Brave, crazy or just plain dumb.....

Pick any one of those three to characterize my ambition to ride dirt, rocks and roots with a semi-loaded bike and skinny slicks for tires. I had some idea of what I was getting into, but a cracked rib on the first day wasn't part of the plan. Yes, a mountain bike trail should be left to mountain bikes, not touring ones. I'll note that for future rides. I actually was able to ride a surprising amount of the Queen Charlotte Track, say 85% of the 51km. The other 15% was either spent pushing, pulling or lugging my bike up the unavoidable and unridable hills or laying on the ground after I ate the good stuff. That being said, I survived and am only a little worse for wear. More damaging that what my body suffered was my childhood vision of Ol' St. Nick. I've always been told he existed, but when I ran across two of them, my faith in the guy was truly shattered. Anyhow, I'm back in Picton, again, and will take an early ferry tomorrow for the north island. It'll be nice to be on the pavement again, at least for the first few miles. Then I'll be having thoughts as to when the next break from the bike will be. Happy New Year's to all of you.

Top of the South Island

Just got up to Picton after 10 days or so on the road. I left good weather in Wanaka and hit up Mt. Cook where I camped in the most unimaginable storm of my life. Sustained winds at 90kph and rainfall over 60cm in a 24hr period. My tent finally leaked which I suppose shouldn't have been a surprise considering. After leaving that beautiful mountainous region that I couldn't see I made my way back over to Chch. where I spent a few days with some friends that I met the first go around over there. Headed up the coast and camped all along the way. Had fairly good weather all the way to where I am now. Tomorrow I head up into the Marlborough Sound, where a water taxi will drop my bike and I off for a 6 day journey back on single track. Hope the bike holds up....and if not and I end up having to push it uphill well, I'll just curse myself for thinking this was a good idea. Merry Christmas everyone. Cheers!! Pics: mural in Kaikura, top of Mt. Roy hike outside of Wanaka, one of 4 different painted bikes on the side of a second hand store Banks Peninsula, me thinking I can still climb underhangs, some beach camp spot 25km outside of Blenheim.

Six days & six hundred kilometers

I'm back in Wanaka having just completed the west coast of the South Island in its entirety. My body needs a bit of a break before I decide what and where is next.

1. My bike (funny I write it that way...like it's someone else's bike) at the top of Haast Pass on the boarder between Otago and Westland. 2. Franz Josef glacier, wonky angle I know. 3. Some steps bolted to the side of a rock, trail leading to F. J. viewpoint. 4. Somewhere along the road leading into Franz Josef.

Broken down....I need a chain whip

I can thank this picture to the wonderful people I ate dinner with the night before. They of course passed me on the road to see if there was anything they could do to help. Packing me up into their car was sadly not an option. Somewhere south of Punakaiki I heard a loud bang and was unsure of its origin until I heard the tick, tick, tick coming from my rear wheel. A broken spoke. Glad I have a couple of spare ones with which I could do nothing with in the middle of nowhere. I needed a chain whip, which of course I wasn't carrying. So I wound the spoke around one of its neighbors and set off down the road to Greymouth. It wasn't the end of the world, just a two hour delay in a town not really worth mentioning or visiting for that matter. However, the guy at the bike shop was extremely nice and willing to get on it and get me on my way.

I've ridden 180 miles since getting dropped off in Westport. I arrived a day and a half ago in Franz Josef - a place where the mountains reach the sky and the glaciers run towards the Tasman Sea. Today was my day off and I hiked 12ish miles from town to gain an overhead perspective of the massive glacier. Always an impressive view. As soon as I can upload pics again I'll try and put one up. I'm heading out of town tomorrow and not sure how far I'll get, but with the three enormous climbs I have between here and Fox Glacier I may only make it the 21km to get there. We'll see.

Down the west coast

So I think I'm figuring out that you need to load the pictures first and write later. Yeah, I'm dumb, but am ok with that. Even dumber after looking at the preview and seeing that I screwed something up.

Anyhow, I just arrived in Westport on the upper northwest coast. My plan is to make my way down south and possibly head back down towards the Wanaka area. If I recall it's about 600 kms or so down that way. Pray for good weather and sandflies to find other people to bite. Ha!

After leaving Wanaka 3 days ago I headed to Christchurch for a couple of days and caught the Ben Harper / Pearl Jam concert. Fantastic. Eddie Vedder and crew sang over 25 songs and Ben put on a pretty good show to boot. High light was during Ben's stint on stage when Eddie came out to help him cover Under Pressure. Couldn't have picked a better song to duo.

