Today Sarah and I reached the literal high-point of our trip. We crossed the Crown Range on New Zealand’s highest paved road at 1076 meters.

The climb up was definitely the toughest we have done so far. Here is Sarah’s description of her experience:

We were ready for an 80 km day – 40 to the top of NZ’s highest paved road, then another 40 down. The first 30 km was an easy gradual climb. I was barely tired, which made me very nervous. I knew we’d have to climb all those record breaking meters soon. At 35 km the real hills began and the hot sun decided to come out from behind the clouds. I dislike hills + hot sun almost as much as I hate cold + wet weather! I struggled along in my granny gear for a few kilometers then decided to stop for a rest & drink. Jamie continued on ahead calling out “let’s keep going until we find some shade!” I knew this was wishful thinking – there were no trees, it was noon, he was dreaming.

After my rest & water I felt much better so I continued struggling along up the hill. I had to stand up (still in my granny gear, by the way) and grind on my pedals to get up one particularly steep curve. This extra exertion apparently did me in. About 500 feet of this and I had to flop off my bike again, panting like crazy. But this time I didn’t get my breath back after stopping – I just stood there panting and feeling miserable. Then my face got all numb and I almost passed out on the side of the road. Then I threw up my water. It was a quite a scene! After a few minutes of additional panting, I started pushing my bike up the rest of the hill. I pushed for about 20 minutes and enjoyed the faces of passing motorists. Usually on tough hills we get lots of thumbs ups and friendly honks. Not so when you’re pushing your bike. Instead I was treated to many slow shakes of the head & sad smiles, which I loosely interpret as “You poor bastard. What on earth were you thinking?”

Jamie came back looking for me on foot after he reached the summit, so he was able to join me for the last few meters. He even gallantly pushed my bike for me, but not before taking this lovely snapshot. I was yelling something like “Jamie, ONE is enough” right as he took this.

The climb started in Wanaka, one of the prettiest towns we have traveled through so far. We liked it there so much we stayed for three nights resting for the climb. Here is the sunset over the mountains and lake the night before we left.

The terrain of the climb was very strange. Lots of rounded peaks with grass and shrubs growing. The shrubs gave the hills a weird texture, making them loop like leopard print. Here are some images from the ascent.

From the top we could see Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, and our upcoming descent.

The descent was not fun. It was too steep and curvy for our tastes. Our ascent was 40km and the descent lost all that elevation in only 12km! It looked like a great road to climb up though. There was one section with steep switchbacks, a single lane, and beautiful views that looked like it was right out of the Tour de France.

We finally made it to the valley floor and tried to take a back road into Queenstown. After we had cycled 5km down it, we saw a sign saying it was closed ahead, so we decided to backtrack to the main route instead of risking getting lost. Sarah was worn out from her efforts on the climb (two mountain passes in one week!) at this point and was not happy.

As we neared Queenstown, traffic was pretty heavy and it was getting really windy, which didn’t make cycling very much fun. We did get our first view of the Remarkables mountain range which Queenstown is so famous for though.

We pulled into a holiday park on the edge of town and hung out in the kitchen all night eavesdropping on a pathological liar who was telling a fellow hiker of his multiple 100ft falls from mountain cliffs without injury. After such a fall, he would just find the nearest cold mountain stream and let its waters “heal” him. Yeah right! Welcome to Queenstown.

Today Sarah and I rode 50km through the Southern Lakes district to the town of Wanaka. Our ride took us past Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea. The lakebeds for both of these lakes were carved by glaciers and each lake is over 300 meters deep. We were surrounded by mountains the entire time and our ride was very hilly. We were both a little tired from yesterday too and that made today one of those days were 50 kilometers feels more like 150. The good news is that there are no sandflies here! We woke up at our campsite this morning and the sandflies were so thick we were inhaling them. Now we are in Wanaka and haven’t had a single bite yet!

Here are some pictures from our ride today.

Check out how steep the road up this hill is!

The view from the top was nice though!

Now we are going to spend one or two days relaxing in Wanaka before heading South to Queenstown over the Crown Range.

