Kia Ora - 13 days in Paradise - New Zealand's south island

[Lovin' it Strom]

I was getting really tired, as the beds in the last hotel were not unlike a large cardboard box with old dried out saran wrap covering the top as a makeshift crackling hammock. It was actually kind of fun. I walked in to a bed just above knee high and sat down. The foot of the bed immediately sunk till my rear end was about 5 inches from the floor. Much closer than the water in the toilet.

We found the Salmon farm. Which is weird, NZ is working very hard to remove invasive species, yet introducing Salmon.



They had a sign out for their Whitebait sandwiches. Being the foodie I am (and since Skittles got to experience the Marmite first) it was my turn to order something of local cuisine that the rest of the world would find questionable.


Nothing unusual here. Looks like five fried eggs over loading a couple slices of toast.

Until I flip it over

Just what it says...bait.

Skittles went for milder fare


And this guy was there for lunch too


After a lunch to stoke my internal fires of desire...ah, whatever. Lets continue the ride


Skittles was getting more comfortable on the bike and began leaning and reaching for more artistic and action shots

[sandgroper]

Originally Posted by Steve in NZ

there's only one thing worse than a whinging pom. A whinging yank. Geez you complain about the distance between the international & domestic terminal. Catch the shuttle they keep mentioning over the pa and also b4 ya land.

I bet our international to domestics terminal in Perth is further than yours

[Skittles]

I told him about the shuttle but he wouldn't listen.

[Lovin' it Strom]

Pesto? No Pizza!

[Lovin' it Strom]

We continued our trek through the rainforest on our way to Queenstown and watching for the much recommended Crown Range Road

A stop at the Blue Pools...gawd I wanted to jump in for a swim.


Unfortunately, the camera batteries died before we reached Crown Range Rd. Blame Skittles, she left the plug adapter in one of our hotel rooms...I'll let her tell the story.



At any rate, look it up on Youtube. It is a nice road until the final 5 k's or so, then hold on to your hats for some full lock turns with a lot of leaning at very slow speeds. It was gorgeous! I did get a couple pics with the big camera (but we can't use that while riding and there weren't many pull over spots



We pulled into the Holiday Park and quickly discovered if there was a square inch of land, they would sell it. We ended up tucked behind an apartment with a small Asian family staring out there living room window at us. We moved back as far as we could to get away from the 20something Dutch guys playing Techno from a laptop in their minivan.



Once camp was set, we went to Fergburger, which was good - but not worth all the hype. We managed to also make it into town for the Pub Crawl. I guess my hi-viz coat makes some people (who are drunk enough) think I am of the local constabulary. A couple young guys who have been imbibing too much came up and wanted to kiss Skittles, saying kissing a cop was on his list. Did I mention this sloppy drunk was wearing a pink tutu? Ahh to have a camera at these moments.

We went to bed, but the constant noise of drunken teens was a little much to sleep through. The good news is the rain storm, which sounded like someone throwing handfuls of nickels on the tent helped drown out their noise.

[SgtMarty]

Good stuff dudes.

[TheMuffinMan]

Originally Posted by Skittles

I told him about the shuttle but he wouldn't listen.

Awesome pictures and story! Moar!!

[Lovin' it Strom]

Just to back up a little, I found more pics of the Blue Pools and an oddity worth a mention.







The gravel bar across from the Blue Pools was covered with thousands of cairns. WTF? Can a local tell me why? What does it mean?

[Lovin' it Strom]

We packed up in the wet as it was still coming down pretty good. We were prepared and this was the day of rain we were warned about - and expecting two days ago.

After our water proof liners were installed and everything loaded back onto our faithful steed, we rode into town and Skittles discovered more shopping for trinkets and t-shirts for back home. Even I got into the excitement and purchased a Maori Taiaha (short speer) made of local wood with a jade tip. Jade, or greenstone, is a big thing around here and we ended up with a lot of it.

Here's the daylight shot of the Fergburger that we missed the prior night. Note the excess humidity levels.



We had breakfast at, of all possible places....Starbucks. I know, I know...I am so ashamed.

The we hit the road after force packing all the extra items we got onto the bike. Maybe next time we'll pack lighter and rent a Goldwing to be able to carry Skittles' booty.


Ummmmm, that didn't quite come out right.

Back to the ride report before I get into trouble.

The rain didn't let up all the way to Te Anau - which is pronounced T'now - which didn't dampen our spirits any. This is frickin New Zealand! No worries!









And those were the clear pics from that day. The rain was quickly soaking right through our "waterproof" gloves...but our other gear was working like a charm and we stayed MOSTLY dry. Of course when I removed the moto pants for a hike later it looked like I lacked some bladder control.

We found a little diner in middle of no where and stopped for a bite. The people were very nice and let us eat inside, with some towels under us.





No ride report is complete without food pics...don't know why, it's an inmate thing I guess.

[howieNZ]

Originally Posted by Lovin' it Strom

Sorry, I was getting so tired I managed to blow right past Pukekura, where I intended to eat dinner at the Road Kill Cafe where, "you kill it, we grill it." If anyone gets a chance to check that place out, I'd love to see the inside and the menu.

For a look at whats at Pukekura have a look at this site http://www.pukekura.co.nz/bushmans_centre/index.htm

Good to see you enjoed your trip

[advNZer?]

Originally Posted by Lovin' it Strom

[/URL]

The gravel bar across from the Blue Pools was covered with thousands of cairns. WTF? Can a local tell me why? What does it mean?

means the river has not flooded for a while...

[meg91e]

Originally Posted by Lovin' it Strom

The rain didn't let up all the way to Te Anau - which is pronounced T'now - which didn't dampen our spirits any. This is frickin New Zealand! No worries!

T'now by the tourists mate! Pronounced 'Tea Are-now' by the locals.

Beautiful country isn't it, we were hiking for 4 weeks on the South Island in Oct 2011 and spent most of our time saying "I wish we had the bikes..."

Great pics, looking forward to the rest of the trip.

Cheers, Meg

[sgoetz628]

Absolutely wonderful ride report. Great photos. Terrific commentary. Couldn't stop until the end. Thanks so much for posting!!!

[gregdee]

Go to the Bafe in Lumsden for the donuts. Best darn things I ever ate. So much so that we stopped there a second time on our way back up from Te Anau. You can write about your adventures on their wall, if there's any space left. You'll see. The twisty road along lake Wakatipu from Frankton is a hoot too. But then you can say that about pretty much every road on the south island.

[Lovin' it Strom]

Originally Posted by meg91e

T'now by the tourists mate! Pronounced 'Tea Are-now' by the locals.

Beautiful country isn't it, we were hiking for 4 weeks on the South Island in Oct 2011 and spent most of our time saying "I wish we had the bikes..."

Great pics, looking forward to the rest of the trip.

Cheers, Meg

The captain of our boat to the glow worm caves pronounced it T'now, that's where I picked that up...though on land there was some debate about the pronunciation of several places from the "new" version to the Maori version.