Daily archives: March 16, 2008

14/03/08
Well, after over 4200km on the road, pedaling my little heart out, it’s over. I’ve also managed to realize another one of my dreams, which is to spend the night in jail. In fact, it looks like I’ll be spending 4 nights in jail in total for the crimes I’ve committed! Crimes you ask? Okay, I suppose I didn’t commit any real crimes, in fact, I’m paying to stay in jail. Yup, that’s right, I’m writing this blog post from my own cell at the Addington Jailhouse. This building functioned as a prison until the 1990’s, but is now a hostel. I booked it a few days ago to make sure they’d have room for me, as it is a pretty popular place now. In fact, they got 1st place for a BBH hostel this size in NZ, and were also awarded 2nd overall for all hostels in Oceania! Pretty impressive eh? And yes, it really looks like a jail, although a little more pleasant. They preserved one of the old cells as it was for comparison. I’m duly impressed, and happy to end off my cycling tour here. I booked one of the nicer rooms, a 4-bed share room, no bunks, which is double sized. For the rest of the details, please read on and check out the map.

13/03/08
Hello folks, I’m coming to you live from Springfield, NZ at the moment. I haven’t located the Kwik-E-Mart or Moe’s Tavern yet, but I plan to do some exploration after this post just to make sure they aren’t here somewhere hiding. I must admit, I had no idea where I was going to lay my head down tonight, but as it turns out, I think I made the best decision in the end. So why Springfield? After all, it’s not even close to being on my route, and I had to bike uphill to get there. Well, there are a couple good reasons, first, I can say I stayed in Springfield. But secondly, and most importantly for me, it’s 10km from Sheffield. I remembered someone telling me some time ago that Sheffield has the best pies in NZ, and what better way to spend my last meal on the road then eating the best pies in NZ while rolling downhill all the way to Christchurch on a scenic route? I couldn’t think of any either, and that’s why I’m in Springfield. Another option was Darfield, but I’ve since found out that the backpackers accommodations I’d read about no longer exist anyway, so I would’ve been out of luck. Anywho, read on for the rest of my story, and check out the map too.