New Zealand - Spring (Fall) 2007
New Zealand reigns as a beautiful and welcoming place to travel and live. On February 5th, 2007 I moved to this far away Island (or two). The first five weeks I spent on a cycle tour of both the islands - certainly a memorable adventure. Afterwards, I moved to the city of Christchurch, located on the southern island. I stayed in the city for two and a half months before returning home in early June. But this trip is undeniably defined by the cycle tour.
Before leaving for New Zealand my close friend Meredith and I decided that although we'd prefer to live in Christchurch and afterwards cycle at the end of our stay, that weather prohibited this action. We decided to cycle first. By the time we arrived on the tip of the south island we'd cycled nearly 1,000 miles. And although it took us five weeks to get down there we only actually cycled on seventeen different days or so, two of which included a century in miles.
The Tour (full slide show available)
Upon arriving we were greeted by the city of Auckland. Auckland boasts over a million people, which is considerable because New Zealand has only four million. It is as busy one might expect. In fact, most New Zealanders themselves will tell you to avoid Auckland. I enjoyed it fine, though.
After two days we headed south. The first, second, and third days proved long and arduous. I was in medicore condition, but Mer hadn't been active in over five months thanks to an ACL tear. That second day, when we biked for about 6 hours and went only 45 kilometers is burned into my mind. Let that be a token of encouragement to any who strives to go on a cycle tour. By the end of the third day we'd spent the night on a very nice couples lawn - the Caldwells, seen a glow worm cave near the west coast and arrived in Raglan, a beach community. It offered a bit of respite from the road. The following morning we attempted to board a bus towards Hamilton, but an anal-retentive bus driver forbade us. To exhauseted to ride on we remained another day. In the morning we felt renewed and rocked the 45k to Hamilton in two and a half hours. A summit along the way to Hamilton; the road can be seen below.
Hamilton ranks as New Zealands fourth largest city. I found the city jocund, yet at a healthy pace. In particular, the gardens were spectacular. The curators arranged the gardens into different sections in an effort to represent world gardens: Japanese, Chinese, Indian, English, American, and Italian Renaissance. Our time in Hamilton afforded us only the afternoon and our choice to visit the gardens was well justified. In the evening we took a bus to Rotorua where saw some amazing thermal geysers, a redwood grove, and some Maori cultural exhibitions before heading south to Lake Taupo.
On the road to Taupo we stayed the night in a holiday park that offered thermal springs hot pools. I know what you're thinking: extravagence; indulgence; decadence. But it was all offered for the low, low price of 14 NZD (or $10) per person for campers. For some reason the water was not heated from sulphur like most thermal pools/geysers, which meant no foul stench. In the morning we visited Waitopo, a well-known thermal park. Many pools of vibrant colors feature there. To avoid the day's worst heat we ran all the park's trails. In the late afternoon we came by Taupo after visiting Crater of the Moons, which is on the outskirts. Not overly taken with the town we cycled to the free camping outside of town and got up in the morning to press on towards Napier. Thus began our longest day to date.
A famous day fondly remembered. Intimidated by the locals descriptions of the road towards Napier - which cuts over a large mountain range - we biked with trepidation and expecting to not get too far. At midday it was raining and we pulled over for lunch and to sit out the rain with our tarps flung over ourselves. Pressing onward we arrived at an outpost around 4:00, the last for thirty or forty kilometers. Feeling pretty good and urged onwards by a local barfly we decided to continue. By 6:30 we'd passed one of the two colossal summits and the sun was sinking. Meredith exhibited all signs of fatigue. Forced to stop she ate some chocolate and did the courageous thing - took a nap. Thirty minutes later and with a little less light I awakened her to press onwards. Surprisingly rejuvenated we climbed the final peak to descend in top-speed faschion to the town of Te Pohue. It was a little before 8:00 and a little after dark. Here we ate and a local, Elliot, graciously gave us a warm shower and beds. The next day we hitched a ride into Napier with him. The road before Te Pohue.
Napier's Art Deco festival took place the weekend we coincidently arrived. This means lots of old people dressed up like they're from te 30s (well, I guess they are) and driving cars from the period. My memories of the place are undoubtedly postively biased because of how neat the festival was. We enjoyed the exhibits and enthusiasm of the participants for a day before bussing down to Wellington.
Wellington bustles and hums as any good capital ought to. Cultural and social scences dominate the city center as any good capital city ought to, also. We actually stayed for six days because the every-other-year Cuba Street festival took place the weekend after we arrived. In that time we saw the capital, the gardens, the cable cars, the harbor, and even got out to visit the film site of Rivendell from the Lord of the Rings. The evening of the festival's second day we cruised - literally - to the south island. Because we arrived at night we had nowhere to sleep. We cycled 8 kilometers in the dark before finding a roadside rest stop. Only in the morning could we see the 'no camping' sign.
In the morning we began the first of our two long cycling legs. We had 336 kilometers to Christchurch. That day we rocked our first century (in miles) along the beautiful coastline of the eastern side of the south island and stayed outside the town of Kaikoura. The next day we cycled a further 120k to the cute Wairapa. After two such impressive days we moseyed the final 60k into Christchurch. Highway 1 along the east coast of the south island, north of Kaikoura.
