Day 16: Rain, Rain, Go Away

Well – www.metservice.com finally got the forecast right (unfortunately). I woke up at 3:00 a.m. to the sound of rain on the roof, and the van periodically shaking side-to-side due to wind gusts. I was able to fall back asleep, and I awoke again at 7:08 a.m. – seven minutes before the alarm went off. This is a good thing, as the alarm tone on the phone is pretty frenetic and it really jolts me awake.

It was still raining, so I plodded over to the ablutions block (that’s what they call the toilet and shower building in New Zealand) to start the morning routine. SURPRISE – the toilet and shower building is HEATED; this is the first heated ablutions block I’ve encountered, and it makes getting cleaned up a lot more pleasant in the morning.

It had stopped raining, so I went back to the van to get dressed, and convert the van from sleeping to travel mode. Then I grabbed my breakfast supplies and went over to the kitchen to eat: Kellogg’s Mini-Wheats with Black Currant filling, milk, tea, and a slice of buttered toast. I finished packing up and headed out at 9:30 a.m.

Although the turn for Bluff on SH 1 was just past my campground, I headed toward Invercargill to fuel up. After buying fuel, I backtracked toward Bluff as it started to rain; 26 km later, I was passing through Bluff on my way to Stirling Point – the end of the road. If Invercargill is the “big city” at the south end of the island, it might be analogous to Chicago, whereas Bluff is like East Chicago or Hammond: a lot of industry, and the type of town where people look like they work hard to make things.

I arrived at Stirling Point, in the rain, at 10:35 a.m. It was raining fairly at the time, and since this was one of my goals for the trip, I thought I’d wait the weather out, or until 11:00, whichever came first. Well, at 11:00, it was still raining in earnest, so I pushed my deadline back to 11:30. Finally, at 11:20, a second car of visitors arrived, and they got out of their car to take pictures. So I donned the rain jacket from my motorcycle gear and my stocking cap, and got out for my visit.

Here I am; closer to the South Pole than to the equator by 323 km, and 15,008 km from New York (and probably not much closer to Saint Charles) if you can believe the AA (Automobile Association of New Zealand). The rain kept falling, and I could get about three photos before either the lens would get wet or the camera body would be so wet I was worried about having it quit on me. In either case, I’d dodge over to the campervan to dry it off.

The Stirling Point Pilot House dates back to 1912, and was built both as a navigation aid and house for the pilots to spot boats coming into the harbor that would need pilot assistance. As the following photo shows, it’s a pretty rugged location:

I departed Stirling Point, and started heading north – toward home! – at noon, with my pants legs thoroughly soaked down to my knees, as well as my socks. I drove back to Invercargill and stopped at the library to file yesterday’s blog and call home. The Internet connection at the library was slow on both uploads and downloads, and it took me almost 40 minutes to post the blog. I spent the rest of the hour I had purchased calling home, where my son Josh was recharging my well tank at home, “Tanks” a lot, Frank!

Leaving Invercargill northbound on SH 6, I was headed toward either Te Anau and the mountains of Fiordland on the west coast of the island, or Queenstown, still in the mountains but more in the center of the island. I would make my decision when I reached Lumsden, 82 km north, based on the time and the weather.

I reached Lumsden around 2:00 p.m., and as it was still raining, I headed toward the mountains surrounding Queenstown, which is where much of The Lord of the Rings was shot. The rain stopped, but as I climbed into the mountains, I also climbed nearer the clouds. The effect was a bit otherworldly, as this photo near Fairlight on SH 6 about 45 km north of Lumsden shows:

I finally reached the south end of Lake Wakatipu around 4:15 p.m.; my destination for the night, Queenstown, was at the north end of the lake some 47 km further. With the low cloud cover, daylight was beginning to fade, so I snapped this picture before losing the light completely:

I rolled into Queenstown, which is sort of New Zealand’s version of Aspen, Vail, or some other ski resort town, in intermittent light rain just after 5:00 – and in to gridlock. I called the Queenstown Village Holiday Park (twice) to get directions, and was finally parked by 5:45 p.m. I headed for the kitchen to make a can of Watties’ Spaghetti with cheese sauce (Watties’ is Heinz of Australia), and a slice of bread and butter. As the rain stopped while I was eating dinner, I walked into town to buy some souvenirs, then came back and am finishing up this blog entry about 9:00 p.m. The rain has stopped, and it looks like it may be clearing (which also means cold).

