Bowlestering the ranks

Last night I was finally joined on my travelling adventure by Emma and Matt. I'd been waiting for this moment ever since I set out on 16th October and it's really great to have them here. We're all really looking forward to exploring New Zealand together. At the moment we're sorting things out in Christchurch and getting reunited, and we'll be heading down to Mount Cook tomorrow to do a walk up to the famous Mueller Hut, from where you get great views of the spectacular mountain. Then we'll work our way round the South Island for three or four weeks before getting up north.

Those of you who know her will be interested to know I just completely randomly bumped in to Emily Enright! I knew she was on a round the world trip, but had no idea she was in Australasia, let alone Christchurch! It's great to bump into people when you're not expecting it.

Last week I spent several days mountain biking near Nelson, in the north of the South Island. I stayed at an excellent backpackers called The Bug (strongly recommended), who offered me great advice on where to go on my bike. I spent most of the week exploring the trails on Dun Mountain, including a 2 day trip where I stayed overnight in a hut. Here are some photos.









I'm carrying my bike round with me at the moment, looking forward to exploring some more biking options down near Queenstown.

I've fixed the pictures from my last post, so use the sidebar to navigate to that if you want to see pics of The Dutchy.

Sventastic

I'm not talking about the ageing womanizing ex-England manager with aspirations to become a sauna repairman (Jonathan McGowan fans will remember), but rather a permagrinning dutchman (hereafter called The Dutchy) who I'm rather convinced is stalking me. He's a great guy, however, so there was no reason for me not to humour him. We first met in Fox Glacier some weeks ago while I was bike touring. We have since then inadverdently met up in Haast, Wanaka (half-planned), Milford Sound and Christchurch. When I walked in to one of the 30 or so hostels in Christchurch (and not a particularly good one at that), who should I find staring in disbelief at the top of the stairs? Only The Dutchy!

It was great timing, actually, because a couple of hours earlier my family had departed from Christchurch for home and I was at a bit of a loose end. We were both up for going out for a few beers so we did exactly that. I thrashed him at pool, and then we tried going to a club but were scuppered by my lack of ID (honestly, did I expect to need it?) New Zealand is very strict on alcohol policy.

Having had no plans I decided to accompany The Dutchy to the Banks Peninsula for one night, where we stayed in a great little hostel called Chez la Mer in Akaroa. We met up with some great people there and had a good evening. It was only made better by the making of pancakes, in true Wanaka style. In the daytime we went out for a nice bike ride down towards the coast.







He's since left for Australia (was it something I said?), and I'm looking forward to meeting up with him there.

I've since come up north to Nelson to bide my time for the last few days before Emma arrives on Tuesday. I've brought my bike up and I'm trying to make the most of some of the excellent mountain biking opportunities here. Tomorrow I'm going on a 2 or 3 day ride, staying at some backcountry huts along the way. Then it's back to Christchurch on Tuesday.

Keeping up with the Joneses

Us Joneses take some beating when it comes to the competition of How Many Things Can You Fit Into 10 Days In New Zealand? I took a bus down to the brilliantly named Twizel last Wednesday to meet them and my usually laid back (aka tight-arsed) travelling style immediately upped several gears to a pace at which it has stayed until now, at which point we've finally arrived back in Christchurch. On Wednesday we took a chopper light over Mount Cook, on Thursday we went bungy jumping near Queenstown, on Friday Anna and Rich went diving in Milford Sound (while we wheezy buggers stayed on the boat), on Saturday and Sunday we did an overnight tramp, on Monday we took a jetboat ride near Queenstown and yesterday and today we travelled back up to Christchurch, via the West Coast of all routes. In attempt to preserve the life of this computer I will therefore just concentrate on the flight over Mount Cook here.

The helicopter flight was fantastic. A helicopter can do many things that a plane can't, namely get you right up close to the mountains by flying alongside the ridges and right over the passes, and land on glaciers! Our pilot Phil flew us north out of Twizel, close over the foothills and turquoise lakes, and right up to the south face of Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand.









Once we'd flown over the glaciers surrounding Mount Cook Phil took us to a snowfield at the top of a glacier. The snow was virgin and we all rejoiced in stealing her beautiful flower by running around and frolicking and loving the fact that no one had been up there in many days.





Now I'm tired and I'm going to leave it there because I'm a hungry hungry hippo!

Rolling good...Greymouth to Wanaka

I left Global Village in Greymouth last Sunday and started making my way down the West Coast on my bike. The West Coast is a beautiful area and hardly anyone lives there. I looked at a map and I realised that there wasn't a single cash machine between Hokitika and Wanaka - that's over 400km of road in between! Clearly this was an area that was worth exploring. I found this sign in a cafe on the way down to the glacier region.



Three days later I arrived at Fox Glacier where I first met a number of people who I have kept bumping in to ever since. I had a rest day here and spent it wisely by spending all day in the hostel cinema room watching films! I felt I deserved it. Two days of riding later I arrived in Haast, the point on the West Coast where the road turns inland and begins climbing up over the Southern Alps. Haast is a tiny place and the hostel in which I was staying would have been a terribly depressing place had I not met a nice group of people there. I met up with Sven, a Dutch guy who I met at Fox and with him Felix, a German. The next day we all set of for Wanaka, me hoping to reach it in two days on my bike and Sven and Felix planning on getting there in one day in their car. The scenery between Haast and Wanaka is spectacular, and mostly looks like this:





I made it into Wanaka yesterday afternoon and guess who I found at my hostel? Sven, Felix, and an Irish guy called Mike who I'd met in Fox. It's nice to meet up with these people continually. Last night we ate pancakes for dinner, and then for a bit of variety, did some pancakes for breakfast this morning.





My bike odometer is now reading 850km from Christchurch. Rock! Tomorrow I'm going to do some mountain biking in this beautiful area and then I'm going to leave my bike in Wanaka for a couple of weeks while I spend some time with my family who have just arrived into Christchurch. After that perhaps I'll head to Queenstown and bide my time till Emma* and Matt arrive here on the 24th.

*Great news: she aced her viva so now she's officially Doctor Emma Joseph Bowles Esquire. (At least that's what I'm calling her).