while it was a wee while back, here is the scoop on my time with car..
Hi Ya!!!!!!
So as I mentioned Rick & Marilou Appleby gave me the use of their car for a few days while they were off tramping (nz for hiking). So off i blasted, to make use of the fossil burner.
I jetted off on a Friday to drive south from Motueka to Christchurch, super eager to make the JANUARY CRITICAL MASS, as I realized it was going to be the only one for many months (perhaps my only South Island Mass). I had sussed the website in Canada, and I had sent an email off to the main Christchurch (ChCh) CM contact person (our Rusl in ChCH). Anyway, it was about a 5 hour drive toe ChCh. A beautiful drive thru the Lewis Pass.
I cruised into ChCh, just after 5pm, I paarked the car pronto, and got my bike on the road (she had graciously travelled in the back seat). I sped to the meeting spot, the Bridge of Rememberence, and arrived just at 5:30pm -- the "Let's Ride" time. I rolled up to find not ONE person assembled avec bike!!
I rode around the area to make sure I had the right locale, and within about 10 minutes realized there was no one else waiting to take the lane except one disappointed Canadian :( I was bummed to say the least.
I called JENNI, THE CM CONTACT as I has asked for a couch top crash on, and wanted to find out what was up. She was at work and told me ther was no ride. Duh! Anyway, we made plans to meet later once hse had gotten off work, around 10pm. Not about to let this burst my "on the road" bubble, I set off to explore teh city from teh comfort of the Bike Lane. I cruised ChCh, discovering that they have quite a few Bike Lanes, in the city centre. After being in the car for most of the day I wasn't too interested in seeing more Concrete Jungle, especially if it wasn't going to be with a Mass of happy bikesheviks, so I set out to find their Stanley Park equivalent.
It didn't take long to find Hagley Park, a beautiful inner city park with lots of trees, play areas, botanical gardens, sports fields, ponds, and people. It was a hot sunny Friday night and it was so nice to be riding around. I stumbled across an outdoor theatre event that was happening that night. Nothing like a finding free outdoor entertainment! So I boogied back to the car, packed a picninc and tried to find the Park again (after a few wrong turns). The production was called A Faireytable -- an outdoor improve fairy tale! There were about 200 people spread over the park, picninc laid out, seniors in lawn chairs, kids running about, families and friends drinking wine. It was real nice. A cast of about 6 set out to create a faireytablem with the help and participation of the audience. And no, I did not make a cameo appearence. A fun entertaining night was had by Cara in Hagley Park.
Jenni & I met up when she got off work. We had a beer and did the 'get to know ya thing'. She was real nice and I picked her brain on CHCH Cm. It seems she got involved a while back after attending a ride that inspired her. SHe created the website and was the drvign force behind it for some time, postering, roounding up the troops, etc. But then she got busy, perhaps lost some interest and the rides have ceased to happen. She indicated that she was the main person organizing and that not too many others were helping. I didn't want to seem too much like a CM freak as I had only just met her, so I laid off the million questions I wanted to ask, as I didn't want to exhaust the one connection we had. I obvioulsy believe that CM is a anarchic reclaimation of public space, not owned or lead by one, but created by the Mass. I am hoping ot meet some other ChCh cyclist the next time I go down their, I have a spotted a few people on the IMC website that I will email. I would like to find out a bit more abou the history of the ChCh CM, and then I will give you the full meal deal (ughh can you believe i just employed mcdonald speak, sick).
Anyway, I crashed at Jenni's. She was super friendly and a good host. I rose early in the morning as I wanted to ride around some more before having to get back in the car. I headed off from Jenni's place and rode around this neat area called the POrt Hills, south of the city. It was a socked in, drizzly day, but warm and riding wa a treat. After a solid ride I made it back into to town, treated myself to a coffee then headed south. My destination was a place called Wanaka, near Queenstown.
I had my first night of camping by my self (granted it was car camping), but it felt great to camp in the middle of no where solo, adn not be scared. Ask me about the "possum incident" sometime. One great thing that I discovered before the trip is that NZ HAS NO SCAREY WILD ANIMALS!! The exten of their wild creatures is possums, birds, some lizards and that's about it. NO bears, coyotes, cougars!!! What a relief.
(This will take forever so I am going to start shortening my blah blah blah)
WANAKA -- I chose Wanaka cuz my cousin said it was a nice spot. I wanted to check out Queenstown, which I hear from everyone is beautiful. It is one of the main location areas where LOR was filmed and it know for its stunning mountains. Jane - teh cousin - said Qtown is expensive and said she preferred Wanaka. SO Wanaka it was. And I am so happy I took her advice.
Wanaka is beautiful. It is a town, named after Lake Wanaka, situated beside Mt. Aspiring National Park. I spent 2 days check out the area, riding around the Lake, riding in parts of Mt. Aspiring Park, hiking some of the local trails, swiming, suntanning, reading and generally loving my first jaunt out afteer having been with familly for 2 weeks.
