March 10 - We're outa here tomorrow

Hi:
So, this is pretty much it.  We pedaled through Auckland today and are spending the night near the airport.  Had lamb for dinner and Pavlova for dessert.

Tomorrow, it is get up, have brekky, (I'm going to have a "NZ Big Breakfast, aka Heart Attack on a Plate), pack up, pedal to the airport, rip everything apart and repack it for the plane.  Then hang around for the flight.

Since this is the last post, I've put up the maps of the two islands showing our trip.  The red lines are cycling (huff, puff, grunt), the blue lines are bus or train (yay, snooze).

Hope you enjoyed the blog.  It was fun to do and kind of nice to have it all written before we get home.

Talk to you soon,
Greg & Laura

PS - You'll get yours, Superman

March 9 - More Auckland, Day 2

Another sunny day with no wind in Auckland.  Today's expedition is to Waiheki Island.  We bicycled downtown and hopped a ferry for the half hour ride on a catamaran.  Waiheki Island is about 15 X 8 km in size, and would be the equivalent to Vancouver's Bowen Island in that it is a subdivision of Auckland.  The concessions for over 65 types are better, however, as the ferry is free during the week after 9:00 and all weekend.

Anyway, it is a gorgeous island.  Here's a view of Auckland as we leave and various shots on the island.  We pedaled 10 km across half the island and had lunch.

We walked the sand on this beach.  It is full of broken shells from some sort of shellfish (mussell or ?), clams (look like butterneck) and sand dollars.  The sand dollars looked somewhat like ours, the pattern was 5 lobed, but the lobes were a different shape.

The Waiheki Boat Society yards in one of the island's bays.  The number of beached boats needing paint jobs seems indicative of a "hippy" type community

After we returned to Auckland, I rode around town checking out bike shops.  I wanted to find a water 

bottle with a bike  shop's name on it, but no luck.  However, check out this state of the art bike - no pedals but look at the suspension.  There were lots of other interesting bikes in the collection.

Two more entries in the silly sign contest.  The first one struck me as cute (and reminded me I need a haircut).  The second baffles me a bit.  Anybody who needs the warning this sign gives is probably not smart enough to read!

Last shot is Laura in our cute little hostel caravan, beavering away at the computer.

Hey, it's cheap and once you're asleep you can't see the curtains anyway.

Finally, the last word on the Sky Jump.  Instead of jumping we compromised on having a great Italian 

dinner and a wonderful gelato ice cream cone for dessert.  We're in the "trendy" Parnell area of 

Auckland.  All sorts of restaurants, bars and 'boutiquey' stores up and down the street.

Tomorrow (Thursday) is our day to pedal out to a place nearer the airport.  We fly out of here at 7 pm on Friday and we land in Vancouver 13 hours later, but before we leave here.  Isn't the International Date Line fun?

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March 8 - More Auckland

Today is Maritime day in the City of Sails (Auckland's nickname for itself).  We had a leisurely breakfast and strolled downtown to the Maritime Museum.

Outside the museum is the hull of one of the NZ America's Cup challengers - unfortunately the one
that lost to Dennis Connors catamaran in 198-whatever.

Inside was the hull of the NZ winner (or the second boat, I can't remember which).  They had a couple of display halls full of the America's Cup stories.  Also, lots on general sailing and the developement of recreational sailing in NZ.

The museum is fairly large and, along with the exhibits above has the usual displays of maritime stuff.  I can look at it all day, but I won't bore you with any more.

Parked just alongside the Maritime museum were a couple of boats that belonged to the poor people,  The downtown marina has a  lot of seriously huge boats, belonging to people that could care less if
house wine is $10/glass in the restaurant.  Needless to say, we ate across the road in the cafe.

Last photo.  Where else would you see a Bicycle First Aid Vending Machine?  We're thinking of doing something different tomorrow - going for a bike ride (how imaginative, eh?)

A note for those of you voting on the blog - the ballot has only two choices - Yes or No for Laura.

It's no use spoiling your ballot with a write-in.  (I'm following the Muammar Gadaffi Fair Election Principles Handbook)

March 7 - Around Auckland

Woke up to a beautiful day in Auckland.  Here's the view from my (admittedly small) window.  Not bad for the bucks we're paying.

Off and about the city for some looking around.  We hit the Auckland Domain first, tramping around the park grounds.  Beautifully kept grounds and walkways.  I can't remember what this was when it was built but it is a tropical greenhouse now, as evidenced by the plants inside.

One of the main downtown intersections in Auckland.  They solve the pedetrian problem by turning all the traffic lights red and letting pedestrians cross in whatever direction they want, including diagonally.

Albert Park, another downtown park near the university.  It was noon and all the students were
enjoying the day.

This is another candidate for the Ugly Fountain contest.  There was one in Sydney, Australia that I
remember from our trips there.  They even had entertainment in the park - some fellow in shorts and
a T-shirt playing the bagpipes.  Laura appreciated that more than I did.

We went up the Auckland Skytower for the view and a coffee.  It is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere (328 meters) and, of course there are great views in every direction.  Here's looking towards the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Here's looking straght down.  Enough to make your toes curl, eh?

