to check out the map and pics for the day!

24/01/08
Well, I’ve finally done it. I got on a ferry and made my way to the spectacular South Island of New Zealand! I’m not really ahead of schedule, but I’m also not behind schedule either. I’m pretty much right on time 😉 Isn’t that nice? You see, you can’t really worry about schedules when you haven’t created one to follow. Tee hee. I’ll have a good 8 weeks to explore down here, and from what I’ve seen so far, it looks like even that might not be enough, especially if the first 35km of biking over here is any indication. As per usual, I’ve put together a map of my days journey. Note that this map also includes the ferry crossing on the map, but the statistics I’ve put up reflect only the biking on either side of the crossing, so the numbers are accurate for the biking. Check it out, and read on for more about another great day in the saddle.

23/01/08
Whew! Well, another day in Wellington has blown by. Hee hee. Like the pun? Actually, the whether today was far better than yesterday, so I have no complaints. It was only a little windy, but apart from first thing in the morning, the day was very sunny, and as a result, there were much more people out milling about today. I essentially retraced my footsteps from yesterday, except that I went up a cable car as well, and didn’t go up Mount Victoria this time. Consequently, I didn’t bother with a GPS map, so you’ll just have to check out the pictures directly on flickr instead. Coincidentally, all of my pictures from the entire trip thus far have been put up now, so do feel free to check them all out. You can just click the link in the right column with the little pictures. It’s already quite late at night, so I’ll keep this post short so that I can post it, along with the remainder of my pictures before I head off tomorrow. Read on for a little more about today.

22/01/08
So, I just had my first full day in Wellington, and I must say, I’m quite cultured now! As this is the capital, there is definitely lots of cultural experiences to have here, so I took advantage of several of them. I’ve been getting late starts here, as it’s just so nice to be able to listen to some music, play on the computer, watch TV, use the Internet, do laundry, etc. Funny how you miss even the domestic things when you’re on the road. Well, the other reason I’ve been a little slow here is that the weather hasn’t been super. Have I mentioned the possibility of a cyclone in Wellington? No? Well, that was yesterday, with winds gusting up to 130 km/hr. Travis, the fellow who’s place I’m staying at, and is a lifelong Wellington resident, says he can’t remember Wellington ever being under a cyclone warning. Crazy isn’t it? This is my second one in 2 months though, so I guess I’m pretty used to them myself. Ha ha. Anyway, read on for a little more about what I did for the day in Wellington and don’t forget to check out the map.

21/01/08
Hi folks. Greetings from windy Wellington! I know I’m a day or two behind in posts, and I’ll try to rectify that for you now. The posts won’t really be super-long, so hopefully they’ll be in bite-size format for all my ADD friends 😉 After Otaki Beach, my next main stop was Wellington, which is of course the capital of New Zealand, so in that regard, not unlike my own current hometown of Ottawa, Canada. As such, I figured there would be a number of different things that I’d likely do there that I wouldn’t be doing anywhere else. I was also looking forward to a couple days with less biking, as my knee is starting to bother me more again. It’s really annoying, as it seems that no amount of ibuprofen does anything for it, neither does my gel that I bought, or massaging it. Oh well, as long as I can keep pedaling, it’ll just have to wait until my return, right? Ha ha. Anyway, I put a little map together of the trip into Wellington, including the time on the train. Yup, my first NZ train. Read on for more.