West Coast

28 - 29 Mar

Two of the most enjoyable days of the trip. It's funny how the moods change within few hours - one moment I'm considering quitting and next I'm doing over 210 km in two days nearly without an effort!

Just when I'm about to set off I meet a German cyclist, Jurgen. He's a very interesting guy, has cycled around the world, hitchhiked across the Pacific on sail boats and this is his third NZ cycling trip.

Everything seems to be perfect: the climb to Haast Pass turns out to be very gentle, seems like no climb at all compared to Crown Saddle. But afterwards it's nearly 75 km downhill all the way to Haas. We're in area where it's meant to rain all the time, they've got something like 7 or 8 metres of rainfall annually here, but we're blessed with great weather. Two days of sunshine, very warm, first time since I left Christurch that I can cycle just in a T-shirt and don't feel cold. Even the nights are warm. And the views are stunning!

Next day is more hilly and the second half is basically all uphill but the climb is very gradual and gentle. We arrive at Fox Village quite early in the afternoon and have time to go and see the glacier.

Wild mood swings

27 Mar

Planned to do 135 km to Haast today but feel tired and sore. Stay in the camp and sleep all morning, then have lunch and set off. It feels tough and after about 10 km I've had enough. For a little while I'm considering quitting and re-scheduling my flight. Then I stop at a lookout and within 10 minutes three cars full of young Czechs independently on each other pull over attracted by my Czech flag. It's nice to talk to them, they're very supportive and it brings my spirit up. I manage to do 50 km to Makarora.

Have nice dinner, do some stretching and meet a few more supportive people in the camp. Then go to a pub for a beer and meet two 'insane' kiwis going lightweight on racing bikes doing daily 200 km. They offer me to sleep in their cabin which I thankfully accept. I'm much better in the morning - the crisis is over.

Over Crown Range

26 Mar

I left my diary in Queenstown and have to hitchhike back to get it - luckily it's there! Then starts one of the hardest days so far as it takes me to 1070 m over Crown Saddle, the highest 'highway' in NZ and the highest point on my trip. It's 18 km of continuous climb with two very steep sections. There are spectacular views on the way. I meet Rebecca and Jesse just before the summit and then cycle with them to Wanaka.

After the pass it's downhill all the way to Wanaka, some 40 km. I break a spoke., luckily have a spare one and the guys have tools and help me to fix it. I stay overnight at Lake Hawea about 15 km from Wanaka.

Queenstown via Mavora Lakes

23 - 25 Mar

Leave Te Anau in the afternoon and cycle to Mavora Lakes. Most of the way off road on gravel through mountains. There are spectacular sceneries and views on the way. Stay overnight camping at the lakes which are beautiful.

The next I have to cycle 50 km and then catch a historic steamer across Lake Wakatipu to Queenstown. I wake up early to catch the first ship at 11 am. Go very fast but the last 10 km there's strong head wind and the road is badly corragated which slows me down and I miss the ship by half an hour.

Arrive in Queenstown in the afternoon. Go for jetboating in the next morning and then hang around the town. Cycle 20 km to Arrowtown in the afternoon.

Doubtful Sound

21 - 22 Mar

We go for a two-day cruise on Doubtful Sound. The trip starts with a cruise across Lake Manapouri, then in a van over Wilmont Pass to Doubtful Sound. There we board a small boat with four other people and a skipper/guide.

Were very lucky toa have two beautiful days of sunshine. We go up the sound all the way to Tasman Sea and to two arms. See dolphins, seals and lots of birds. We do fishing, catch a lot of fish and have it for dinner.

Current update

Catching up, I'm only 3 days behind with my posts!! Also included dates in all old posts.

Arrived yesterday in Queenstown, stayed overnight and had a look around the town. Going to Arrowtown on the way to Wanaka this afternoon. Some big hills waiting ahead the next few days :-( Hugs and kisses, so long...