Tomorrow, I head for the West Coast – the one quadrant of the South Island I have yet to explore – as I head back toward Christchurch and a Monday afternoon departure. It’s hard to believe I’ll have been here for two weeks tomorrow; still a lot to see!

Campervan mileage: 274 km for the day

Day 15: The End of the Earth

In case it ever comes up, the difference between an overnight low temperature of minus 5 C and plus 5 C is that at minus 5, you periodically wake up because your head is cold, but you’re otherwise comfortable. At plus 5, however, you don’t have to wear a hat to bed, and with the same number of covers as at minus 5, you wake up at 3 a.m. drenched in sweat. I learned you don’t need the duvet at plus 5 to be comfortable.

The outdoor sleeping arrangements are agreeing with me, however, as the alarm woke me up at 7:15, and I got out of bed at 7:30. Walked over to the really bright and clean showers where I stayed at Moeraki Village Holiday Park and got cleaned up for the day. I had the van converted from sleeping mode to travel mode around 8:45 a.m., then had another breakfast of tea, puffed wheat cereal, and milk. I was packed up and on the road at 9:30 a.m., which I think is the earliest start I’ve gotten on this trip.

My first stop of the day was the Moeraki Boulders, just 4 km north of where I stayed overnight.

These spherical boulders started to form about 55 million years ago, when lime began to form evenly around a pebble or shell buried beneath the sea floor. The lime eventually formed a hard, spherical concretion around the pebble. Once the sea floor was uplifted in (relatively) modern geologic time, the mudstone encasing the boulders was eroded, leaving the spherical boulders as you see. The boulder in the previous photo is slightly taller than me.

There are a number of the boulders scattered over perhaps half a kilometer of the beach:

If you turn around, you can see Moeraki Harbor, across the road from where I camped the previous night:

And if you look toward the shore, there is a shrub that grows in very dense groves on hillsides in certain areas. It is quite spiny with yellow flowers about the size of a nickel, and reminds me of gorse, which I’ve seen in Scotland, although the Scottish variety had magenta flowers. Maybe the Kiwi Master Gardeners could identify it for me?

I left The Boulders about 10:30, heading south. SH 1 curves inland for a while, so there wasn’t much to see other than the green, rolling hills that characterize New Zealand. Since I was on the road early, I stopped at a bakery in Palmerston and bought a raspberry muffin that was my first pastry in almost two weeks. I savored bits of it all day.

Rollin into Dunedin shortly after noon, I purchased fuel, and pushed on to Mosgiel, a smaller town just 10 km further south. I was low on milk, so I bought some groceries, then walked across the street to the public library as the libraries here offer free WiFi access. I posted yesterday’s blog, and called home via Skype, although I wound up leaving a message on the answering machine. It was 8:30 Tuesday night back home, and Karen could have been outside during the cooler part of the day.

Southbound again on SH 1 at 1:40 p.m. At Balclutha, I turned off onto SH 92, the Southern Scenic Tourist Route. SH 92 would add about an hour to my travel time to Invercargill versus SH 1, but SH 92 hugs the coastline through the Catlins and is a much prettier (and less traveled) route. While on SH 92, I stopped to prove that, yes, New Zealand does have sheep. Lots of sheep.

Each of the white dots in the photo is a sheep. If I grazed sheep at the same density back home, I’d have about eighty sheep on Kings Mill. I also learned that sheep will walk away – briskly – from you as soon as you stop the car. There were sheep all along the fence line when I stopped, and by the time I got out of the car and set up the shot, they were all about half a block away.

SH 92 was pretty curvy, and I was averaging about 60 kph, so I knew it was going to be a late arrival in Invercargill. But the views along the coast were quite good, as this view of Tautuku Bay shows:

Around 4:30 p.m., I was still almost 80 km from Invercargill, so I stopped at Curio Bay to evaluate their accommodations. When I arrived, a driving rain started to fall, and a strong, gusting wind started up – so I decided to push on. It wasn’t until I started typing this blog entry that I realized I had neglected to take a photo at Curio Bay, as it will be the furthest south I get on this trip – by about 1 km over where I hope to tomorrow (Bluff, New Zealand).

