Biking through New Zealand - after all!

We have just completed our beautiful bike ride from Christchurch to Greymouth, via Picton, Nelson, Motueka, St. Arnaud and Westport. The beginning was a bit slow, with several broken spokes and other obstacles to overcome. However, once we got the bike fixed in Nelson, we had a wonderful 8 days riding through New Zealand. From Nelson, we rode up to Motueka, where we locked up the bikes for one day to take a day-hike in Able Tasman National Park (definitely want to come back here some day to do the complete 5-day walk). We then rode down to Kohatu Junction, along the beautiful Motueka river - this was one of the most scenic rides of the trip, with very little traffic! From there, we rode up to St. Arnaud, a tiny town in the mountains, and gateway to Nelson Lakes National Park, and from there to Murchison. The next day was our record day: we rode nearly 100km in one day, all the way from Murchison to Westport, always along the Buller River, and throug Buller River Gorge. At this point, we had had two weeks of sunshine - no rain. That was about to change. Once we arrived in Westport (finally at the West Coast!), it started pouring. So we spent most of the day sitting in the hostel, drinking hot tea, thinking about what we should do...then we decided to take a bus to Greymouth, only to find out, that the bus had broken down! Maybe it was a sign telling us to ride...when the rain stopped around 4pm, we got on the bikes and decided to ride 20km down the coast to Charleston, hoping that that would give us a chance to still make it to Greymouth the next day. As we were riding towards Charleston, battling strong winds, it started pouring - and the for the first time I got to try out my rain gear, which I had been hauling around for 2 weeks! Wet and cold, we arrived in Charleston, a tiny little township. Aya opened the door to our hostel for the night, and within a few minutes we were in the hot spa...it turned out to be a fun evening with our hosts Aya and Paul. Paul finds and carves jade...very interesting...The next morning, we woke up to a blue sky and sunny weather, and so we got on the bikes for our last 77km to Greymouth! The rugged West Coast is spectacular, and we were very happy to ride the last stretch, vs. sitting on a bus...

We got to Greymouth just in time to rent a car to drive down to Franz Josef Glacier, where we are spending the day. It is pouring rain today. Mark is up on the glacier with a guided tour - I decided to take a day off from activities and work on the blog instead...Tomorrow we drive back to Greymouth, where we will catch the Tranzalpine Train to Christchurch, where we will return the bikes, before renting a car to head down towards Queenstown and the Milford Sound.

Only 2.5 weeks left on our trip --- time goes by too fast. New Zealand has been my favourite destination on this trip! It is so beautiful here, I would like to spend a lot more time...