The Fiordland

18 - 20 Mar

I'm heading to the Fiords. I'm cycling alone again but I'll catch up with Roland later on the way. My destination for the day is Tuatapere about 95 km far, the longest day so far.

It's sunny but very windy, mainly side and head wind, tough going. About an hour before Tuatapere I meet a nice young couple from the US, Rebecca and Jesse. We cycle together for the rest of the day. I get sore throat in the night, the I've been escaping since Invercargill has finally got me...

The next day is long again, about 85 km. Luckilly I've got a tail wind most of the way. I feel weak and tired and I know I'gonna be really sick tonight. About an hour before Manapouri meet Rebecca and Jess again.

I've got high fever in the night and go to bed early. Feel much better in the morning but stay in the backpackers and have a rest. Around lunch have an unexpected visitor - Matt. He's been there for a couple of days, went for an overnight cruise yesterday and saw my bike when he came back. I go to Te Anau in the afternoon to see the town and do shopping. Roland arrives later in the evening and we go for an overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound the next day.

Invercargill

15 - 17 Mar

When we arrive in Invercargill I feel I'm coming down with a cold so I stay a couple of days. Just take it easy, rest, do some shopping , check emails... Go to the museum and the art gallery and see a great exhibition of photographs of Tokyo street fashion that I wanted to see in Sydney but missed it. We also go to see 'The world's fastest Indian', a movie with Anthony Hopkins that takes place and was shot in Invercargill - how cool is that! BTW, an excellent movie, highly recommend it...

Meet (Not Kill) Bill

14 Mar

We hang around Curio bay most of the day and don't leave until 5 pm. The plan is to bike for about two hours and then stay overnight somewhere on the way. As soon as we leave it starts drizzling and it gradually changes into rain. About 7 pm it starts to rain heavilly and within 20 minutes we are completely drenched. I've got 5 cm of water standing in my shoes!

It's cold and the rain doesn't seem to be going away. We consult our guidebooks and it says there's no accommodation until Invercargill some 45 km away! We're really desperate but just as we start thinking about going to houses and begging people to let us stay overnight we see a country club/pub. It's nice warm inside, Jimmy the bartender makes us hot instant soup and lits fire in the stove so that we can dry up our clothes. We have seafood basket and a few beers and chat with the locals. A guy called Bill offers us to stay in his house. We move over there at about 10 pm. He's a really interesting guy and the place looks real cool. We stay up until 2 pm and drink a lot of beer while Bill's telling us his life story.

The next morning we don't get up until 10 am and Bill's late for work but he still cooks great English breakfast for us. But then his boss rings up and it's time to say goodbye. Thanks Bill!

The Catlins

11 - 13 Mar

The Catlins is a stretch of coast on the way from Dunedin to Invercargill. It has a lot of natural sceneries, wildlife, interesting rock formations and other stuff.

I leave Dunedin on Saturday morning. Roland joins me but Matt decides to stay in Dunedin and chill out. He plans to travel mostly by bus from now on. We catch a bus to Balclutha about 90 km from Dunedin and start cycling from there.

The weather is still bad, overcast with showers most of the time and quite cold but have one beautiful sunny day on the way to Curio Bay. The road is quite hilly but the views from the hill tops are amazing. We see some penguins, dolphins, seals and sea lions in Nugget Point and Curio Bay. There's also ancient petrified forrest in Curio Bay.

Current update

I'm currently in Te Anau in the Fjordland. Stayed 2 days in Manapouri and went for an overnight cruise in Doubtful Sound which was just perfect. Have been a bit ill last couple of days but feeling much better now. Heading for Queenstown today. So long...

Dunedin

8 - 10 Mar

I enjoyed staying in Dunedin very much. It's a beautiful city set in big hills - cycling there was pretty bad, it felt like I was going uphill all the time. It also sports the steepest street in the world, went up in a car, didn't feel an urge to cycle it. The city is just big enough and has an old university with lots of students and busy student life. There's a lot of little cafes, pubs and places to eat and it all gives it such a great atmosphere!