Hello from the other side of Haast Pass! Sarah and I safely and successfully crossed the Southern Alps today and we are now in a new region of the country: Otago. This region is known as one of the most beautiful areas of New Zealand with majestic mountains and glacially carved lakes and during our short time here it has lived up to its reputation!

Weather and sightseeing slowed us down a bit last week, so at the end of the week, we cycled like lunatics to get to Haast and in doing so we did our first metric century and bested our previous longest day by 50%! On Saturday the 3rd we cycled 126.08km in 6 hours, 55 minutes, and 45 seconds. It was definitely a grueling day and we were wiped out afterwards so we spent Sunday the 4th resting in Haast. After the ride, we were discussing whether or not cycling 100km on these loaded touring bikes is as difficult as riding 100 miles on a racing bike. We think it is.

The epic ride started inland as we left the glaciers. Here is Sarah cycling through some dense rainforest.

As we neared the coast, things started to open up a bit with nice rivers, plains, and hills.

As we were nearing the end of the ride, we touched the coast and had to climb and descend three 200 meter hills in a row. It was painful, but the views from the top were worth it.

We spent the next day relaxing in Haast and cycled about 5km down to the beach. Sarah did a little beachcombing, hoping she would find an ancient mere, but she didn’t have any luck. We did spot a couple of dolphins in the surf though.

Today we were feeling pretty well recovered so we decided to tackle Haast Pass. Here I am getting my daily upper body workout by using our handpump to inflate our tires to 95psi.

The ride started out pretty flat; we cycled along a plain for about 50km with views of the mountains we were trying to get across.

Check out all the waterfalls coming down this one.

Sarah’s shadow was so clear in the morning sun, it looked like she was riding on top of a mirror.

We stopped for a lunch break at Pleasant Flat and were thankful we didn’t have to cross the glacier covered peaks we could see in the distance.

As we approached the Gates of Haast, the road became steep and our pace slowed to 5km/hr. We knew the pass was about 10km, so we got a little worried wondering if it was really going to take us two hours to get across?! When we arrived at the Gates of Haast, we really started to panic. We could see the road became even steeper ahead and we didn’t know whether or not we could make it. Was it really that steep all the way up? Sarah was feeling very tired, so we decided to take some action. We took her dry bag and put it on my bike, creating our first double-decker load.

We then started up; the falls at the Gates were beautiful.

As we started climbing, we realized this wasn’t a road we were on, it was a paved wall! I was out of the saddle, grinding my way up the hill. I could feel the burn of the midday sun on my back and I was instantly so drenched in sweat I could barely keep a grip on my handlebars. I looked back, worried about Sarah but she was already out of site. So I decided to leave her. If she was really this weak, I didn’t bloody want her anyway.

Just kidding people! I knew if I stopped I would never be able to start up again, so I continued on to scout out how long the steepness lasted. Luckily, the gradients eased after about two kilometers and I was able to pull off the road to catch my breath. After a few minutes, Sarah rounded a bend and wove her way up the road toward our resting spot.

When she arrived, she told me she had to climb so slowly that she wasn’t able to keep her bike upright and she fell off. When she started again, she learned that at speeds below 3.8km per hour her speedometer gives up and tells her she’s not moving anymore!

Thankfully, that hellish stretch was the worst of the pass and the remainder was actually very gradual. Haast Pass is actually the lowest of the passes in New Zealand at only 564 meters.

We spent the afternoon descending gradually and admiring the new dry landscape.

You may have heard some military types bragging about the in-air refueling of their fighter jets? Well, they’ve got nothing on us. We’ve also perfected in-flight refueling with our Hydrapaks. Here is Sarah hydrating in style.

On our way down, we stopped to visit the Blue Pools. It was a short trail off the road including a swinging bridge crossing and the water was amazingly clear and beautiful.

At the end of the day, we set up camp at a DoC site right on the shore of Lake Wanaka. We gaze out the front door of our tent and pretend we are in our million dollar lake home. Tomorrow we head toward Wanaka and Queenstown.