And here is looking over the harbour in a more southerly direction.  Let me explain about the wire contraption you see in front.  It is part of the Sky Tower Jump.  You put on a flight suit and they
connect you to the centre cable.  They then drop you from the top of the tower guided by the two side cables.  There is a camera on the right hand cable to record your joy (terror?) as you drop.




What do you think?  Should we get Laura to try it out?  Leave us your vote on the blog.  Vote 'Yes' and vote often!

March 6 - Wellington to Auckland by Train - 641 km

The train system in New Zealand is far more developed than ours.  The commuter train services around their large cities are especially well used.  The railway station in Wellington is busy to a point just below organized chaos during rush hours.

NZ has a few long distance train services, the longest being the "Overlander" which runs between Wellington and Auckland.  Its a 12 hour ride, starting at 7:25 in the morning.  One of the advantages of the backpackers hostel we were in is that it is just across the street from the railway station, so it was easy to pack up and get there early (in light rain, of course).  The train staff have obviously done this before as they very efficient, even at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning.

Off we went.  Leaving Wellington isn't too exciting as we are often below grade in cuts or tunnels.  Outside the city we get into plains before Palmerston North.  Most of the country is used for grazing.  At Palmerston North we switch from a diesel to electric locomotive and head for the mountains.  We travel through mountainous terrain for the next third of the trip, although there are always patches of grazing and farmland everywhere.

The electric locomotive, and the viewing car at the rear.












The crew annouces viaducts (trestles) or other features, so we crowd into an outside viewing platform between the baggage car and first passenger car for photos.  So, most of these photos are of river valleys as we cross the viaducts.  Sorry about the quality of the photos - my camera can't handle the train movement and one or two were shot through the window.

You might notice I am able to more easily arrange photos on the blog now.  This is due to there being better Internet connections in the big cities.













We went through many, many towns along the way.  They were pretty typical NZ and pretty typical of what I've shown you earlier.  For the train buffs, one of the interesting features of the trip is the Raurimu Sprial - a spiral tunnel used to drop elevation quickly as we went north from National Park.
Some of the towns we went through were ones we had bicycled earlier, National Park for example.

 This was the most spectacular trestle we crossed.  I wasn't able to lean out far enough to show you how high we were.

You'll notice how green the countryside looks in all of my photos.  Our impression was that it was 'greener' than normal, due to all that rain I've been whining and sniveling about.

Here's a map of the train trip.  If you ever have an opportunity to take it I'd recommend it.  You get to relax instead of driving and you should have your head read if you are on a bicycle!

We're in Auckland until we leave.  We made it easily from the train station to our hostel.  I'll put up some Auckland stuff in the next day or so.

March 4 & 5 - Around Wellington

One word pretty much describes Wellington for the two days we spent there - windy!  Howling Northerlies that swirled around the buildings downtown.  At times they were almost impossible to walk against - I wondered if Laura would get airborne.  Throw in the odd rain shower (lots of rain at night) and we were happy we weren't pedalling.

With a couple of days to kill we did some shopping and then I headed for museums and similar public places.  One pleasant surprize, they are generally free. My other pastime is looking at downtown architecture.

My first expedition was a tour of the parliamnet buildings.  Free tour, but no photos allowed.  They have 3 main buildngs: the Parliamentary Library, the new parliament buildings and the "Beehive." a rather contemporary design that is different to say the least.  The first photo is the Library, the second photo shows the Beehive tucked in behind the main Parliament building.  See what I mean?

This is the railway station, built during the Depression, and touted as being one of the first earthwuake resistant buildings.

Wellington is right on the largest fault line in NZ; a lot of people thought Wellington would get the big one before Christchurch.  Many of the local buildings boast about their earthquake design features, for example rubber isolators between the foundation and the ground, or structural provisions.   There is still an awful lot of unreinforced masonry about.

Some of the other photos are downtown Wellington.  I enjoy the contrast between old and new architecture.  And their public squares and spaces have a lot of character.

The museums we made it to included Te Papa, the NZ National Museum and the Wellington City Museum.  The photos I took inside either didn't turn out or weren't very interesting.

 On the right is a 1930's vintage wharf shed, which was right on the waterfront (left side of the building) when it was constructed.  The building on the left was built on reclaimed land.  The water is still further to the left, with a giant pedestrian walkway in between.

March 3 - Seddon to Picton & ferry to Wellington - 55 km

So, we survived the tent last night.  I was up about 2:30 a.m. and had a great view of the Southern Cross and the Milky Way.  The down side was that my Thermorest (hiker's air mattress) leaked so I might as well have slept directly on the ground.  I'm blaming Kye for the Thermorest, as he had pawed it before we left and I guess I only found one of the holes he made.  It's OK pooch, you're still in the good books (unless you've gone after Pat's shoes again).

A great morning, cool, clear and still. We cleaned up the tent, had breakfast with the guys from Vanuatu and headed off.

Just out of town I shot this photo of a riverbed from the bridge.  The soil has changed and looks like it contains a lot more clay now.

