New Zealand

10/02/08
Hi gang. Well, here I am, about to tell you about my day off in Wanaka. Not exactly a true day off, as I decided to tackle the Skyline Track, a hike that takes you up two mountains to some great 360 degree views of the whole area, and is supposed to take 10-11 hours. Well, I don’t know what the people that take that long are doing, as it took me less than 4 and a half hours. Of course, that is moving time, as my total time was more like 5.5 to 6 hours, with my snack and picture breaks. Still, as you can imagine, I was going a bit fast on my way up. I can’t help it. My biking legs just want to climb mountains faster these days I guess. Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself as usual. Feel free to check out the map, and the pictures, as well as read on to hear a bit more about my day in the hills.

09/02/08
Hi gang! Tired Steve here, reporting from the shores of the beautiful Lake Wanaka. Boy, I think I need a day off from the bike. Today was a mere 64km, and only had about 860m of climbing, but I just felt tuckered out when I finally got here at the Purple Cow Backpackers. I was expecting a pretty easy ride today, so maybe that was part of the problem. I was greeted by a bunch of small, sometimes steep annoying climbs that seemed to sap all my energy out. Luckily, the views were pretty decent the entire way, so I was able to ignore the constant pain and sore muscles for most of the way. As usual, I’ve got my map put together, and some pictures for you to check out, so please do so, and read on for more about the day’s ride.

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.