NEW ZEALAND Entry 5 : Air NewZealand can stuff their sorries in a sack!

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DAY 20 : REST DAY - FRANZ JOSEPH

We had decided that everthing we had needed a wash, which meant we had to figure out a way to wash all our clothes, while still wearing something. In the end i opted for my rain jacket and some shorts. The washing machine survived our overloading of it and i stood around in my shorts trying to act natural.

Franz Joseph is known for its glacier 4km out of town. We decided to go and have a look at it, then maybe go for a half day tour if it warrented it. I've never seen anything like it - it looks like i belongs in antarctica or something. What made it even more bizarre was that to get there you walked for a little while through rainforest.

We jumped a couple of ropes once we got to the end of the tourist walk and headed out onto the trail with the sign "only tour guides and experienced climbers beyond this point". We're pretty experienced so we went, and the tour guides we passed were friendly about it. If we hadn't seen other ppl go up the track (the tour guides) we may not have tried it because it did seem like rocks were going to come tumbling down at any moment. But we survived and even attempted a little climbing of the glacier.

Without any crampons we weren't really tempted to try to properly climb the ice ourselves.

We went back into town, did some internet in a bus, food shopping, and then eating toads in the hole (egg in a hole in bread dipped in milk and cooked on the BBQ) later on. Oh yeh, the showers at this top 10 caravan park are the best so far.

DAY 21 : FRANZ JOSEPH --> HOKITIKA 139km

We sort of have a deadline to make it to Picton in a few days time so we've got some large cycling days ahead - today being the biggest.

The day didn't start out too nicely. One thing about NZ roads that i'm sure ppl who have been here will remember is one lane bridges. This is where the two lanes merge into one as you cross the bridge and, depending on what it says on the road sign, one side gives way to the other if they arrive at the same time. The problem this time, however, was that there was one retarded wanker in a big 4WD that came up behind us halfway across the bridge (about 75m long). I was riding in the middle of the road (as you do so that no one attempts to overtake you on the bridge as there's not enough room). But, being a retarded wanker, this guy decided to beep us, wanting me to pull over to the side. I promptly turned around and flipped the bird, giving him the full force of my middle finger. It must have hit him pretty hard as he swerved across my path once we reached the end of the bridge - as they say in cricket he missed by a few coats of paint. I then shook my fist at him and he zoomed off, obviously frightened.

We then spent the next half hour talking about ways in which we could damage such cars. DV's involved a complex pulley system attached to the handlebars with some sort of spiked wheel that rolls along the side of the car. My idea was to have a gas cylinder placed inside the handlebars which fires out paintballs when a button is pressed (inpired when we passed a paintballing place).

Not much else happened today. We rode over Mt Hercules who proved not to be so tough (only 200m Alt) and threw the frizbee at Hari Hari.

There was no "all you can eat" Buffet at Hokitika (our latest food eating dream) so we'll have to wait until Nelson.

It was the longest fully loaded cycle touring day i've ever done, but our rest day yesterday made it ok. We'll see how i am at the end of this stretch (4 more days - each around 100 k's i think).

DAY 22 : HOKITIKA --> REEFTON 119km

Today the bike didn't feel so good - i guess it's because of the big day yesterday. We cut inland once we hit Greymouth. The rivers and creeks seem to be a brownish colour here, not like the blue ones we're used to seeing - i guess there must be different rocks around this way.

Probably the best part about this leg was when we got to our camp site in Reefton and had a hot shower. The picture below shows a typical dinner on not so typical plates. Ice cream was eaten, then it was time for bed.

DAY 23 : REEFTON --> OWEN RIVER 107km

I had pretty much broken my front gear cable the day before so i set about replacing that in the morning. The front gear shifter was more complicated than i thought it would be, but everything seemed to go back into place once the cable was replaced - i could change gears again!

The riding was fairly continuous uphill, though it was very gradual and you could hardly notice it.

Our first main stop was Lyell where we caught up with our old friends the sandflies - but they're not really bad here - just one or two. The photo shows how hungry DV was, ready to eat one of the native flightless birds (well, i think it's native).

We passed by the long swingbridge, it looked pretty long. We'd already been on a shorter swingbridge in Mavora Lakes which we had to our own (well, where we camped ) so didn't feel like paying $5 each for this one (tight arses i know, but still...that's 2 1/2 loaves of bread - each!)

We got to Owen River and set up the tent. It was a huge dinner tonight - indian rice mix + veges (pumpkin +kumera + carrot). Cold shower, cold night , but a nice quiet spot with no other ppl in sight.

DAY 24 : OWEN RIVER --> NELSON 117km

Was a bit cold in the morning but cleared up pretty quickly. We didn't have much bread so we made it stretch by having chip sandwiches at the Pub in Kohatu. It's logging country now, so there's a few logging trucks on the road.

