Travels

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.

20/01/08
Greetings webospherians! So, what to tantalize you with today? Kinda hard to make a really good story out of todays activities. Basically, I got up, got ready, and pedaled my little heart out to get to the coast while the wind was more or less in my favour 🙂 Yup, that’s right, upon waking up, the wind had essentially done a 180 while I slept, and I awoke to another brilliant day with the winds either at my back or from the side for most of the ride. This was most welcome, as you may imagine, especially after yesterday’s debacle. As a result I’m in a better mood, and invite you to check out the map and my pictures. I even came across my namesake as you’ll see from checking out the shots! My ride was about 77km, and took me from Palmerston North to a place called Otaki Beach, which is along the Kapiti Coast. Tomorrow, I’ll be in Wellington, with only a short bit of biking (about 30km) followed by a recommended commuter train for about 50km. Read on for a little more about my day.

19/01/08
Howdy everyone out there in ActiveSteve Land! Let me just start off by saying that this blog post will be short. Possibly really short. I’m just too burnt out right now to write any great stories. Yes, you’ll still get a map, and you can read the statistics, but they, along with the pictures, only tell a bit of the tale of the day that I had today. My journey took me from Wanganui, meandering south through farmland to end up in Palmerston North, a University town. Massey University to be precise. It’s the biggest University in New Zealand, so I thought I’d check it out. High-level impressions, not all that much to see, and surprisingly dead for a Saturday. Maybe it picks up later in the night. I probably won’t be awake to find out. For the brief history of my ride and reason I’m tired, feel free to read the next couple paragraphs 🙂