I stayed four nights with my friend's Julie's in-laws - Wilma and Don - who were very kind, looked after me and showed me around. They took me for a few trips: Otago peninsula and the albatros colony, the university and museum and a lookout above the town.

While in Dunedin I caught up again with Roland and Matt who arrived a day after me. We cooked a big dinner together in the backpackers where they stayed - deep-fried cheese and schnitzels - and went for a pub crawl. The last day before leaving I moved into the backpackers and stayed there one night.

Taieri Gorge Scenic Railway

7 Mar

Went to a pub in Middlemarch last night, met some friendly locals and an English woman hiking the Otago Railway track. Had a very pleasant chat and drank a lot of beer. It rained the whole night and in the morning. I had to ride about 20 km to Pukerangi to catch the scenic train to Dunedin. Pukerangi consists of an old tiny shed in the middle of nowhere and it's the last stop on the train trip except for two days a week when the trains go on to Middlemarch. The train stops there for about 10 minutes during which a crowd of tourists gets off the train takes a few photographs, stretch their legs, get back on the train and go back to Dunedin. The trip through the gorges along the river is very spectacular, though.

Central Otago Rail Trail

6 Mar

So far the best part: a disused railway trail made over into a track for walkers, horse riders and cyclists - no cars the whole day! Joined it in Rainfurly and rode it to Middlemarch, most of it gently downhill. Hard-compact gravel surface and strong tail wind, the bike went on the track like the trains once used to... Great weather, sunshine, amazing scenery through old railway bridges, tunnels, gorges. A perfect day!

The future of this blog

I'm spending way too much time trying to write detailed posts. I had to rethink it and from now on I will write very brief posts mentioning just the most important or interesting events. It means there will sometimes be just fragments of sentences but hopefully this way I'll be able to catch up and stay more current. So long.

BTW, I saw a GREAT movie yesterday called The world's fastest indian! For those who have seen it or are going to - I'm in Invercargill...

Pozdravy leti do Havirova

Srdecne zdravim me verne priznivce - studenty university tretiho veku v Havirove v cele s nejlepsim studentem Frantikem. Hezky se ucte a nezlobte pani ucitelku :-)

Over Dansey’s Pass

3 - 5 Mar

I’m now heading further south to Dunedin. The first two days the road undulates gently through hilly countryside and around beautiful lakes but is otherwise quite uneventful. The second day in late afternoon I arrive in a cute little town of Duntroon. I decide to leave the main road here and head for the mountains and over Dansey’s Pass. I stay overnight in a campground about 15 km from Duntroon on the way to the pass and start the climb the next day.

The weather is beautiful with sunshine and no wind when I’m leaving the next morning. There are actually two passes on the way. The climb to the first one starts right from the campground and it’s a corker, relatively short but very steep one. From there the road descends back to the river and then starts to climb over the actual Dansey’s Pass. This time it’s a gradual climb over several kilometers that takes me nearly to 1000 metres above the sea level. The scenery is amazing with lots of great views and there are hardly any cars at all. When I reach roughly half-way to the pass a strong head wind starts to blow and some clouds gather just over the pass on the horizon. The last two kilometers are really tough going against the strong wind and I have to get off and push the bike. When I finally reach the summit it’s cloudy, very windy and cold. I stop and put on warm clothes. On the way down from the pass I have to paddle to keep going downhill and the wind doesn’t stop until the end of the day. I wanna stay overnight in Naseby

Meeting people

New Zealand is a beautiful country and, despite the not so good weather so far, the trip is very enjoyable. One of the best parts is meeting a lot of new people everyday, locals, tourists and other cyclists. They are all very friendly and helpful and I want to dedicate this post to a few of them:

- a Canadian couple cycling around NZ whom I met the first day in Christchurch a who gave me some invaluable tips,

- admirable Sue from Oregon with her folding bike whom I met a few times on the way pushing hard regardless of the strong wind,