Stats from Week 5 (1.29.2007 – 2.04.2007):
Greymouth -> Haast
5 days cycling, 2 days resting

347.78km (69.56km / cycling day)
20 hours, 27 minutes, 42 seconds in the saddle

NZ$265.09 (NZ$37.87 / day)

Today Sarah turned a lovely twenty-seven years of age. Her first birthday as my wife! What a milestone!

When we woke up, we were glad to see that the skies were clear and sunny. We decided to head towards Fox Glacier which is only about 20km South of Franz Josef, but the road between the two is very windy and hilly. At first the climbs were nice and gradual and we were surrounded by forested mountains and clear streams, so we were happy.

Soon things became very steep though. If you look closely, you can see Sarah has her “Lance” face on as she destroys this switchback.

We arrived in Fox Glacier about two hours later and decided to spend the night here so we would have time to see the glacier and walk some of the trails in the area. We stopped at the DoC office to get some information on the trails and it looks like I was right, a lot of tourists have been injured and killed because they don’t heed the warning signs near the glaciers! Think twice before crossing that barrier kids!

Fox Glacier is smaller and much less touristed than Franz Josef, but we thought it was more spectacular. It has carved out a narrow canyon with vertical walls and the trail follows the icy river right up to the terminal face of the glacier.

The ice in the river looked like the tapioca balls in bubble tea.

Ye olde terminal face of Fox Glacier.

It started to rain on us (gasp!), so we headed back to the township of Fox Glacier. We thought about going out for a nice dinner, but after looking around at our options decided we would have tea and cake instead and wait until we returned to Auckland in about a month for a celebratory dinner. After our snack, Sarah got to forget about the budget for a day and go on a shopping spree at the market here in town. She picked out “Luxury Muesli”, a nice bottle of NZ Shiraz, some of her favorite digestive biscuits, and “all the milk she could drink.” Not pictured is the ice cream bar that was devoured before the photo was taken.

While waiting for Sarah to pick out her loot, I found the perfect treat for our little kitty Robo. I bet he wishes they had this in the United States!

No comment on these puzzling little treats though.

Tomorrow we will continue South towards our first real mountain pass. Haast Pass!

You would not believe how hard it rained here last night. It is the kind of rain you see at the very most intense part of a midwest thunderstorm…but it never stops. It rained buckets and buckets for many many hours. We are officially in the rainforest now, though, so I guess I’m not allowed to be too surprised. The forecast said that over the course of 6 hours they were expecting 130 – 160 mm of rain. That’s about 6 inches.

The tent sites here aren’t on grass due to the amount of rain regularly received. Instead we spent the night on a sheet of astroturf sitting over a bed of gravel. Sounds uncomfortable, but it was better than sleeping in a puddle. Our tent held up decently well in the deluge, although the floor seems to ooze water. Not sure what’s up with that.

Today we woke up to absolutely clear blue skies – I could not believe it. The city of Franz Josef is beautiful; it is set in a valley surrounded by snow capped peaks:

We decided to stay for the day & hike to the face of the glacier. We rode our bikes the 4km to the start of the glacier hiking trails. This included another trip over a one-lane bridge – this one crossed a turbulent river of totally grey water. The rainstorm last night increased the river volume and filled it with rock particles to the point where it didn’t even look like water. It was more like a giant mudflow with soccer ball sized chunks of ice floating in it:

View from the road to the glacier:

Jamie stops to pose on the road to the glacier:

Franz Josef glacier:

I managed to take this classic photo of Jamie contemplating the glacier. He stood just like this, staring at the glacier, for quite a long time. Turns out he was busy imagining what it would be like if the glacier exploded into a huge rush of water and ice, striking down all those naughty tourists who’d broken the rules and slipped under the rope for a closer look at the glacier. Typical.

A pretty reflection pool with Franz Josef glacier in the background:

Close up of a fern leaf unfurling:

I think Jamie jinxed us with his last post about the nice weather we’d been getting. As soon as he uploaded his journal entry in Greymouth (using the only wireless internet in town at McDonald’s!) it started pouring.