I drove on through gusting winds and periodic rain, arriving in Invercargill at 6:10 p.m. I got a camp site at the Amble Inn Holiday Park on the east side of town, but just wasn’t up for cooking my own dinner tonight, so I drove into town for a burger and fries. I ate back at camp, and am finishing up this entry about 8:45 p.m. I’ll go back, convert the van to sleeper mode, and hit the sack – I like getting the earlier start.

So tomorrow, I check off the last of my goals for this trip – standing at the end of the earth, facing south with nothing but a lot of water between me and Antarctica. They’re predicting rain, with a low tonight of 3 C, and a high tomorrow of 8 C. But now I start heading west and north again, so except for the one night I hope to spend in the mountains, it should be getting warmer. Good night from the southern end of the earth; I hope I don’t fall off overnight.

Campervan mileage: 418 km for the day

Day 14: Happy Fifth of July!

When it gets down to -5 C (23 F) outside overnight, it still gets pretty cold inside an unheated campervan; I woke up several times soon after I went to bed as my nose kept getting cold. But either my body increased the blood flow to my nose, or my brain told my nose to “deal with it”, as the next thing I knew, my alarm was going off at 7:30 a.m.

Due to the cold, I “snoozed” the alarm for 10 minutes, but eventually decided to get up and face the cold. I set off for the showers in my shower clogs, socks, flannel pants, T-shirt, windproof jacket, and leather jacket (a real fashion plate, for sure), The showers were coin-operated: $2 for 10 minutes, but the water was HOT and worth the money. I finished the morning routine, went back to the van, and changed into a more normal ensemble. I packed up the bedding and got the van ready for travel.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was able to buy some food supplies since I now have the space to carry them – so today’s breakfast was a cup of coffee and puffed wheat cereal with milk. It may not sound like much, but it tasted REALLY good; that’s the first milk I’ve had since leaving home, except for what you add to tea in the morning (unless you’re some type of uncivilized (sic) beast, you put milk in your tea).

Then I called home, where the big Fourth of July Kings Mill cookout was underway; I wished them a happy Fourth, and my wife wished me a happy Fifth. It was great to talk to everyone, and it sounds like everyone was having a good time back home. Next year, I plan to be there….

The wheels started turning at 10:15 a.m., headed west on SH 8 toward Mt. Cook. About 4 km west of town, I saw the turn for the Mt. John observatory. Having previously visited the Mt. Palomar, Kitts Peak, Yerkes, and other observatories in the states, I decided to visit.

The telescope in the background is their 16-incher – a pretty good sized telescope, although it pales in comparison to the 100-incher at Mt. Palomar. There is so little air or light pollution here, however, that I imagine they get some pretty good views from it. In their maintenance building, they also had what is, to the best of my knowledge, the world’s highest milling machine:

(OK, since we were only at about 1,600 meters (5,000 feet), it may not be the highest mill in the world, as any mill in Denver would beat it. But it’s the highest mill that I can ever recall seeing.) I departed the observatory, heading toward Mt. Cook. The day was warming nicely, and it was near 10 C when I arrived at the outlook.

One of the problems of solo travel is that none of your pictures ever have you in them. Unless, of course, you mount your camera on a tripod (a VERY short tripod if you plan to carry it on a motorcycle), then put the assembly on top of your ice chest in the middle of the parking lot, set up the shot, trip the 10-second timer, run to get in the photo, wait, and then run to move the ice chest out of the middle of the parking lot before someone runs it over.

The photo shows (left to right) the campervan I’m piloting, me, a distant cloud, and Mt. Cook to the right of the cloud. (You’re not seeing the other five attempts that didn’t quite turn out right.) I left Mt. Cook around 12:15, and arrived in Omarama at 1:00. I decided to take the most direct, but still fairly scenic, route back to the east (Pacific) coast via SH 83; I mean, how could you go wrong traveling route 83?

The Pacific came into view around 2:30, and I pulled into Oamaru for food (a loaf of bread and PB&J for dinner) and fuel around 3:00. Oamaru is home to two different penguin colonies: a herd (pod? group? Bunch?) of Blue penguins, which I had seen in captivity at the International Antarctic Center in Christchurch), and a herd of Yellow-Eyed penguins.

