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Published: April 1st 2023
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Back to Queenstown and onto our final adventure of the trip Our first foray into Queenstown was brief and very loud. Unfortunately we had to return in order to catch the bus to Tekapo. We decided to try another hostel (after our St Patrick’s day experience of Nomads) and for some reason that Jan cannot explain, we ended up in a hostel called Jucy Snooze, which had all the disadvantages of Nomads but multiplied by 10. It was a truly horrible place...a kitchen the size of a cubicle, with nowhere to sit and eat and very little space to cook. A “chill out room” 4 floors above, that was absolutely freezing and was set up for a drinking game that we didn’t want to play. Our room was right by a fire door that banged shut every time anyone came through it. And there were various shouting arguments during the night. Let me back in Notso Tiny Tim I say!
Our bus to Tekapo was great as usual and we stayed in a nice quiet place before starting the final adventure of the trip ...The Alps to Ocean bike ride. The ride was to take us 6 days and
be a total of 300km over all sorts of terrain. Very exciting and a bit scary.
I am writing this at the end of Day 3. We have survived thus far but there have been times when we (mainly Jan) have wondered what on earth we were thinking of! The trail runs along beautiful scenery but today in particular we were cycling over rocks and through streams and it was pretty hard going. You would like to think that the whole thing would be downhill given that the Alps must be high and the Ocean must at 0m above sea level but there’s a funny thing! Today we struggled uphill for 2 hours 15 minutes over rocks and achieved a distance of 11km. With 44km as today’s total we were in despair. However we then (literally) hurtled our way down for 40 minutes ...We were remembering our last dodgy mountain bike adventure, cycling down Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador and trying to remember all the things we learned. Put your saddle down, get your bottom behind the saddle post and do not use the brakes suddenly….And hope your teeth don't fall out with the vibration. A 17 km rough gravel
road, downhill, was achieved in an hour and we were back in the land of the living before suppertime! Hoorah!
We have met a number of fellow cyclists on the trail and have started to make friends with a few. Most are travelling in big groups with a guide and using e bikes, and are having their luggage transferred to their next hotel or hostel by road every day. What an excellent idea! We did think about it and decided we could easily carry what we needed for 6 days in our paniers. And of course we didn’t want e bikes. Having been on the road for 3 days I would deffo go for an e bike next time although Pete is happy with his push bike. Always a happy chappy when pedalling is Pete!
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