Later that afternoon we went grocery shopping to stock up on food for the next week. Here I am organizing & packing it all:

The next morning the weather cleared just long enough for us to pack up our wet tent. We set off down the west coast and it immediately started to rain. It wasn’t bad at first – just a heavy drizzle – but over the course of two hours it turned into a full blown thunderstorm. We finally decided to stop for the day at only 40km, in Hokitika. We were completely soaked to the bone, starting to get really cold, worried that cars wouldn’t be able to see us on the road, and worried about getting hit by lightning. We also stopped in at the local tourist information site and found out the forecast for the rest of the day predicted severe thunderstorms. As we set up our tent at the local holiday park I realized my hands were so frozen that I couldn’t move them well enough to squeeze open the clasps on our panniers. Everyone knows how much I love to be cold and wet, so you can imagine my mood. (See the About Us section, under “Thing you least look forward to on this trip.”) We ate lunch in the holiday park kitchen, drank a bunch of hot tea, and then the rain stopped. It didn’t rain the rest of the day and the sky even cleared to bright blue. We were both extremely annoyed – we’d just spent the absolute worst part of the day cycling then paid for a camping spot and so couldn’t cycle any further that day. Instead we hung around in the TV lounge and watched an episode of Dr. Phil.

It stormed all night, which means we woke up the next morning and packed up the still wet tent. We continued south against some nasty headwinds but we weren’t too sad because the rain finally stopped and the skies cleared! We stopped for lunch at Bushman’s cafe in the town of Pukekura (population: 2) which was extremely entertaining. We got to see a giant sandfly statue, angry letters to the proprietor from animal rights activists, and Jamie got to sample a possum pie. These pies are, naturally, the reason for the animal rights activist letters.

Getting ready to dig in:

First bite:

Verdict: delicious!

Dad, this one’s for you. The Roadkill Cafe menu:

After 75km we arrived in the very small town of Hari Hari where we decided to stop for the night. Nothing much exciting happened there. Jamie developed a new method for drying the tent out:

We had a beer in the local pub and watched cricket like everyone else was doing. We spent our time speculating what the rules & goals of the game are. We’re still not quite sure how it all works.

Next morning dawned and it was grey and rainy again! We didn’t want to hang around Hari Hari and we’d heard a rumor from another pair of cyclists that the weather would turn even more nasty in the afternoon. So, we packed up camp as fast as possible, ate a cold piece of bread with peanut butter, skipped my precious morning coffee, and took off. It rained non stop for the first 32 km. We took a break for a small snack of trail mix and a quick bowl latte at the only cafe in town then departed to ride the last 32km to Franz Joseph. It rained non stop for the second 32 km too. Aside from the coldness and misery of riding in the rain, it also sucks because you can’t see anything. You squint to see the white line on the side of the road through all the rain and you occasionally look up and see hazy grey mist. The scenic highlights were the many rickety looking one-lane bridges we’d ride over mountain rivers; the water was completely opaque but bright aqua blue – so pretty.

We were also extremely entertained by the unicyclists we saw touring the country! No joke – we passed a group of four men on giant unicycles. They were touring the entire west coast of New Zealand on these extremely uncomfortable looking bikes…I don’t know how they did it. It made what we’re doing look too easy!

We managed to get a few good pictures of them. This guy was a pro!

This guy was a little more wobbly – we were concerned for him on the hills!

Here I am: slightly crazed, riding in the rain, no hands! Impressive, no?

Even the horses were wearing rain jackets:

The ride into Franz Joseph was pretty, even in the rain. We decided to spend the night here & wait for the weather to clear – it is supposed to be better by tomorrow or the next day. We don’t want to miss all the sights on the west coast due to this pesky rain.

Riding into Franz Joseph:

Riding into Franz Joseph:

Sarah and I have made our way down the coast to Greymouth, along the Grey river, center of the Grey district. Not surprisingly, this area is known for its torrential rains. Luckily the two days we have spent in this area have been grey in the morning but sunny in the afternoon with only a couple of light sprinkles!

The ride from Westport to Greymouth was beautiful. The stretch of SH6 between the two town runs right along the coast with beautiful views everywhere.