Yellow-Eyed penguins are relatively rare, and this group consists of about 60 birds in all. In winter, they swim out to sea to feed around 9:00 a.m., and return about 2 hours before sunset. The guide at the iSite said that they would be returning between 3:15 and 5:15 p.m., and that on a good day, you might see 5 to 20 penguins, whereas you’d see 0 to 5 birds on a bad day. Since it was 3:30 and I wasn’t planning to travel much farther today, I drove out to Bushy Beach to watch.

I stayed until 4:15, and was only able to see one penguin swim by about 100 feet off shore. I would have liked to see one land, but it was still quite a thrill to see one in the wild. Back in the van, I drove the shore route down to Moeraki, where I hope to see the Moeraki boulders tomorrow before continuing south toward Bluff / Invercargill – my southernmost point of this trip. The weather forecast is for a fine start for the day, with clouds moving in during the afternoon. Here’s hoping they’re right; travel is a lot more fun when the sun is out.

Campervan mileage: 272 km for the day

Day 13: The Further South You Go, The Colder It Gets

After typing the blog entries for the past two days last night, then staying up and reading “Where Men Win Glory” for a while, it was 11:15 p.m. before I went to bed. It seemed like it took a while for me to fall asleep (I normally am one of those people who is asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow), but I didn’t awaken until the alarm went off at 7:30 a.m. I felt good, and looked out the window at what was shaping up to be a frosty but fine morning. (It isn’t “sunny” or “clear” in New Zealand forecasts: it’s “fine”.)

I showered and dressed, and was able to get a WiFi connection, so I called my daughter to wish her a Happy Birthday – even though it was already July 4^th here, it was only 2:00 in the afternoon on July 3^rd – her birthday – back in Denver. (Trick question: Do they have a Fourth of July in New Zealand? Answer: Of course; there’s a fourth of July everywhere.) I also called home to check in. My wife and youngest daughter were finishing preparations for the traditional July 4^th party at our house, which is the big event for the year on the Kings Mill calendar. It will be a bit smaller than usual this year, as my sister-in-law Janice, who passed away from cancer this past year, my nephew Alex, who is on holiday in Maine, and I will be absent this year.

After a breakfast of tea and Harraway’s Plain Oat Cereal (I’ve been misspelling the brand name in previous posts; hope it doesn’t jeopardize my contract with them as a sponsor of the Two-Wheeling New Zealand tour), I packed and went out to start loading the bike.

Obviously, it was a frosty start to the day (-1 C on the bike thermometer). This is what Kiwis mean by “frost”; it’s a thick, substantial thing that wipes up like about 3/16 ths of an inch of substantial snow. But I was only riding about 5 km to drop off the bike, so I dressed in my windproof jacket, leather jacket and pants, and retroreflective vest. The wheels were turning at 10:15 a.m., and the temperature had risen to 3 C.

The motorcycle rental agency was near the city center, so as I was somewhat familiar with the route, I arrived around 10:30, and was met by John, one of the owners and the gent who had launched me on my adventure in Auckland 10 days earlier. We visited for a few minutes, then I went out and began unpacking the bike while John removed my electric vest connection and evaluated the condition of the bike.

I had mentioned the scratched tip-over cover to him, and he pointed out some paint chips on the mirror pod and some scratches on the clutch handle- a very fair assessment of the damages from my 1 MPH parking lot tip-over on Friday. He made a VERY fair accommodation to my early return of the bike, and the charges for the damage were also fair. After completing the necessary paperwork, John called a taxi for me, and I headed for Backpacker Sleepervan Rentals, near the airport.

(Side note: If anyone is considering renting a bike in New Zealand, I STRONGLY recommend Te Waipounamu rentals. They have a good Web presence, and can be found by Googling the name of the company. Everyone I worked with was friendly, responsive, and fair.)

I arrived at the van rental agency around 11:30 a.m. I quickly completed the necessary paperwork, but they were still cleaning and preparing the van when I arrived, so I didn’t get on the road until 12:45 noon. Throughout the trip, I have had almost no difficulty remembering to stay on the LEFT side of the road. (When I disembarked the ferry in Picton last Thursday night, I was the only vehicle on the road as I rode into the deserted town – and found myself riding on the right (i.e., “wrong”) side of the road for a 100 yards or so before I caught myself.) In a four-wheeled vehicle, it’s even easier to stay left as the driver’s seat is on the wrong side.

