Monthly archives: February 2008

08/02/08
Hello friends from around the world. Today I made my way over Haast Pass, the lowest of the passes from west to east over the Southern Alps of New Zealand. Whew, it had some tough parts. Although the overall pass was only 564m, the first section was a killer, as everyone I encountered has agreed. I’m glad that I opted to do it in 2 days rather than only one, as now I can enjoy a leisurely ride in to Wanaka, and hopefully be there by mid-day. I’m hoping that once there, I can find a bar televising the Coast to Coast race, and I’ll then proceed to drink and cheer on all the local athletes rather than competing in it myself 🙂 I chose to play a bit of a tourist myself today, opting to do all the side trails on the way to Makarora, in order to break up my day and not finish off too early, which believe me, would be boring here in Makarora. Know what’s here? Nothing. Just the ‘resort’ I’m staying at, and a DOC information center, which I spent 40 minutes at already chatting about tracks around here. Anyway, read on for a bit more about the day and what it held for me. I also have a pile of pictures on the map for you to check out.

07/02/08
Hey gang! Your humble narrator checking in once again. Another day has passed, and what a doozy it was for me. As you will note by the map that goes with this post, I’ve put another 121km on me, my bike, and the little trailer that could. Yup, it was my longest day yet, but it seemed like the thing to do, as there was virtually NOTHING between Fox Glacier and here, Haast. There was one cafe at a Salmon Farm early on, but that was it. It was all biking, all the time, with only the briefest of pauses to have some PB sandwiches for lunch. I thought there might be somewhere to get more water, but nope. For the whole day, I only had about 1.8L of fluids. Yikes. Good thing it was mostly overcast. Oh, BTW, I forgot to mention it, but I’m now well over 2500km into my trip on the bike! Cool eh? Read on for a little more about this challenging day, and don’t forget to look at the map 🙂

06/02/08
So, what is Waitangi Day you ask? Well, it’s a national holiday here in New Zealand. Sort of like Canada Day, but not quite. There aren’t massive celebrations everywhere, but it is a significant date for Kiwis. This is the day the Treaty of Waitangi was signed by the queen, which recognized the land claims and rights of Maoris. Of course, things are still not settled for Maoris, so as a result, there is not much celebrating, but rather, a fair bit of protest on this day in certain parts of the country. However, it is still a federal holiday, which means food places all charge 15-20% extra if you want to eat. Ha ha. Guess I’ll be eating noodles and peanut butter sandwiches today! At any rate, I’m still in Fox Glacier township right now, enjoying an almost complete day off. My only activity was about 25km of biking and hiking, to check out the stunning views of the Southern Alps from here. The rest of the day is hopefully for laundry, Internet, phone calls, etc. etc. Yup, I’m resting and getting ready for the next few days. Read on and check out the map for a bit more info.

05/02/08
Chilly hello to all you folks out there! Well, once again I find myself knackered as I write to you. Yup, that’s right, it was another busy day for ActiveSteve here at the Fox Glacier village. My feet and legs are sore today not from biking, but from all the gear I had to wear today while I was out on the dangerous ices of the Fox Glacier. I spent the whole day on the ice, and learned to ice climb. Well, in truth, there really wasn’t all that much to learn, as Ice Climbing is pretty much exactly like rock climging only you’re on ice instead of rock. So, as a result, I already knew how to tie on and off, belay, and all those sorts of things. However, I had to get the hang of using Ice Axes and Crampons, which was a hoot. Read on for a bit more about my exciting day on the glacier. There’s a map too, but I have a feeling it’ll be pretty meaningless, as it was in my pack hidden away most of the day, so I don’t think locations are correct. Sorry!

04/02/08
Good evening friends. ActiveSteve reporting from glacier country here. Yup, I’ve made it about halfway down the west coast already, and find myself at Fox Glacier. Although the day was short on paper, it was nothing short of a barn burner in reality with the nutty hills I had to tackle towards the end of the day, after a couple hours hiking around the Franz Josef Glacier. The weather pretty much didn’t co-operate for most of the day either, with clouds yet again obscuring any chance I might have at some spectacular Southern Alps views. Regardless, it was still a fun day, allowing me to get a later start than usual and stopping at the Franz Josef glacier for a while. I’ve put together a map, which includes the hike at Franz Josef, which you can check out. Hopefully this time, all the maps are up. Last time I had Internet, I couldn’t get any maps up.