We have upped our mileage to about 80km per day and Sarah is feeling tired again. One morning she wanted to sleep on the bike instead of ride!

However, once we saw the ocean she was perked up and ready to cycle.

We also hit 1000km on this stretch of highway. Not bad for our first month of cycling!

Sarah was also delighted to see that we have entered penguin country! No sightings yet though!

Ah, the salty sea air!

Sarah cycles through what the locals would call some “glorious native bush.” The ferns and palms along the coast reminded us of the television show “Lost.” Once we realized the new season was about to start, Sarah seriously suggested that we plan our nights so that we could watch it.

The Nikau Palm is the southernmost naturally growing palm in the world.

Perpendicular Point is aptly named! If you look closely, you can see the road we cycled up.

We hiked the Truman Track down to the ocean. Voted the best short walk in New Zealand! It was only 15 minutes long.

Punakaiki is one of the main tourist attractions along this route. This area of the coast is a Karst region. It is an ancient limestone seabed that has been raised up and is now being worn away by the sea and wind. Punakaiki has pancake rocks which are made of layered limestone. Scientists are still trying to figure out why they are layered.

The waves of the ocean have worn tunnels into the rock forming blowholes. This one is called “The Chimney Pot.”

In Westport, we ran into a German couple who are also cycling through New Zealand. These two are the most musclebound couple we have ever seen. When we heard the guy speaking German, we wondered if he was an Austrian descendent of Arnold Schwarzenegger. They both looked like they were about to bust out of their cycling spandex and he has a tattoo on his ankle that simply says “Bodybuilding.” We were too intimidated to talk to them at first, but then we ran into them again in Greymouth so we struck up a conversation. It turns out they are following the same route as us, but they left Greymouth today so we will probably never catch them. Sarah joked that they most likely did crunches together every night and then a little bit later we saw them doing exactly that in the TV lounge! We noticed they are both carrying protein and other dietary supplements. We took a picture of our nutritional snack of beer and chips next to theirs.

We are resting today in Greymouth and are going to stock up on groceries and other provisions because we are about to enter the wildest and least populated area of New Zealand. The next supermarket is 465kms down the road! We are going to head down the coast to Haast and then go over Haast Pass towards Queenstown.

Stats from 4th Week (01.22.2007 – 01.28.2007)
Motueka -> Greymouth
5 days cycling, 2 days resting
336.95km (67.39km / cycling day)
20 hours, 43 minutes, 22 seconds in the saddle

What’s worse, a mangled tricycle graveyard or a swarm of killer sandflies? Sarah and I got to make that choice last night when we free camped in the Buller River Gorge.

About 6pm, we had cycled nearly 80km and were both feeling tired and hungry, so we were riding along slowly, scanning the sides of the road for a good place to camp for the night. We searched for a bit and found a gravel road leading to a clearing off the highway that was flat and extremely well hidden from the main road. We thought we had hit the freecamping jackpot. Until we saw the trikes.

About fifteen old tricycles were strewn about, all of them mangled in some way. Thrown together in what looked like it could be an art project, junkyard, or maybe the work of a demented child killer. We both had the same reaction to the site: very creepy.

However, the site was too perfect otherwise to pass up so we decided to camp there for the night. We made dinner and ate quickly since we were both being bit frequently by sandflies. We were used to being bothered by them, so we didn’t think much of it. We then retreated to the safety of our tent and were soon amazed at how many sandflies were swarming around us. So many were landing on our tent it literally sounded like it was raining outside. Every time we opened the tent to grab something or pee, we had to going on a killing spree in the tent, swatting all the sandflies that had made their way in. We were both imagining horrible situations like the tent splitting open and being eaten alive and weren’t looking forwarding to getting out of the tent and packing up in the morning.

When we woke up, the sandflies were still there, biding their time and waiting for us. We formulated a plan and then dashed out of the tent and packed up our gear faster than we ever have before.