On John’s recommendation, I headed west on SH 73 toward Darfield, rather than heading more directly south on SH 1 with its heavier truck traffic and less scenery. Good choice; there was little traffic and in Darfield, I stopped to pick up some groceries as I now have a cooler and enough room to carry some provisions. In Darfield, I also picked up SH 72/77 toward Mount Hutt. (I need to find out who or what “Hutt” is; back on the North Island, I passed through Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt on my way into Wellington.) The road skirts the east and south sides of the mountain range, and I took the following photo of Mount Hutt just outside of the town of Windwhistle.

Five kilometers south of Mount Hutt, I turned to stay on SH 72 toward Geraldine. I had planned to stop for fuel in Geraldine, but the only station in town was getting fuel delivered, so I decided to press on to Fairlie on SH 79. I made my contribution to Mike and Maddy’s retirement funds at the BP in Fairlie, and also stopped at the iSite to get information on campgrounds at Lake Tekapo, my destination for the day.

State Highway 8 west out of Fairlie started out mostly straight with some gentle sweepers, became quite snaky near Burkes Pass,and then straightened out nicely again. The hills roll gently for as far as the eye can see.

As I climbed toward Lake Tekapo, the snow in the mountains moved closer to me. By the time I made my campground for the night on the shore of Lake Tekapo, the snow was in my campsite.

Lake Tekapo is noted for its magnificently clear skies, and there is an observatory just outside of town that offers night tours. But the tour cost was excessive, so I chose to stand outside and marvel at the sky for free. I’ve never seen the Milky Way so brilliant before, and the Southern Cross was initially difficult to locate as there were just SO MANY stars. But I was getting cold, so I retired to type this missive. And now it’s time for bed.

Tomorrow, I head over to see Mount Cook (the highest peak in New Zealand), then back to the east coast and south toward Dunedin. Stay warm.

Motorcycle mileage: 6 km for the day

Camper mileage: 256 km for the day

Day 12: A Peaceful War Zone

Awoke today at 6:15 a.m. and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I sat and read more of Jon Krakauer’s biography of NFL safety Pat Tillman, “Where Men Win Glory”. Out of bed for the morning routine at 7:30, and by 8:30, I was skimming my travel guides for information on rental cars or campervans to replace the motorbike I’ll be turning in tomorrow.

There were two campervan companies I decided to investigate, and as I couldn’t get a WiFi connection in my room, I headed for the two public-use PC’s in the lounge. I decided to rent a “sleepervan” from the aptly named Backpacker Sleeper Vans. It’s built on something like a VW Vanagon chassis, has two seats (one more than I need!), a compressor fridge, gas cooktop, and converts to a bed in back. Under $50 (NZ) per day, and I can pick it up around noon tomorrow.

As I had time remaining on my pre-paid session, I checked in at home as well via Skype. This is really an amazing service; the call quality is excellent, and the voice connection to any dialed number only costs 2.3 cents (US) per minute. (If you call PC-to-PC using Skype at both ends, the cost is zero – but that requires being at both PC’s simultaneously. Calling an existing land line or cell is worth the 2.3 cents per minute – call me extravagant.)Under sunny skies and a temperature of 7 C, I left for the International Antarctic Center (IAC) at 10:15 a.m. The Center serves as the coordinating agency for the activities of the U.S., New Zealand, and Italian Antarctic programs, as well as providing a variety of educational and recreational activities. The ride to the IAC was about 8 km, and took about 15 minutes in light, Sunday morning traffic.

The vehicle in front of the building is a Hagglund, a tracked vehicle built in Sweden that is widely used for travel in Antarctica. Both the tractor and the trailer have powered treads, providing an ability to climb a 45 degree slope, traverse a side slope of 31 degrees, cross crevasses of about 70 cm, and ford water crossings up to 3 meters deep. I was able to get the front passenger seat for my ride, and the capabilities of the vehicle are impressive.

I also saw live, Little Blue penguins:

These penguins are about 25 cm (10 inches) tall, and are “rescued” birds that have been cared for at the IAC as their injuries would have made their survival in the wild unlikely.

