return to Christchurch

I am in Christchurch once again. I took the bus up from Oamaru because rain was forecast but the weather was beautiful all day long. They say rain for the next two days but I hope they are wrong again. I am once again staying at Canterbury House on Bealey St. I enjoyed my last visit here so I am repeating. My plan is to see the girls when they arrive tomorrow and then my next destination is Nelson up in the North end of the South Island. Nelson is a beautiful seaside area with lots of small beaches nearby and beautiful scenery of course. I have decided to skip FJ Glacier for now. If I am not enchanted with Nelson for some reason I may drop down to the glacier but I do not see that happening. I am going to miss most of the West coast of the South Island because my time is running short already. Oh well ya can't have everything right?

I only took one pic today of a steam tractor on the road. I took it out the window of the speeding bus so it is not exactly crisp focus but it is still nice tractor and is plainly visible in the pic. Tonight will be a quiet night for me. The rugby players I met last night wanted me to go out again with them tonight here in Christchurch but that is not going to happen. I would spend too much money and drink way too much beer with those party animals. I guess I must be getting old or maybe starting to grow up just a little bit when I turn down party offers like this.

the pic:

A2O Kurow to the Ocean at Oamaru

I spent last night alone in a three bedroom hostel in Kurow. I had all the usual things like a fireplace, tv, wifi, kitchen, great shower, and the entire place to myself all for $16 US. I took advantage of all those things and then left at 7am to ride to the ocean. I went looking for coffee but there was none, nothing was open so early. I decided to ride to the next town where it would be 8am when I got there and by then things would be open. Wrong. Closed for the season signs on all the cafes in town. I did not have my stove so I could not make my own. I hit the road hoping to find some later. No such luck. There was nothing until Oamaru which was my endpoint of the ride.

The ride was fairly easy except there were some grades and switchbacks where the gravel was too soft and loose to ride so I was forced to walk a short distance. The scenery again was great. I was hoping I fixed my camera last night but I discovered that it was still broken. Boooooo. I want to take pics. I kept taking them and will try to recover some of them like I did yesterday. I just do not know which ones I can recover and which ones are lost for good.

It took a bit over 4 hours to do the ride of 82 km or 50 miles. It was a bit hilly and gravel most of the way so it kind of tired me out. I ran out of water despite having three liters with me which is just under a gallon. The air was cold and dry and it kept drying my mouth and throat out so I kept sipping water. I think I drank more water per mile today than I have ever done before. I also think I got some frostbite on my toes. When I was finished I took a hot shower and my toes hurt like hell when they hit the hot water. It was below freezing all day until I got within 16km or 10 miles of Oamaru. My water got ice crystals in it as I rode along. Made it taste great but probably not the best for me.

It was satisfying to finish this Alps to Ocean (A2O) bike ride what with all the cold bad weather and my health problems. I like the feeling of overcoming obstacles and challenges. It just makes me stronger for future ones. Next I am off to Christchurch again.

I will post any pics I can recover later but now I need to go eat and drink for a while. Lucky for me the brew pub is in crawling distance of my campground.

here are the recovered pics

A2O Omarama to Kurow

I got out of bed this morning in terrible condition from my seizure yesterday. I knew immediately that I would not be able to ride. My leg was all locked up and every time I moved it it would start to cramp which will trigger a new seizure. I decided to take a bus to the next city and went looking for a bus. I found out that not only are there no ATM machines in town, there is also no bus service either. I did not want to hang out in a town with no money and in bad health so I tried to hitchhike out of town. I found two rides quickly but they were not leaving until early afternoon. I kept trying to hitch a ride but there were almost no vehicles going down the road that could carry my bike and myself. I finally got a ride but it only went about 12 miles down the road. At that point I decided I would try to ride my bike and if I had issues I would just stop and continue hitching. The A2O trail follows the road except where it swings around lake Aviemore for a little while. I just stayed on the road. I did not miss much of the trail. There was good weather and a slight tailwind for a change. I rode about 50 kilometers or 30 miles to the next town without having any problems with seizures or cramps. I decided to just stay here in a backpacker hostel in the town of Kurow.

I am the only one in the hostel right now. I have a three bedroom house to myself. Great shower, tv if I was interested, a nice fireplace and a couple friendly dogs and a cat to play with all for $16.00 US. Now if I can only wake up tomorrow in better health I could finish this ride from the Alps to the Ocean. Sorry no pics cause my camera is busted. If I am able to recover the pics I took I will try to post them later.

