Hello again, and yes, we managed to get home on schedule at 10:00 this morning.
The logistics of getting cardboard boxes for the bikes in Christchurch were too difficult
to overcome at a price we wanted to afford, so the bikes were just wrapped up in plastic
bags for the flights to Zurich. As a result there was some damage to them, which would
have been a problem if we had had to do much cycling after arriving in Zurich. As it was,
there was snow on the ground and thick fog, so we simply caught the train to Brugg and
cycled the 2 km from there up the hill to Riniken.
Continuing the tale of our travels in NZ, we did get to Wanaka in 2 days from Haast, as
expected, but the first of those days was really tough. First of all there were no cafés
or other watering holes on the 85 km stretch of road, secondly it rained cats and dogs
the whole way, and thirdly we had to climb over the Haast Pass at 563 m starting from sea
level. It was so steep at one point that we were reduced to pushing for the first time on
the trip for about a kilometre. Fortunately the next day to Wanaka was glorious ...
sunshine, downhill or level most of the way, a strong, tail wind, 2 beautiful blue lakes
to cycle along, and only 65 km.
We had a rest day in the beautifully situated, if touristy, town of Wanaka. The time
remaining to get to Christchurch (Chch) under our own steam was by this time getting
somewhat tight, so rather than going via the Lindis Pass and Lake Tekapo to Chch as
originally planned, we went via Alexandra along the so-called Otago Central Rail Trail to
the coast at Palmerston.
The Rail Trail is some 160 km of disused railway track converted into a gravel cycle
track. We did about 120 km of the trail, stunningly beautiful, but with winds that have
to be experienced to be believed. The forecast for the first day was gusty winds of up to
110 kph, which turned out to be correct as far as we could ascertain! It was a side wind
as well, which was quite dangerous on the embankment sections of the track. Kari was
blown off her bike twice, fortunately without injury.
From Palmerston we were only about 300 km from Chch with 6 days in hand, which was quite
comfortable. But because we expected the coastal road to have heavy traffic and not to be
too interesting to cycle, we had planned to do the stretch by bus. However, catching
buses with bikes is not that easy in NZ. We got up early the next morning to try, but the
drivers of the 2 early morning buses declared that they had no room for bikes.
The next bus was at about 15:30, so we decided to cycle the 65 km to Oamaru in the
meantime and try to get on the bus there. At least we would then still be on schedule to
get to Chch in time should we be unlucky again. As it turned out, we had a strong head
wind that day, so the 65 km turned out to be quite an ordeal, but also very nice since we
could take a quiet side road close to the coast rather than the main one. Again, we could
not get on the bus.
As a result of the day's struggles, our enthusiasm for slogging it through to Chch under
our own steam was quite low by this time, so we tried the Tourist Info Office. The lady
there was magnificent in phoning the various bus companies. She eventually got us onto
the night bus leaving at 23:30 and getting to Chch at 03:00! We had time to go and look
for penguins, successfully, in the meantime. On getting to Chch we had to use the tents
for the 2nd time this trip to get through the rest of the night, the bus driver having
dropped us off at a camp site.
The remaining 4 days in Chch over Christmas Day and Boxing Day were something of a
cycling anticlimax after that. We rented a car for 2 of them to help pass the time.
Actually, they turned out to be rather exciting when we had 5 earthquakes on Boxing Day,
the strongest being 4.9 and causing quite a lot of damage. The town centre was
topsy-turvy afterwards with cordoned off streets and buildings.
So that's it and now it's back to winter. At least the days are getting longer again!
Wishing you all a prosperous and healthy 2011,
Kari, Georg and David