February 28, 2004

the bike trip

WOW! i can't believe i am actually getting caught up.....here is the exciting details from CARA's FIRST EVER BIKE TOUR EXPERIENCE.....

Yes it's true this was the first time in my life that I had ventured off for more than a one day ride (the Gulf Islands). Like the saying goes, "there is no going back..." I have so many inspiring friends who have ridden far and wide, and are so committed to riding the distance. Honourable mentions: (1) Donald & his Chopper Truck (?) - he rode from Vancouver to Portland OR, on chopper with trailer. (2) Jane & Rusl - rode from Vancouver to Portland (same event as Donald), &&& they they rode thru Europe last year. (3) Donald & Barnett rode Vancouver to Seattle with choppers. You all Rock!!!!

Hey Everyone,

So when we last left off, I had abandoned the car and was setting off on my bike.......with a wave from my Granny and a "be safe" I hit the road with loaded panniers.

THE TRIP MAP:
THERE -- Motueka to Murchison (130km), Murchison to Westport (95km), Westport to Punakaiki (58km), AND BACK -- Punakaiki to Inangahua (roughly 100km)

MOTUEKA TO MURCHISON
So I set off rom Motueka to ride to Murchison. It felt so good to be on the bike after being envious of all the bikers I saw while in the evil car. Riding really is the best ever. You get to have the glorious air rushing over your body, filling your lungs. You get to fell your muscles working and you get to look around at everything (except when farm trucks are passing you).

The first days ride was a long one, it took me roughly 8 hours to get from Motueka to Murchison. In hindsight I would not have ridden that far on my first day. Duh! I was very sore and tired by the time I rolled into the Lazy Cow hostel. But live, experience, and learn (for next time).

Funny Story -- as i was riding along, what seemed the middle of nowhere i passed a group of people yapping by a barn. One of the women yelled out to me, "wanna come to the party with us sweet heart?" At this point I was about 2+ hours off Murchison and I actually considered it, as I was getting weary, but I was in what I thought was 'hicksville' and figured I should ride on. And I was wondering what party she was even talking about.....I waved and kept riding. The she yelled, "you won't make it to Murch before dark", and I worried for a minute, did some calculations and ignored this warning. Ride on....it occured to me that it was Waitungi Day (National Treaty signing holiday)...that was the party.....I rode one.......ABout 45 minutes up the road I passed the party, Alien Nation, a big rave in the middle of nowhere. From what I could see from the road it looked good. I chatted with a few folk on the road and rode on. If I wasn't so looking forward to a hot shower, food and bed I might have stopped. Plus I didn't have a tent with me, other main reason. Plus day one on bike and I wasn't up for any raving.

So I made it to Murchison. Knackered. Ate some food, chatted with a Germany cyclist heading the opposite direction, traded some road stories (where the only coffee shops were on route). Murchisonis in teh middle of a few moutnain ranges, its kinda like Hope. Anyway, it had a big earthquake in 1929 that reshaped the area, kinda neat tibit.

MURCHISON TO WESTPORT
The next day I contiuned heading west. This trip was great cuz it was through the Buller Gorge, a narrow gorge that follows the Buller River to the sea. I was feeling some pain riding a few hours in. This day of riding was fairly easy, no major 'passes' to get up and over, just the gorgeous gorge to follow to the sea.

WESTPORT
Westport is an old, slightly abandoned mining town. Largest northern west coast town. All the travel guides say there is not much to see here. I meet some cool people at the hostel. I got chatting with an Englishman I had seen while riding my bike around town (exploring), and we were staying in the same room. He said he was heading out to Cape Foulwind to see the sunset and I was welcome to join him. Which I did. As we were leaving there were 2 Japanese women smoking and chatting and he offered them to join us too, better fill the car up. At that point another Englishman and Swiss woman were heading to the pub, they ask us all to join them. We mentioned we were going to see sunset but maybe after, so they joined us also. WITHIN 5 MINUTES A GROUP OF STRANGERS WERE OFF TO SEE THE SUNSET TOGETHER. Cape Foulwind is an amazing Cape on the westcoast, probably Westports best feature. It looks north and south up the westcaost of the SOuth Island; windy, rugged, stunning. We hiked out on the Cape, sat and watched the sun go down (a medium sunset as the clouds rolled in to cover it up), but then we climbed around on the rocks for awhile. We were about 3m from a seal! It was fun. We hiked back to cars, headed back to town and headed to the pub. It was so great. We were all travelling solo, having our different experiences and had met and were spending a night together. Cool eh!