- Graham from Geraldine who let me use his barbeque, gave me lot of tips on places to see and offered to post some stuff for me to Dunedin,

- my biking buddies Matt and Roland for making me such a great company,

- a motel owner on the way to Lake Tekapo who let me for free pitch my tent in the backyard and use the motel’s showers and toilets

- Iain and Jess from Melbourne who checked my injured knee,

- two Kiwi couples in their campervans at Lake Tekapo who helped me fix my bike and were very friendly,

- a Chinese guy Ray who after 10 minutes chatting invited us all to stay with him China,

- the developer who rescued me from the strong wind and gave me a lift in his van to Twizel,

- owners of the hardware store in Twizel who let me use their landline to make overseas calls

and countless other.

Mt Cook

2 Mar

In the morning I decided to go for a day trip to Mt Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. The locals in Twizel said the weather there was gonna be alright but would change later during the day. I caught a lift with a young English couple staying in the same backpackers. We arrived about 10 am and the weather was already pretty miserable – low cloud, windy, drizzling and cold. I went for two short walks to Kea lookout and around the glaciers and spent there some six hours. I didn’t see Mt Cook the whole day but I didn’t feel like hanging around more. It was drizzling all day and I was wet and cold so I hitchhiked back to Twizel. Later that night I met Roland and Matt who meanwhile arrived at Twizel and we went to a pub for a couple of beers.

Twizel via the Canal Rd

1 Mar

During the stay at Lake Tekapo the weather changed significantly. It rained the first night and when I woke up in the morning the peaks across the lake were covered in snow. It was sunny during the day but there was a big drop in the temperature and strong, chilly wind. On the third day I decided to continue to Twizel, the next town south, despite the pain in the knee. It was only about 45 km and the day was sunny with strong but favourable northerly wind so I wanted to use the chance. I wanted to go along the flat Canal road and thought the wind would push me in the back so I wouldn’t have to paddle a lot. The guys decided to catch a bus to Mt Cook so we farewelled each other and agreed to catch up later on the way.

The road started not far from the town centre with a steep descent on loose gravel. Right at the bottom of the hill awaited first surprise – a locked gate. I really didn’t feel like going back up the hill so I had to take all the gear off, throw the bike and the bags over the fence and load everything back onto the bike. From then on it was a very nice flat road with hard compacted gravel and I enjoyed the tail wind. Several kilometers into the ride the road turned 90 degrees and headed west towards the mountains. The wind was now blowing from the side and it was so strong it was blowing me over. As if that wasn’t enough, the landscape opened and the wind started to blow from the front. I had to push really hard just to not fall off the bike and despite the great effort I was staying nearly on a spot. In the end I got off the bike and pushed it for several kilometers that seemed like forever. When I finally arrived at the intersection with the main Tekapo-Twizel road I was completely exhausted. Black clouds were coming from the mountains towards me and it was getting cold. I put on all my warm clothes but I was still shivering with cold. I didn’t feel like continuing on the canal road against the strong head wind and the main road with heavy traffic in the side wind didn’t feel very safe neither so I started to hitchhike. It took about 30 minutes before a nice guy gave me a lift in his mini truck all the way to Twizel. We met a few cyclists struggling against the elements on the way but I was very happy to be in the warmth of the truck.

The three physios

I must have overdone it during the first three days because I started to feel pain in my right knee. I did on average about 85 km with heavily loaded bike and my saddle was probably too low. I decided to stay at the lake for couple of days and give it some rest. I started to ice and compress it and the next day it was much better. I went for a short walk around the lake and up to the summit of Mt John and it felt alright. But then on the way from the summit it got worse again. It was actually quite painful and I couldn’t walk and was getting a bit worried that it could be the end of my trip. Luckily, as I was sitting in the kitchen at the campground I met three guys, first an English girl and moments later a couple from Melbourne on their honeymoon. When they saw me icing the knee they came and started to ask suspiciously qualified questions about what had happened. Incredibly it turned out they were all physios!!! They checked the knee and said it didn’t seem serious, just to keep doing what I already started and to buy anti-inflammatory gel and do a lot of stretching. I started to do what they said and it has improved since then. The muscles are still a bit stiff and it’s little sore in the evening but doesn’t usually bother me during the day and it’s getting better every day.