QUEENSTOWN -- I decided to drive into Qtown to check it out, as it was an hours drive south of Wanaka. Qtown is kinda like Whistler, but more accurately like Banff. An overpriced, ski resort town, full of tour buses. It is different in that it is on massive Lake Wakatipu, but it is very much like the 2 winter towns. Like Whislter in that tehre are lots of young people, locals and travellers working, to make the most of the ski hill. But like Banff with its massive moutains -- called the Remarkables! And yes they are remarkable. You can pick them out in LOR.
The Appleby's were in Qtown when I was their (with their car). They had just returned from a 5 day hike in Milford SOund. I joined them for a beautiful dinner and we caught up on each others adventures. (They are like family to me, and me to them). After dropping them off at their motel, I wandered around Qtown checking out the local talent, hoping to find a place to go dancing. No such luck. Slept in car.
TRIP NORTH WITH CO-PILOT
At the campsite in Wanaka I had chatted with a Dutch fellow who was in NZ rock climbing, visiting his brother and travelling around. He, MArtin, wanted to head to Golden Bay (near Motueka), so he caught a ride north with me. It was nice to have cmpany for a change and we got on real well. We had 2 whole travel days aand toured a major part of the South Island heading home/north. WE drove up the lower westcoast. We drove through such wild and crazily different terrain: through rain forest to get to the westcoast, then up the west coast, which is kinda like any west coast - vast and open, but here it was rainforesty and neat.
I had my one and only experience of DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!!!!!!!! Martin and I had stopped to check out this lake. At a many of the tourist lookout/scenic stops they have arrows on teh road indicating which way traffic is going. Well this one, it turned out did not. We must have been yapping away as we drove off. We were driving along when out of my rearview mirror I noticed a car coming up beind me, but to my left! The car passed and THEN I realized I was DRIVING ON THE WRONG SIDE!!!!!!! Double Yikes! I was pretty freaked, hyper ventialated a bit,a dn then calmed down. I was driving about 90km, cruising as it was a country highway. Martin never noticed either! Damn! I could have killed me, Martin and some other unknown person! Very friggin scary. Thankfully no one was around, and I have not done it again.
FOX GLACIER
One of the sites we stopped at on the trip north was the Fox Glacier. I had only ever seen one Glacier before this in Washington State. It was crazy. There were pictures showing its history, how hear ot had receded over the years -- lots. Martin and I walked up to it, but as we walked we stopped to watch teh water/river flow from the Glacier. Itwas so sad. I wanted to cry. SOme chunks of ice were floating by, pieces of the Glacier that had maybe been frozen their for years: 5, 10, 16, 18, 20, 30, 60, 71, 88.....100. These grey, cold, chunky, masses, just sailing past us, free, yet alone. It was such a funny experience. Isn't it weird when something is suppossed to be exciting and all nice, but it actually makes you kinda of unhappy. It zapped me out of my docile selfishhuman mode (for just one moment :) and it got me thinking. How totally lame it is that people travel so far, spend so much energy & time looking and visitng a site like this -- marvelling at the wonder of our EARTH and its AMAZING NATURAL self. Yet people turn around and pollute the air, ocean, ground....respect.....no respect. Fox Glacier was a highlight for how it stirred me. Thank you Fox Glacier.
HOKITIKA
We pulled into Hokitika our first night. We had searched around for a free place to campl, as we didn't want to pay for camping or a hostel (both of us on the budget). It was a pretty windy night, and by the time we got on teh edge of town we were hungry and needing to get the heck out of the car. So we parked by this bridge, by the river to make some dinner out of the wind. It turned out to be our camp spot for the night. WE CAMPED UNDER THE BRIDGE, hobbo style! it was perfect. We spelt on a tarp, the river at our feet, teh town across the bridge. It was fun.
The next day we boogied on north, making it into MOtueka late.
After a 2 day road trip Martin became MY FIRST FRIEND IN NZ!!!
He left the next day to hitch hike to Takaka to find the primo climbing place in NZ. I left the car in town for the Appleby's, and I left the next day to head off on my bike........
ROAD TRIP THOUGHTS:
As soon as I was in the car on the open road I was WISHING I WAS ON MY BIKE. Ain't that the way; I take the bad mode and long for the good mode. I saw heaps of cyclists touring whereever I went, and chatted with some at the Wanaka campsite.
BIRDS - there are so many great birds. At Fox Glacier there were these birds called KEAs they are a army green parrot, that is people friendly and mischievious (they have been known to steal tourists sandwiches and rip the rubber seal off cars). There are these other ones called WEKAs, they are brown, but have the body of chicken, no arms and 2 legs. They are always scurying around the sides of the roads. And there are a few others I have yet to learn their names, but they seem so exotic because they have bright coloured feathers.
Posted by cara at February 27, 2004 08:29 PM