Christchurch greeted us warmly, although we were staying a good ways from city center. At this point of the trip we were begining to experience trace amounts of travel fatigue and our tourism discipline suffered. Knowing we were likely to move here, though, it didn't matter much. Still, we saw the Avon, rode the Gondola, avoided the scam-tram, had afternoon tea in Mona Vale, and attended the end of the summer attraction Starry Nights. The concert is put on by the city and features a wide range of covered favorites - Beatles, Michael Jackson, Franky boy, Abba, and more - performed live in the city's largest, most central park.
The following morning we forged ahead on the longest leg of our journey, the approximately 500k to Wanaka. Day 1 we rocked our second, and last, century to the quaint town of Geraldine. The town struck a chord in us in a short time, although the next morning we had to leave for Lake Tekapo. The road rose steadily and we experienced some irksome wind. There we saw the Church of the Good Sheppard. The next day's wind was a double-edged sword. Although for a short stretch I maintained a 30 mph pace, most of the day it pushed us backwards. We passed a Mt. Cook (highest peak in Australasia) lookout and reached the town of Omarama. The next day took us over Lindis Pass, a 965 meter summit and eventually into Wanaka. The road leading from Geraldine.
Wanaka is the smaller, more well-behaved, sibling of Queenstown. Much more peaceful and relaxing we stayed there for three nights. On day two we climbed the Rob Roy track. I think it's the best reward for effort hike I've ever been on. A glacier rests upon a sheer mountain cliff and sparkles blue in the sunlight. After Wanaka we crossed the Crown Mountain Range - a well-known road to New Zealanders for it's steep, steep road. It's home to the highest paved road in New Zealand. After reaching the 1076 meter peak we stopped briefly. Not wanting to miss any opportunities I ran up 400 meters and around 6 miles roundtrip to earn a commanding view. An hour later we pressed on to Arrowtown. Too quaint for it's own good we decided to continue to Queenstown.
Queenstown thrives as the heart of everything extreme in New Zealand. You name the death-defying activity and they've got it. But tired and poor and well, timid, we passed on such money sinks. Two days later we started the final leg towards Invercargill.
A quick two days found us at the end of our journey. We cycled along the gorgeous Lake Wakatipu, stayed in the town on Lumsden, had a couple flat tires, and had to wait out a hail storm in a schoolyard sandbox (covered) before arriving. But arrive we did, at the sea, and we smiled our smiles while looking back over our shoulders north towards the country we'd just conquered - er, cycled. The road south of Lumsden heading towards Invercargill.
Christchurch
Finished with the cycling part of our trip, we returned to Christchurch. The first couple nights were spent in a tent in someone's backyard (yes, a registered business). After a housing search we chose a tiny room in a 'character home'. It's more delapidated than it is full of character. But the location is unbeatable. It's literally around the corner from the Botanic Gardens and Hagley Park and it is about five minutes from Cathedral Square and therefore my work.
My job search lasted about a week before I was called to join a venerable and proud banquet and conferencing department. That glorifies it a bit, I admit. Rydges Hotel was a decent employer. I made minimum wage and did pretty unchallenging work, but the staff was friendly and funny. I spent about five minutes every shift thinking to myself how I am capable of industry research and data analysis and am bound for a graduate degree - usually when I was polishing cutlery or hurting my back lifting trestles.
But the city of Christchurch kept me happy. Even when I was there I could sense how much I'd miss it. I spent hours almost every day somewhere in the city: I would read while walking in the Botanic Gardens; sometimes I glided along the Avon river to see where it took me (usually beneath a tree to read and think); or I rambled over to the library to check out a book, read the new Economist, or just feel integrated in the community; other times I purused city mall and stopped into the used clothing store to look for cheap, unlabeled rugby paraphenalia. My other big distraction was the Christchurch Rugby club. I went to five home games and loved each one. It's pretty easy to love the team since they'e perennial contenders for the title and have won six titles since the conception of the league in 1996. Plus, they start the game with knights riding onto the field waving sword to ominous medievel music. Too bad the chumps managed to lose in the semifinals after losing home field advantage by losing their last two matches of the season.Christchurch's North Hagley Park in late summer.
My only other New Zealand passtime was day trips to natural beauty. Renting relatively cheap cars for short periods (24 or 48 hours) Mer and I would drive all over the south island. The trick was to rent the car at 6:00pm and drive to your destination, wake up really early and check things out and try to get back by 6:00pm the next day. We saw the gorgeous and world-renowned Milford Sound, the city of Dunedin, Lake Matheson, and the two Glaciers - Fox and Franz Josef - during our road trips.
I cherish my memories of New Zealand and the time I spent there. Although a little indulgent I feel okay about it because I earned all the money for it and I authorized it as a reward for my achievements in university. And as a grad student friend told me by email: "I would enjoy New Zealand as much as you can before you have to return to the real world because people like me are definitely jealous that you get to have that experience." I succeeded.