We had a couple of large "saddles" (hills) to climb, but the rest was downhill. Both downhills (from the top of each saddle) were very cool - the second one was less windy so i tried my hand at a few riding photos (shots taken while riding) - probably not the safest way to take a photo when you're going downhill @ 50km/h but i'm getting better i think).

Threw the frizbee and had some caramel & belgium slices at Wakefield.

There was a pretty cool bicycle road (old railway line) about 10km outside of Nelson giving bikes an alternate route to the highway and even giving them right of way at any crossings - coolness.

We set up the tent at a campsite a couple of min outside the city centre. For dinner we looked around for 20min looking for an "allyou can eat" buffet type resturaunt but had to settle on chinese food which gave you 4 choices of food plus a huge spring roll for $10 - not bad. I have a suspicion that i talk too much about food in this diary - but that is how the cycle tourist mind works
*1* what scenery will i go and see today
*2* what food should i consume to get me there!

DAY 25 : NELSON --> PICTON 117km (again)

Hmm, i'll start todays entry with what DV ate today. Now, this is the most we've eaten yet so it's not like we eat *this* much *every* day, but close to it. Plus it wasn't the healthiest of food today - but anyway...

the day technically started at midnight when DV couldn't get to sleep for some reason so he stayed up reading his book and eating snacks...so...

Midnight snack: Orange, nuts and one choky biscuit
Breakfast : bowl of museli
Morning tea : 2 croissants with jam or honey
Riding snacks : apple scroll, nuts, chocolate biscuit on top of every hill
Lunch #1 : 4 sandwiches (jam/honey/vegemite)
Snacks : nuts, biscuits
Lunch #2 : Egg & bacon pie and a stuffed potatoe with cheese & stuff
Snacks : nuts, biscuits
Lunch #3 : 4 sandwiches, paddle pop (ice cream), orange.
Snacks
Pre dinner snack : 1/2 scoop of hot chips
Dinner : 3 thick sausages, 2 eggs, onion, few slices of bread
Desert : 1/2 cheesecake. (sara lee type of thing).

I didn't eat quite that much - i didn't have the apple scroll or the biscuits.

But yeh, to the actual riding - that was pretty cool. There was one good hill early on and a bit of a coastal ride in the morning as well. For some reason we took today nice and easy - we were probably thinking "we always get there in the end" so we didn't really push it.

Then, when we'd finished our 3rd lunch @ Havelock we still had 35 km to do and it was 4pm already. We did the 35 km non stop which i thought was pretty impressive because it was up and down a windy road (Queen Charlottes pass) the whole time. We arrived in Picton at sunset which turned out nicely.

Tomorrow is a rest day and we should be going sea kayaking if the weather is ok.

Oh yeh, one funny thing i overheard while packing up my dishes in the camp kitchen was this guy talking to his wife, saying "ohhh, i don't know, i'm just tired that's all. It's not just the driving, it's all the getting in and out and walking to the cafe or walking to the lookout, it just adds up that's all"......far out!! i resisted the temptation to unpack my plastic fork and stab him in the head...:))

DAY 26 : REST DAY - PICTON

In an attempt to save money when we fly back to AUS we will be wearing every single article of clothing we have so that it doesn't count towards our baggage limit. Therefore the clothes wash this morning was a fairly big one as it'll be the last we do before that smelly day arrives (on the 26th).

We went down to the docks this morning and joined a sea kayaking half day trip (as the weather was forecast to turn bad later on). We drove back through the same way we came into Picton and then set out on the two man kayaks. We paddled our way back to PIcton, hugging the coast and stopping off for morning tea along the way. DV and i took some chocolate and sandwiches as well, just in case our expanded stomachs demanded more. We had a lot of fun, but were glad to finish off for the day as the wind was picking up and the water was getting very choppy. ALso, our arms haven't really been conditioned over the last month for kayaking - ie they're weak as piss - maybe next time we could find one with little pedals for your feet which would spin a propeller underneath the kayak, moving you along.

The rest of the day was spent checking email, beating DV at Air Hockey, dinner, bed.

DAY 27 : PICTON --> PEDALLERS REST 97km

We said goodbye to our German cycling friend in the morning. he was continuing on to the NOrth ISland but his wife went back to Germany -she was "raining from her eyes" :)

It looked like a good, easy day ahead but the weather turned crapola early on - crosswinds, headwinds, then cold and rainy winds. We eventually made it to a chocolate factory by 10am and tried a few samples. Everything was very rich, going at about $100 a kilo, so they didn't offer too much.