WESTPORT TO PUNAKAIKI
The next day I packed up, said goodbye to the folks from the night before and headed off. Along the road 2 of them (the second english guy and swiss woman) passed me as they were driving south.

The ride along the coast to Punakaiki was SO AMAZING!!!!!! It was a warm sunny day, and with only 58km to ride I was excited. The coastline reminded me of the Oregon coast line; huge high cliffs, long sandy beaches. Oh and the colour of the water!!!!!! So amazingingly stunning - a tourqoiuse, aqua blue. WoW! One side of the road is stunning blue ocean, the other side of the road is mutliple layers of green rainsforest. And the FERNS!!!!!

FERNS!
I found a book on ferns and discovered that there are like a bazilllion different varieties of fern. And it took a Dutch travellers to point out to me that is why it is the symbol of NZ (see All Blacks jerseys, Air New Zealand logo). I obviously wan't paying close enough attention. :) Oh wait till you see some photos. The ferns rock the cazbar!

Back to the ride...as I was cruising along, Hilton (Englishman who took me and others to the Cape), honked and pulled over for a visit (about an hour+ outside of Westport). He was also heading to Punakaiki and said he have a cold beer waiting for me. Nothing quite like incentive! On I rode....it was so beautiful..had a minor problem with my front derailler on route....monkeyed around with it the next day...all sorted....

I arrived in Punakaiki, the ride itself took about 3.5 hours, but was longer with stops and swims. Punakaiki is in the middle of nowhere westcoast. It is a major tourist stop, but there is no town or any reals shops (tourist gifts, one cafe & a tavern). Punakaiki is also known as Pancake Rocks! It has these amazing limestone cliffs/rocks that look like a giant stack of pancakes. At this one spot when the tide changes, water rushes into these holes in the limestone and creates these natural blowholes (one of the main reasons tourist buses stop here). But Punakaiki is also surrounded by the Paparpa National Park.

I chose Punakaiki as it was an amazing spot some where along the coast I could spend a couple of relaxing days. And girl did I pick a good spot. The hostel was located right on the beach, a beautiful summer house style place. The hostel had an outdoor hot tub (called a spa pool in nz) that looked out onto ocean, and the caretakers baked fresh muffins everyday. This place has been one of the highlights of my whole trip for sure. I spent the first day laying around the beach reading (a great novel that was a gift; Cider House Rules by John Irving. At first I wasn't sure if I would like it, cuz I hate when books are turned into movies. But the book was so great, I was glued to it the whole time), and walking the long vast sandy banks. The next day I went for a day hike in the Paparoa Park, an amazing route that took me through the jungly rainforest along the Paparoa River. So neat!

Hilton was indeed at the hostel when I arrived. We drank a beer and soaked up the amazing view. He was a really nice guy. He was a school teacher back in England, and he took a year off, after 20 years of teaching, to travel around. He had been in Nepal, Oz, NZ and was on to Latin America next. I didn't get his story, obviously no wife around (dead or divorced?),, but his twin 22yr old daughters were going to be joining him and travelling for a couple of weeks. I'm sure you don't really care about Hilton, but he was a nice guy and we explored around the area together that night -- we went hunting for penguins!!! they have these really small ones in the area, but we didn't see any.

Punakaiki was so great. A special spot indeed.

PUNAKAI TO INANGAHUA
So I sped off two days later, to start the return trip. I had to retrace my ride, which was fine as the route was so beautiful. I had seen further down the coast when I had the car, plus the inland route wasn't as scenic. So back up the coast I rode, determined to beat my time back to Westport. Just after setting off, I passed an elderly couple pulled over on the side of the road for tea, as I approached them, the hollered out "would you like to stop for a cuppa?" (cuppa is kiwi lingo for hot drink). As I was on a race with myself I didn't stop, but it was so sweet. Had another fab ride back to Westport, then started the trek inland, back up the Buller Gorge. I was looking forward to heading back up it, as I got to ride on the same side as the Gorge the whole way up. So beautiful (am i saying that enough :). I didn't have a plan as to where I was going to stay, I figured I'd camp wild as there were no hostels between Westport and Murchison (and I wasn't going to be making it their that day). Along the way I stopped at the only hotel along the Gorge for a break. One of the locals in the pub (middle of no where), advised me not to stay at the campsite I had eyed up (weirdos and brutal sandflies he warned), and he mentioned some place near Inangahua. Got to love the locals tips!