We got bit a lot as we packed up – we had to run in place while standing to avoid being covered by flies, but we did have one small victory against the little buggers. As we were packing up the tent, many of the flies invaded it searching for our warm succulent bodies inside. Little did they know the tent was about to be collapsed and they were trapped inside to die. Here is a picture of the carnage later as we unpacked the tent again.

In happier news, we have arrived at the West Coast are now in Westport. We are now going to turn and head South towards rocky coastlines, glaciers, and the Southern Alps.

We arrived in Motueka from Abel Tasman National Park for our rest day on Sunday. We thought the ride from Abel Tasman was going to be an easy 10k but the route we took turned out to be 25k with a truly monstrous hill right in the middle. We stopped & rested at the top of the hill before descending because my head felt like it was going to explode!

On Monday morning we decided to stay in Motueka for a ‘real’ rest day – I thought the day before (with the 25k & giant hill) didn’t count at all. The full day and a half of rest was glorious – we had fish and chips, local white wine, bowl lattes, and Mr Whippy ice cream (As documented by Jamie’s earlier photo. Those kids were so slow – they were easy to beat to the ice cream truck!) We even got to have cereal with cold milk on the day of our departure towards the west coast. That’s an exciting treat because we usually can’t have milk in the morning due to our inability to keep it cold.

Fish and Chips:

Jamie posing in Motueka:

First day out we cycled along the quiet Motueka Valley Road which meandered, slowly uphill, southwest along a river. It was perfect weather & a perfect road for cycling. We passed lots of orchards and vineyards, as well as farms growing hops. Some farmers got double duty by letting their sheep hang around under the hop vines:

The day gradually got hotter and hotter – around 3pm we stopped for a rest in the shade at a roadside fruit stand where we got a bag of freshly picked plums for $1. After 4 1/2 hours in the saddle and 75k we found our first free camping spot along a small river. We cooked dinner and hung out until the sandflies got so bad we had to set up the tent. We spent the rest of the evening in the tent listening to our radio & the millions of bugs hurling themselves with all their might against the sides of our tent. To Jamie’s huge delight this was our cheapest day ever – only $8. More money for me to spend on ice cream in the next town!

While Jamie was washing dishes in the river he encountered the most friendly bird on earth. It was a cute little gray bird with long skinny legs – he was interested in everything Jamie was doing. He even perched on the sponge while Jamie rinsed the dishes! Later on that evening he came over to our tent and hopped under the vestibule to peek in the screen door. He must get fed a lot & was looking for a handout?

We woke up the next morning to someone’s crowing rooster that had made its new home in the field we were camping. We took down our tent and had coffee & toast with peanut butter for breakfast. Here’s our highly ingenious way of making toast with no toaster.

The day started off slow – lots of small hills, leading up to the biggest saddle we’ve crossed so far. After one hour of cycling (average speed of 9km/hr -ugh!) we made it to the top of Hope Saddle at 634 meters. We took in the scenic viewpoint then zoomed down the other side of the saddle.

Surveying the scenery:

Yet another congratulatory picture. 2085 feet!

We’re having afternoon tea in Murchison right now and plan to ride another 20k before finding another free camp spot tonight for a total of 80k today. Tomorrow we’ll ride another 80k and arrive in Westport – our first stop on New Zealand’s famously beautiful west coast!

Stats for the 3rd Week (1.15.2006 – 1.21.2006):
Aussie Bay -> Motueka

5 days cycling with 1 easy/rest day
2 days tramping

219.29km (43.86km / cycling day)
NZ$459.22 (NZ$65.60 / day)
14 hours, 9 minutes, 1 second in the saddle

42km of tramping in ~12 hours

We have been pretty consistent in our daily spending at around NZ$65 per day which is approximately US$46. That comes in right under our budget of US$50, but when you add in the gear we have purchased here, transportation costs, and other miscellaneous expenses we are up at US$65 per day. Whoa nellie! We may need to curb our ice cream habit. In addition to costing us money, its getting a little embarassing as tonight Sarah beat a group of children in a sprint to the ice cream truck as it passed through the holiday park. We did get to try a Mr. Whippy though. Sort of like Dairy Queen but a little creamier.