Well I worked on my camera and was able to recover a few pics. It seems to be working again now. I took out the chip and battery then replaced the battery before resetting the camera to factory. Then I replaced the SD card and was able to get some pics to work. It also does not do the "card error" message now. Most of the pics I tried to take were just missing from the chip.

A2O Twizel to Omarama

I spent last night at Twizel in a backpackers hostel called High Country and I enjoyed the stay. I was up early as usual and after a quick coffee at a bakery I hit the road. The temp was below freezing so I had to be careful of the black ice on the roads until I got to the A2O path which is crushed stone. The trail today was a bit rough in a few areas but otherwise it was a fairly easy ride. The scenery again was gorgeous with more fresh snow on the mountains making them stand out against the dark lower elevation where I was riding. The temps stayed right around freezing all day and light snow flurries were falling but no rain or hail today. The wind was still howling though.

I only had one little problem today. I had a seizure while riding along and I had to drop off my bike. Lucky for me it only lasted less than a minute. I could not ride afterward though. I had to wait over an hour before I stopped cramping up and I got my motor control back. It could have been much worse for me if I would have had a prolonged attack. I was 15 clicks from a road at the time so if I had to be rescued it would have been a big deal. Plus there was no cell phone signal so I would have had to wait on the trail until somebody came along the trail to go get help. I do hope I do not have that happen, ever. The other unfortunate thing is I landed on my camera and it has not worked since. It says "card error" every time I try to take a picture. I am hoping that getting a new SD card solves this problem but I am not sure it will. So I have not been able to take pics since the seizure.

Tonight I am staying in a holiday park cabin. I ran out of cash and there are no ATMs anywhere close to where I am. The next one is two or three towns away. I may get a bit hungry before I get there. I really do not understand why there are no ATMs around with all the tourists that come through here. I can’t be the only one that planned my cash supply poorly. Oh well such is life. I am still loving the ride pics or no pics.

Here are a few pics from before I smashed my camera.

Mount Cook to the Ocean, A2O

I started my Alps to ocean ride today. I got a shuttle to the Mt Cook Village and after a huge breakfast and a couple coffees with an awesome view out the window, I went over to the museum/MtCook Center and looked around. Not much new there for me so I just took off on my bike. The weather was bright sun with almost no clouds as I left the village. That did not last long. Before the village was out of sight clouds blew in over the mountains and it started to rain. The wind picked up to a gusty 30-45mph blow right in my face. I hate headwinds. The rain stopped and then it started to snow. The snow lasted about 15 minutes then the sun came out again. A few minutes later it started to hail. The high wind was blowing the hail into my face and it hurt like hell so I had to stop and go hide behind a sign until the hail stopped. I rode on taking pics here and there then it started to rain again. The wind got so strong I could barely make forward progress. I was riding in granny gear on a flat road. I kept pushing on because there was no other choice available. After about five hours of really hard riding I made it to Twizel a small mountain community and I checked into a packpacker place called High Country. Nice people running it. We talked for quite a while.

I also went to the laundry mat to dry out all my clothes. I was soaked when I got here from sweat and rain and snow. It was near freezing at 34 degree fahrenheit weather or 2 degrees celsius. The only reason I was not cold with all the wet clothes on was that I was working so hard to overcome the wind that I was sweating all day long.

Still a good day despite the hard work and weird weather. Tomorrow I do it again. I hope the weather is better.

A few pics

Oamaru NZ for A2O

Today I am in Oamaru NZ getting ready for a bike ride from up on Mout Cook all the way down to the ocean. My plan is to take a shuttle up to Mt Cook from here and ride back to here which is the end of the trail. I will leave unnecessary junk behind and only carry what I need for this ride. I hope the weather allows me to do this. The forecast for today and tomorrow is rain at lower elevations and snow at higher ones. I will not do the ride if there is more than an inch or so of snow on the ground or if the trail seems too slippery from frost and ice. The temperature forecast is from a low of 31 to a high of 34 so it will be very cold at the start of the ride. I hope I can ride far enough down into warmer temps before I need to camp for the first night.

Here are a few pics from the last couple days. Check out the little bluey pizza ingredients for the pizza I had last night over at the Scotts brew pub, it was very tasty. My night in the pub was a strange one. I walked in the door and there was a girl on her knees looking up at me like we just finished. Then I looked around the pub and it was all men. I had one pint and all the men left and were replaced by all women for the rest of the night. I had a good time the entire night and the beer was good. Now off to pack for my ride.