(Side note: The first King penguin to visit New Zealand since the 1940’s turned up in Christchurch a few weeks ago – obviously lost, as King penguins don’t normally travel the 3,800 km (2,400 miles) from Antarctica to New Zealand, and it’s WAY too warm for them here. The penguin, named “Happy Feet” by the local press, has gained quite a bit of celebrity.

But due to the unusually warm temps (if you’re a penguin), Happy Feet tried to cool himself / herself (even the experts aren’t sure) by eating some snow at his feet on the beach – but he was actually eating sand and twigs, not snow, as that’s what is on Christchurch beaches, not like Antarctica. This made Happy Feet quite ill, so they performed stomach surgery on him, and he seems to be on the mend. But now, he’s become a Bird Without A Country: he can’t be repatriated to the Antarctic now (it’s winter, and there are no transport services to Antarctica in the winter), and he may already have picked up some germs that could be disastrous if he were later repatriated. So what do you do with Happy Feet? Who knows; film at 10!)

I spent some time reading the exhibits, experiencing an “Antarctic Blast” (which felt a lot like snowblowing my driveway), and watching a 3D movie filmed in Antarctica. I was amazed that their replica of Scott’s Antarctic hut from 1910 contained a cast-iron, wood-fired cookstove; I know the explorers needed to eat, but this stove must have weighed three to four hundred pounds – a lot of cargo to bring around the world for the exploration. I left the IAC at 2:15, and headed toward Christchurch city center to do some exploring.

Amazing.

Although I’ve been fortunate enough to never have experienced being in a war zone, that’s what the center of Christchurch looks like. The heart of the city – an area roughly 4 blocks by 8 blocks – is closed. It is surrounded by chain link fencing, and although reconstruction personnel are allowed in the area with permission, on this Sunday afternoon there was absolutely no one inside the perimeter. It’s haunting, eerie, and very disturbing.

Many of the buildings were damaged in the first earthquake, which was a magnitude 6.5 if I recall correctly. But many more were ruined by the magnitude 6.3 aftershock that occurred months later. The above photo shows the remains of one of the Canterbury Village offices from the late 1800’s. At the time, Canterbury was vying with Wellington to be the nation’s capitol, and this was one of the buildings that was planned for the capitol complex. It was eventually decided that Christchurch was too far south to be the capitol, but the building was magnificent. If you look at the left-side of the photo, you can see the twisted remains of scaffolding that was being used as part of a stabilization effort following the first quake – but which was destroyed along with the rest of the building by the largest aftershock.

It will take years, if not decades, to rebuild Christchurch. And even then, the city will have lost much of its heritage and heart. It’s a very disturbing sight.

So I hopped back on the bike, stopped to get a pizza for dinner, and was back in my cabin by 5:30 p.m. Tomorrow, I start a new, four wheeled chapter of this tour… now christened the “Two-point-eight Wheeling New Zealand” adventure.

Motorcycle mileage: 40 km for the day

Day 11: Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude

As I mentioned in yesterday’s entry, I was in bed (and soon asleep) by 9:30 last night as I was feeling pretty tired. So I was a bit surprised when I awoke at 5:30 a.m. and couldn’t fall back asleep.

I felt tense about the upcoming day’s ride. The tension wasn’t due to the weather; whatever conditions existed, I had experienced them so far on this trip (unless it snowed). It also wasn’t due to the performance of the bike (flawless so far) or anything “scary” that had happened on the road so far.

I decided it was a combination of concern about road conditions, and my flexibility while on the bike. The “road conditions” are my concerns about my traction. Being near the coast, it gets quite frosty here overnight, so I’ve been delaying my morning departures until the sun has been up a few hours to make (relatively) sure the roads are frost free. But there’s really no way to be sure, so my cornering speeds have been safe and slow. They also spread grit (sand or very small gravel) in the corners early in the day, which also makes cornering a slow proposition as traction conditions are uncertain. So I’m traveling somewhat slowly, and my travel days are shortened because of my delayed starts.

And when I mention “my flexibility”, I’m not referring to a sore back, stiff neck, or the like; I’m referring to the ability to stop in a variety of pull-offs, without worrying about off-camber entrances, and without being concerned about the security of the gear I have strapped to the passenger pillion. Or to take a quick break and/or photo, without removing gloves, helmet, unplugging the electric vest, etc.