I had planned on getting near Inangahua (as I was going to catch the bus there for the rest of the trip back to Motueka. I didn't want to ride the 130km stretch in one day again, plus the bus was only $25: 2hours on bus vs 8 hours on bike). I had a great day riding and was scooping around Inangahua area for a place to sleep. I was actually looking for a good brige to sleep under after my Hokitika experience. It had started to rain, and I wasn't having any luck, the best place I had come up with was a Gazebo at the local school (I had no tent). Inangahua is a community of about 70 people (or less), so there really ain't anything around. I rode around a bit when I say a sign for a farmstay. While I like to think I am a tough guy (camping wildish), if there was a cheap bed for me I was willing to splurge. I enquired if there was any room, but they were full. I asked if they might have a shed or barn I could sleep in out of the rain, and the lady hooked me up with an old bunkhouse/shed. I was so happy to be out of the rain for the night, especially when I was braced for a night in the bush. I slept well that night after a long ride. (She told me in the morning 3 others had enquired after me for a place to stay and she had turned them away. Lucky me).

Inangahua -- before catching the bus the next morning I checked out the Inangahua Historical Centre. Inangahua had a major earthquake in 1968 and the town was flattened. The Centre had all kinds of photos and old news articles. I talked with the old guy running it about our fault lines back home, and the ever pending 'Big One'. The Centre had a funny history of who was burried in the local cemetary - one between the years 1879 to 1930 and a second on from 1931 to 1968. Back then (1879-1930) people sure didn't live long. Most people died in their 40's, bt some lucky folk lived into their 70's. A funny little thing to read. [on another note, my dad's family moved to NZ from South Africa in 1967, right before the major earthquake]

I was happy to catch the bus back. I was returning home about 3 days before I was due to start work. With enough time to relax, hang with folks and family, and get sorted for apple picking.

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OTHER STUFF....

CAR LICENSE PLATES
One thing I have noticed after spending oh so many hours on the road is that I miss having a variety of car license plates to look at. Seeing I am in one country, NZ, and there are no cars here from other countries, it makes it a little limiting. That is one thing I like about HOME - we have all the different Canadian plates, plus all the Yankee ones. When ever I do a trip back home I keep track of all the different ones I see. Even when I am not on trips I do, for example in the summer, when there are lots of tourists coming thru town. I'll make a mental note and review them at the end of the week. Also, if I see ones from real far away, like Rhode Island, I'll wave or say "welcome to BC" if I get a chance. Ha! Am I messed!?

OTHER HOME THINGS
I have heard NEko Case on the radio twice now, I think both times on the local community station. Cool eh!

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I think I will leave this installment here.....need to get refreshed. Lots more to tell....ok here is a preview.....a ride over a big 'fuck off' hill and rock climbing next.....sounds exciting doesn't it.????!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by cara at 12:48 PM | Comments (9)

February 27, 2004

the road trip

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 08:29 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2004

Floods & Apples

just a quick hello to let you all know i am still out here...just a bit slack in getting to a computer.....

Hey All,

Well as most some of you may have heard pour ole NZ is having its fare share of natural diasters!! The Floods!!!! It is pretty serious, most television newz does not do it justice; about 22 bridges have been washed out, over 400 homes (in diiferent areas) are total write offs, some homes were full to the ceiling with water (and now mud), so many people are out of home, work etc. People have lost their livlihood (farming etc). Pretty scary. What's with the natural diasters anyway? Remember B.C's forest fires?

I have heaps to write and I have started, but it will take me a few days to get it all out and sorted. I will say this: i had a fun road trip with car, an even better time on my bike, lots of adventures and many things to share.

My access to a computer has been limited too. But it is my goal to share all with you by the end of the week!!! You can hold me to it :)

On a more (or less) exciting note, I finally started work today!!!! It was postponed last week as the apples were not ready (which was fine cuz I got to have more adventurews), but the day has come. Apple picking!!!

Today we had a slowitsh start getting into it. 3 newbies, 2 seasoned pickers. The other 2 newbies are travellers also, one Irishman & a Scottish Lass. All I can say today is that it went well, its gonna be hard work and I am happy! We were picking a variety called Cox's Orange -- which is exported to the UK thus the reason you have not heard of them. More on apple picking another time...must get off computer (dial up & people need phone).

Know that I think of many and all of you often and check back later in week for exciting tales....

Cara

Posted by cara at 11:27 PM | Comments (5)