Another shot of grassy pasture with spectacular mountains in the background.

We are in serious wine country today, the Marlborough region.  If you check your NZ wine bottles, I'll bet a lot of it comes from here.

Here's a vineyard with rose bushes planted all around it.  I asked Jim (Pedaller's Rest) about this.  He told me they plant the roses to attract bugs as roses are more susceptible to the bugs than the grapes - sort of like canaries in a coal mine.  

You can also see the netting on the grapes.  There is literally hundreds of km of netting strung up.  No wonder they import workers to help out.

The last shot today is of a river valley we passed through.  Note how this is much more steeply cut

than the glaciated valleys I had been showing you earlier.  Steep as it is, they swtill use it for pasture.  They almost need sheep with short legs on one side to be able to walk across this.

We blew into Blenheim easily, stopped for coffee and a goodie and then cruised on into Picton.  It was an easy ride in gentle terrain with two yawner hills, less than 100 meters climb each.

We grabbed the ferry into Picton and are in Wellington now, in the Downtown Backpackers, which used 

to be the Waterloo Hotel.  We are going to be here for 3 days and then will take the train to Auckland.

So, that's about it for cycling.  We've racked up just over 2800 km on this trip.  We may do some day cycling trips, but we're not sure.  I'll try to keep up the blog and I'll finish off the maps I started earlier.

March 2 - Pedallers Rest to Seddon - 32 km

Only 32 km!  What a lazy performance!  Here is the explanation.

We woke up at Pedaller's Rest to lots of wind (headwind of course) and rain.  So, we hung around for the morning.  The weather report said it would improve.  They pay those guys lots of money so we believed them.  We tidied up the place for Jim & Denise (the owners), since they had been so hospitable the previous evening.

About 11 a.m. we took a short ride out to the highway and convinced ourselves that the weather was improving, so we packed up and headed out.  Two km down the highway the skies opened up - rain and headwinds - my favourite!

We slogged on to Ward, where there was a coffee shop so fueled up on a bacon and egg pie.  The weather did improve, it stopped raining, but the wind was still strong and in our face.

The scenery is hummocky grasslands, similar to yesterday afernoon.  We ahve actually crossed into the Marlbourough area of the South Island, which is famous for wine.  So, here's a picture of one of the vineyards.

It was tough pedalling, with the headwind, some areas of thin to non-existent shoulders and lots of traffic. To make matters worse, the wind swirelled occasionally and would tend to blow one onto the roadway.  We decided descretion is the better part of valour and pulled off the road a number of times.  At least the sun had come out but the wind stayed fierce.

The little town of Seddon appeared ahead, so we decided enough was enough and we would go no further.  When I say small, I mean it.  Here's the entire main street, with about 3 streets of residences behind.

We pulled into the backpackers (one of two choices for lodging, the other being a campground) and inquired.  They were completely full up with temporary vineyard workers.  Our only option was a tent space, so we took it.  So, whoever bet against us using the tent in NZ lost the bet.  And here's the photographic proof.  We actually were able to see three wireless networks from the tent, but couldn't connect to any of them.

It turns out that the vineyard workers are from Vanuatu, over here for a 5 month contract.  They were very friendly and we had a few nice chats.

I am sitting in the tent after dinner composing this, and it does sound as though the wind has dropped.  We have 25 km to get to Blenheim or 55 km to Picton tomorrow.  The wind is usually less in the morning, so if we get 3 or 4 hours of calm we'll get some kilometers under us. 

It's getting dark and the computer's battery is low, so Good Night.

March 1 - Kaikoura to Pedallers Rest - 77 km

Onward and northward today.  Our usual early start north from Kaikoura on a flat coastal road.  Here's Laura in the beach mist.

It's not even 08:00 and we came across these surfers at one of the beaches north of town.  I actually took the photo for the view.  A couple of the guys must have spent the night in their vehicles as they were still asleep.

Looking back toward Kaikoura.

The road follows the coast along with the railroad, with various tunnels.

Seal colony.  The info boards say that males grow to 2.5 meters and 200 kg (bigger than our seals) while the females are 1.5 meters long and 40 - 80 kg.

Another view of the mountains over a riverbed.

Eventually there was a bit of a flat plain between the mountains and the sea with mostly  grasslands.  It's very dry country in spite of being next to the ocean.  

We stopped for lunch at a tearoom at Kekerengu Point and had a pretty good carrot cake for desert.  We've been sampling carrot cake ever since Leddy, Laura and I had the world's greatest carrot cake in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.  We haven't equalled that one yet, although I've made one that's close.

Our destination today was Pedaller's Rest, about 55 km south of Blenheim.  It's pretty basic, but in a great setting.  This used to be a sheep shearer's hut. 

Unless there are some late comers, we're the only  tenants tonight.

Last photo is of the resident lawn mowing crew.  the owners of the property are pretty much out of the sheep business now and have converted some of the land to grapes.

Tomorrow's target is Blenheim, only 55 km further along.  However, the wind has gotten up (they are predicting gales overnight), so we'll see.