So I showered, ate breakfast (tea and an apricot filled pastry I had purchased the previous day), packed, and called the motorcycle rental company around 8:30 a.m. I expressed my concerns to the owners, and asked if I could return the bike early. We agreed that I can return the bike on Monday, and I’ll continue the trip either in a rental car or the like. I felt better already. I called home to let them know of the change of plans, and the kickstand went up at 10:20 a.m.

The day was beautiful: sunny, and although it was only 6 C when I left, it looked like it would warm up nicely. As a result, I put my windproof liner on underneath my leather jacket, leather pants, and the rain suit and electrics went in the top and side cases, respectively.

The ride south on SH 6 along the coast was SPECTACULAR. The sun warmed the air to about 10 C, and the road was a series of gentle sweepers connected by short straightaways:

The road would climb for a while, providing magnificent overlooks of the Tasman Sea (although there typically weren’t any pull-offs as the road was notched into the side of the seaside cliff), then fall back to sea level. There was a stiff wind off the sea, and combined with an approaching high tide, the waves broke quite strongly. This photo is near Woodpecker Bay, looking out toward Seal Island (couldn’t see the island; sorry, Pootz):

I continued on to Punakaiki: home of the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes, and another one of my “goals” for this trip. I’m not sure if “pancake” rocks gets its name from a mispronunciation of “Punakaiki” or if it is due to the fact that the rocks are layered, much like a stack of pancakes; either would be appropriate:

By the time I had completed my visit here, it was just after 1:15 p.m. I decided that as the forecast for today on the west coast (where I was) was clear and warm, and the forecast for Christchurch (on the east coast, and where I needed to return the bike on Monday) was clear, I’d ride the route across the country and through the mountains via Arthur’s Pass today. I continued the remaining 45 km to Greymouth, where I fueled up and put the electric liners on under both my jacket and pants.

Eighteen km south of Greymouth, I turned onto SH 73 toward Arthur’s Pass just before 2:00 p.m. The sign indicated Christchurch was 233 km away, but it was only 79 km to Arthur’s Pass, meaning I’d be through the pass (and the coldest part of the journey) early in the trip. Or so I thought.

The first 60 km to Otira was either gentle sweepers or straight, and I made good time on this section. Then the curves got tighter, and snow appeared on the tops of the mountains toward which I was headed:

And the temperature bottomed out. Within 10 km, I went from 10 C to 3 C, and it was still falling. Dustings of snow appeared by the side of the road, and the amount of grit on the road increased substantially, causing a corresponding increase in sphincture tension and drop in speed. I crept on toward the pass, as the thermometer bottomed out at 0 C.

I made Arthur’s Pass, which is actually a small village as well as the highest point on the road, looking forward to lower elevations and warmer temps. But the road stays on a plateau for another 60 km, so I rode on, very s-l-o-w-ly on the dicey parts, and slowly on the connecting sections, as you never knew where the dicey parts would be.

Finally, though, the road straightened, the temp rose back to 7 C, and I arrived in Yaldhurst, just outside Christchurch, at 5:00 p.m. My insufficient maps, combined with the first “No Vacancy” signs I’ve seen on this trip, meant that I didn’t get to my night’s lodging, Amber Park Holiday Park, until 7:00 p.m. Once again, I “splurged” on an ensuite cabin (private bath). A piece of chicken from KFC, and I’m ready to call it a day. Tomorrow, I hope to explore Christchurch and visit the International Antarctic Center, one of three remaining “goals” for this trip.

Motorcycle mileage for the day: 412 km

Day 10: Here Comes The Sun

I woke up briefly at 5:30 a.m., but decided to try falling back asleep for a few minutes. The next thing I knew, my phone alarm was waking me up at 7:15 a.m.; that’s only the second time on this trip that I’ve slept until my alarm went off. I even snoozed it for 10 minutes, and my feet hit the floor at 7:30 a.m.

I opened the drapes of my cabin to… fog. Well, that’s something new – at least it wasn’t actively raining, although it was also impossible to determine what type of weather the day held. At this campground, the toilet and showers are communal, so I grabbed my toiletries kit, towel, and washcloth, and started for the shower building. It’s COLD; 2 C according to the thermometer on the office – and the shower building is unheated. It was pretty brisk until the shower stall began heating up.