Stopped at the Clay Cliffs (middle left) on the way over to Chch. Other pics are from today's stop over at Castle Rocks, just east of Arthur's Pass, which lies in the middle of the Southern Alps on the way to the west coast. I was dreaming of spending some time here (as you can see in my zen moment from up close and afar), gorgeous limestone, climbing etc, etc. That will be my next trip or I'll just have Jason spend a small fortune and send my climbing gear from Seattle. Hope everyone is well and had a lovely T-day. Miss you all.

Keas and calving glaciers

Beautiful hike about an hour north of Wanaka in Mt. Aspiring National Park. Headed up to see Rob Roy Peak and its receding glacier. Waterfalls were everywhere and the hike itself, which wandered through the forest, felt more like the Pacific Northwest. All in all an easy hike with absolutely stunning views.

Selling my bike and settling in

Not really, but the gail force wind in my face for 60 miles has me thinking about it. Just arrived in Wanaka, 3 days and roughly 200 miles later from Dunedin. Spent the last two nights camping and with the current wind/shoulder burn I've settled down in the Wanaka Backpacka for tonight and possibly the next few days. Looking forward to exploring this bustling little mountain town by the lake.

After Christchurch we expedited Jon's time and bused it down to Dunedin. Biked out to the Otago Peninsula for yellow-eyed penguins, fur seals, NZ sea lions and the giant albatross. Rained most of the time, but what are you gonna do? Rented a car for Jon's last day and headed up to Moeraki to check out the boulders (which definitely lived up to the hype) and eat at the famous Fleurs restaurant (which of course was closed on Wednesdays). It's been busy, but has slowed down just a bit. Looking for a little R and R over the next few days before I head out to the west coast. Ahhh, sand flies, rain and of course more rain. Can't wait.

My day off the bike.....go figure

Marborough wine tour pics

The wind is always slapping me in the face

I think it goes without saying, especially for those who cycle, that there is never a time when the wind is at your back. Left Gore Bay, camping right above the beach, in a downpour. The first 50 miles were brutal, with the wind more demoralizing than ever. We rode out the storm, or it blew past us, leaving us with the last 30 miles of sunshine and less wind down into Christchurch. We'll stay here for a few days with some friends of friends and then head down to Dunedin on Saturday.

The nutshell: Left Nelson last Thursday to St. Arnaud (hellish hill climbing), where we camped at a beautiful alpine lake. On to Blenheim the next day (long day 82 mi. and more punishing wind). Took the next day off so to speak and rode around 30 mi. to various wineries in the famous Marlborough region. Zipped out to Hanmer Springs for a day of rest and hit the hotsprings (small mountain town, much like Durango). In Kaikura the following day for some whale/dolphin watching, but was canceled due to inclimate weather. Rode 50 miles down to Gore Bay and then on into Christchurch.

50 miles and I'm Abel Tasman's new best friend

Just returned to Nelson after a fantastic ride up along the northeastern coast, wine country, of the Tasman Sea. Camped, kayaked and then camped again up against the Abel Tasman National Park. Spent yesterday paddling around Fisherman and Adele Island, tramping up and over one of the ridges and down to Torrent Bay, then kayaking back along a handful of the golden beaches preceeding the town of Marahau. Saw New Zealand sea lions, penquins, oystercatchers and herons. Lucked out on the weather once again. Saw an amazing moon rise from the camp shore, large, bold and bright yellow as it came over Adele Island casting its glow over the sea. Seemed like you could reach out and grab it. Off for Kaikoura along the eastcoast on a long early ride tomorrow. Should be there in three days or so.

Loving the south island

Took the ferry from Wellington to Picton just a few days ago. Had one of the nicest rides thus far from the port to Pelorus Bridge where we camped next to the Pelorus River, about a 35 mile ride. Prior to starting though we stopped at a Dutch bakkerij for some good eating. We started to climb immediately out of town. It was rolling and winding all along the northern coast, taking us in and out of small bays. Stopped in Havelock and ate two bowls of the world's best green mussels, half of them steamed and the other grilled on the half-shell. Fantastic.

Day two, on the way over to Nelson, we had to extremely long climbs, the Rai Valley and Whangamoa Saddles. With just under 40 more miles behind us we rode into Nelson. We stopped at a wonderful pub called the Sprig and Fern Tavern. A fish and chips place was next door and brought us our lunch while we enjoyed a bit of relaxation and sun. We finished off the days ride with a gut wrenching climb up to J and Rose's house.