Christchurch to Lake Tekapo

24 - 27 Feb

Finally all is ready and on Friday I'm setting off for my trip. The bike is very, very heavy when fully loaded and the first 100 metres feel like I'm going to fall off anytime. It's quite difficult to steer, too, as it reacts very sensitively to every small movement of the handelbar. It takes me about half a day to get used to the bike's behaviour and become more confident.

The weather is perfect the first three days - it's sunny, warm, and there's just enough breeze to keep me cool. The road is literally flat nearly the whole first day, which is surprisingly not that good - no free rides downhill means no rest! I've got to push all the time and after about 35 km start to feel my legs. At lunch stop I meet an interesting fellow cyclist - a woman from the USA named Sue. She must be at least 65 and has got a folding bike which folds into a suitcase with small wheels. She uses the suitcase as a trailer while biking. She's much more experienced biker and fitter than me. We have a nice chat and then she mounts her bike and takes off. I can't keep up and watch her as she disappears on the horizon...

I spend the night at spectacular Rakaia Gorge. The next day starts with a first real hill right from the camp and it's a corker! I fight bravely but manage to climb only about 3/4 then give up, get off and push. After that the road undulates for the rest of the day but it's a welcomed change to the previous day. In the afternoon I meet another cyclist, a young Canadian guy named Matt. We hook up and bike the rest of the day together. It's a pleasant ride downhill on a quiet road and we spend most of it riding alongside and chatting.

The third day takes us to the hills. Soon after the start our mini group acquires another member, Rolland from Switzerland. We are now three. The road is much busier than yesterday and it goes up and down. About midday comes a long and fairly steep climb. A pleasant little cafe on the top is a welcomed lunch spot. Most of the rest of the day is a gradual climb to Burke's Pass Village where we have dinner. Rolland booked accommodation at Lake Tekapo and Matt continues with him. I decide to stay for the night.

The next day it's only 20 km to Lake Tekapo but I have to climb over Burke's Pass first. The views from the pass are spectacular and I take some pics. Soon afterwards comes a bus full of "cyclists" - mainly elder people. Having fresh legs from being taken up the pass by the bus and no baggage to carry they easily overtake me one by one and push bravely against the strong head wind. I manage to save some energy by drafting off one of the slower old ladies most ot the way to Lake Tekapo where I catch up with Matt and Roland. We stay at the lake for next two days to get some rest and see the surrounds.

Bike Hunt

I stayed in Christchurch two days mainly hunting for a bike. I had arranged from Sydney renting or buying a bike from one of the many companies in Christchurch specializing in bike-touring New Zealand. Most people who only stay for up to a month rent bikes but because I was planning to cycle for nine weeks it seemed worth considering buying one. The guy offered me to buy an older ex-rental bike for roughly the same price as renting one which sounded like a good deal.

They picked me up early in the morning from in front of the backpackers and took me in a van to their workshop - an old shed full of bikes - on the other end of the town. Their rental bikes looked well used but in good condition but I was interested in buying. They tried to sell me a really old bike - could have been some ten years old. It probably was a good bike once but it has seen better days. I first considered it even though I thought they were asking too much. But when I took it for a short ride I quickly lost interest.

I spent the rest of the morning running around bike shops that are luckily all concentrated around Colombo St near the centre. Around lunch time I decided to take one and it was coincidentally the first bike I saw in Christchurch the afternoon before.

Appologies and new posts

For those few faithful who keep checking (and nagging me :-): I'm behind with writing posts because I've got only limited access to Internet. I promise I'll try to improve and will slowly post some backdated stuff. A first installment coming soon...

Cheerio and keep in touch!