Showered and shaved, I returned to my cabin and dressed. I gathered my breakfast ingredients and dishes and headed to the kitchen. Over Harroway’s Oat Cereal with apples, sultanas (whatever they are), and raisins, and my cup of tea, I watched the weather forecast on the morning news: they were predicting a sunny day with high temperatures around 12 C. They’ve been wrong sufficiently often that I wasn’t too excited, but it could be a good day. I decided to head toward Nelson on the more picturesque Queen Charlotte Drive, instead of the more direct route through Blenheim on SH1 and then crossing over on SH63

I finished breakfast, returned to my cabin, and packed up. I decided to hope for the best, and put on my electric jacket liner and electric pants liner (first time for the electric pants on this trip), leather jacket and pants, and reflective vest. The rain jacket and pants went in the top case just in case.

(Miscellaneous factoid learned on this trip: The rubber overboots known as “Wellingtons” originated in New Zealand. In the early days of the 20^th century, the natives harvested trees on the North Island and collected resin (“gum”) from their stumps for use in paint and varnish making. The area was quite boggy, so the loggers wore boots – Wellingtons, from Wellington, the capitol of New Zealand – which also became known as “gum boots”.)

Kick stand up at 10:15; I delayed my departure a bit to allow the day to warm up and help clear any frost from the roads; the bike thermometer showed 5 C as I left. The Queen Charlotte Drive route  is rated as “3-smiles”, but the first 8 km were definitely more technical than a “3-smile” route. The speed limit on this section of the road was 50 kph, but I was in 1^st or 2^nd gear, rounding switchbacks at 20 or 25 kph.

Shortly after beginning the ride, while rounding a tight right-hand curve, I heard a “clunk”, similar to what I heard when my Thermos bottle fell of my motorcycle on the way in to school a few days before I left. (In that case, my Thermos was immediately run over by a dump truck. It sounded a LOT like a gun shot when it exploded.) Since I hadn’t been on the road that long, I began looking for a place to pull over to check my load.

There was a scenic overlook on the right about half a kilometer up the road, so I pulled in. It was a closed-ended parking lot, so I needed to make a U-turn to set up my exit. I was making a left-hand circle, when the bike started falling inwards from less than 5 kph. Down I went; a classic 1 mph tip over. The engine cut off, and I stood up to assess the damage. None to me, and the bike was resting on its tip-over wing at the front and the rear tire. A jogger passing by helped me right the bike. The plastic tip over cover is scratched, but no other damage was noted. Hopefully, that’s my mishap for this trip.

The sun soon broke through, and the scenery for the rest of this leg was remarkable – think of a sea level version of the hills from “The Sound of Music”. This photo is of Mahau near Moenui, just east of Havelock:

By the time I reached Nelson, it was just after 1 p.m. and my left knee was hurting a bit, so I thought I’d stop and call Dr. Pootz to get an opinion. There is a beautiful beach in Nelson, so I pulled into their parking lot – which is also the parking lot for the public library, which is open on Fridays from 1:00 to 4:30 – and they offer free WiFi. I called Pootz, whose diagnosis is (probably) a strained hamstring, and home. I posted yesterday’s blog page, and looked at my route options past Nelson.

The morning tip over and my sore knee were putting me off my “A-game”, so I decided on the “direct: route toward Westport on SH6 – which is still a “4-smile” route of just over 200 km. This route was probably the best match I’ve had on this trip for my riding style. There were sections that probably totaled 20 or 30 km of tight curves that I’d term “technical” corners: 25 km, tops, on many of the curves, constantly alternating back and forth. There was even one short section called Hawks Cove, where the road passes through a “C” shaped notch in the roack. But there were also long stretches where the curves were frequent, but not constant, gentle sweepers that could be taken comfortably at 80 kph (in a 100 kph zone).

The day was getting late, however, so I didn’t stop for any photos on this section. I arrived in Westport at 5:00 p.m. and selected an ensuite cabin at the Westport Holiday Park for tonight’s stay. A stuffed baked potato for dinner, a couple of aspirin to help my knee, and I’m ready for bed earlier than usual at 9:30. If all goes well, tomorrow I’ll have Pancakes – Pancake Rocks, that is, about 50 km south of here.

Motorcycle mileage: 339 km for the day