A great place to rest some weary bones, their house sits atop a hill overlooking Tasmen Bay; the view is spectacular. It would be easy to call this town home....hmmm. Anyhow, J, Rose and their son Tas have been the most gracious of hosts. Veggie lasagna and cold beer awaited us when we first arrived. Tas was booted from his room and now is sleeping on the couch, which I don't think he minds all too much actually. The next morning we all set out on a hike circumnavigating one of the valleys sitting behind Nelson. Again, beautiful. After hiking for 3 hours and reaching the top the idea was to then run the final 4km down an old logging road. We did, I did and now my knees are hating me. Thought last nights rest would take care of it, but hopefully that'll work itself out on today's ride. Heading out to the Abel Tasman National Park for a couple nights of camping and a day of kayaking. Hope to update again soon.

I have permanent white knuckles

Rode from Karamu, near Hamilton, all the way to Mokau on the western coast just two days ago. This was our longest day with over 3000 ft. in elev. gain, which seems to be every day, and 92 miles behind us. The last 35 miles were in the rain. Rough day and tiring. Not to mention that the backpacker's hostel was closed indefinitely. We stayed in a small hotel called the Whitebait, which is named after the fish they catch to fry up in the river adjacent to them. The room was more like a jail cell; no heat etc, etc, but it was dry and a place to rest my head.

As far as the ride goes, well is was beautiful as one would expect, but with all the hills/mnts. you lose the shoulder with every ascent, and sometimes the descent as well. I've already made mention to the speed at which everyone travels, breakneck; well it becomes a bit crazy when you have tripple tractor trailers zipping past you at 120km and 2 feet to your left, with all their wind pushing you around on the descent with no shoulder and the natural wind having its way with you. Let's just say your thankful every time you reach the valley floor. Even so, I still feel safe and am pretty happy to be down here on my bike.

The last couple of days were spent riding down into New Plymouth, 52 mi. and now Stratford, our shortest day of 2o some odd miles. The weather is supposed to take a nasty turn for the worse for the next bit and while the rain wasn't much fun, the snow will be even worse. I know, toughen up. But instead of holing up and waiting it out we're looking into taking a bus down to Wellington in order to spend some significant time in the wine/mountain country.

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. After a semi-long day riding we had a nice dinner in town and threw back a few beers. What a great way to spend the day. Picture update: lame, not sure if I'll get any on this, has taken over 10 mins. just to upload one, and the one you're now getting is only of a goat :(

I think "Zea" is Maori for hilly

Well, how to sum up the last three days? New Zealand is everything that everyone says it is. The landscape is simply amazing and beautiful and the people are as friendly as they come. I just now accessed the internet and these posting may be fewer and farther apart than I had hoped, but I'll do my best.



After touching down in Auckland and gathering the goods, we assembled our bikes and hit the road. It was an ambitious start, we rode 60 miles to Glen Murray where we stayed in a backpacker's hostel. The scenery was unlike anything I've ever laid eyes upon; the colors were more vibrant than an acid induced kaleidoscope show. Not that I know what that's like, but I can imagine. The farms were rolling and never ending. There were mostly sheep, some cattle, a lot of wild turkeys, more sheep and a few dead hedgehogs to boot.



From Glen Murray we travelled to Raglan. A small artsy/surfing community roughly 42 miles westish. I nice ride until we got to the main highway leading to the town. The road was decent, but it's a holiday out here this weekend, so there were a lot of folks heading in our same general direction. That's not a bad thing in it's own right, but New Zealander's think they're on the Autobahn, on any road. A bit frightening to say the least. For dinner we had the famous fish, chips and beer. The chips were great, the fish turned out to be a entirely fried, head to tail, flounder and the beer was zesty. An interesting meal and not all that satisfying. Oh well.



Today we left and made our way towards Hamilton. It was only a 24 mi. ride, but what started out as a beautiful road, turned into a gravelly dirt/treacherous 8 miles of possible carnage. My body is extremely sore just from trying to keep the bike upright. I only wrecked once and was going slow enough not to draw blood. I'm sure it was beautiful around us, but it was hard to pay attention when all you could stare at and look for was a rut in the road to stay in. Glad it's over. We're now in another backpacker's hostel and about to eat some pasta. Hope to make a long day out of tomorrow, but we'll see; the weather is about to turn. Until next time. Pics will have to wait for another computer, sorry.

New Zealand from afar

It'll be another two months before I embark, so I'm hoping to learn my way around the blogosphere, post a pic from time to time and lay my thoughts down. In time let us hope these posts become a bit more interesting and that I wont have to swipe some astronaut's picture. This post is really just a test so I can look at my page and make sure I'm doing this somewhat correctly. Anyway, I await the adventure that lies ahead. Until next time....