IT had cleared up and there were blue skies as we entered our first winery of the day. We were shown how to swirl a glass to enrich the flavours/smell. Then we did some taste testing - very nice.

Went to a bakery in Blenheim then a couple more wineries - my favourite was the Pinot at Dry Hills. We may have looked like a couple of Hobo's, but we tried to look natural at each place.

Oh yeh, i also went and had a chat with a lady at Air NewZealand in Blenheim regarding the complaint DV sent them and which hasn't received a response - she's looking into it [SEE BOTTOM OF PAGE FOR UPDATE ON RESPONSE]

There were a couple of hills after that but nothing too serious. Again we left our last push, from Seddon, very late and did 30k's non stop to the Pedallers Rest - accomodation for cyclists only! It's a very nice place - and i finally get a shower head that's above my head - well, in this case it was half a metre above. It was either that or the one that comes up to your nipple - strange.

DAY 28 : PEDALLERS REST --> GOOSE BAY 97km

Pedallers rest was an excellent resting spot and i loved the fact that it was only for cyclists. I guess they realise not many backpackers would consider stopping there as there's no town. And it's perfect positioning for a cycle tourist going from Picton --Chch or the other way.

Today was a fairly easy ride with the highlight being the seals on the rocks to our left as we rode along the coast. They looked to me like they'd had a rough night as they were just splayed out on the rocks soaking up the sun.

We also had a poke around Kaikoura, buying several tasty treats from the cheap bakery. We gobbled these up quick smart and then did some emailing, finding that AIr NewZealand had replied to the complaint DV sent them and had basically brushed us off. DV sent another one. We are now full steam ahead on the "wear everything possible" approach which will see us wearing all our clothing as well as other stuff (eg DV has to figure out how he's going to "wear" his tent).

All the carbs we ate gave us plenty of energy to make it to Goose Bay to camp.

DAY 29 : GOOSE BAY --> WAIPARA 110km

The forecast for today and tomorrow looked shithouse so we passed on the pancakes and just had museli. Quite a few hills early on. We had a small lunch at a historic bridge and pushed on to Cheviot. The weather had held off but it still looked like it'd turn crappy at any second so we just bought some bread and took off again, it was only supposed to be another 35k's to our camp site (85k's total)

ANother small break to dry the tent by a small hut beside the railway line and then off again, into a head wind - the weather still "looking" bad.

We approched the Greta Valley camp site with trepidation as there were about 200 motorcyclists with tents already pitched - the lady running the camp site said it might get a bit noisy tonight and recommended we keep going. But we could stay if we really wanted to.

We didn't, so, although we were quite knackered, it was only 4pm so we kept going. And we're very glad we did as there was a lot of downhill to get here (Waipara Sleepers) and there's promise of fresh bread and eggs on the house in the morning.

DAY 30 : Waipara --> Christchurch about 60km

We had all the guy ropes set out on the tent last night and lucky we did because it was blowing very hard. I'm pretty sure some of the less streamlined tents, on an exposed hill back at the motorcyclists campsite, would have blown over to Wellington. But ours survived and we awoke to bitter cold, but clearish skies.

Pancakes were fantastic, followed by fresh home made bread provided by the site. We decided to forget about the wine tasting today as most places didn't open until 11am and we had to do 50km into a huge headwind ("severe gail force winds" as the news bulletin put it) so we thougth we'd better leave ASAP.

It was pretty slow going. After an hour of solid riding we'd gone 10km, on flat road. Just when we got to this town the storms hit. So we had a bit of lunch then took off as the storm passed.

The next town was about 20km away and we stayed there until about 4pm as there was just storm after cold storm. We had some sandwiches outside the closed bakery and then thawed out in the pub next door and had some hot chocolate and chips.

We only had 25km left until Chch but it may as well have been 250km away. The lady in the pub said "oooh, i just came from there, it's 4degC and hailing" - i should have said "you mean it's just like here but a bit warmer?"

We decided to give it a go, and, despite the first 5minutes of hail, it was fiarly good riding as the storms finished and the wind was gone.

DV got his first flat tyre of the tour but we only had a 5min walk to a backpackers anyway so it was fine.

We're at BASE, sharing a dorm with a couple of other ppl, who, supprisingly enough, have to get up at around 5am to catch a plane - supprising because we're going to catch the ANZAC dawn service at about that time in the morning as well. It looks like the rest of the ppl in the building will be making a lot of noise tonight, but, as DV said, we'll be able to get 'em back when we're noisy early in the morning.


DV's (and a few ideas from me) Complaint to AIR NEWZEALAND


AIR NEWZEALANDS RESPONSE :



DV's counter response :


So, i call on all ppl to never again use air newzealand...as a favour to us:)

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