After a ”short” break I continued my adventure in New Zealand. I came to the country thinking that it will be a piece of cake and I have to put minimum effort cycling trough this small country. First day tear drop on my cheek in the rain pushing my bicycle steep uphill, hungry and sweaty I knew I was wrong.
This was my route. Took about 2000 kilometers of cycling.
I flew from sunny Brisbane to south of New Zealand to a place called Dunedin planning to cycle up to Auckland. It didn’t start so well since I was repairing a puncture after five kilometers of cycling. It didn’t bother me much though because I had the energy and in my mind there was amazing scenery that was about to come to my way. I cycled myself from Dunedin to West coast with the power of Fish & Chips. The locals call the place ”Wet Coast” and three days of rain showed that the name was right. Third day of rain and sleeping under the bridges I arrived to Fox Glacier shivering and hungry. Like an gift from the heaven I met Glacier guide Duncan. Duncan without a blink of an eye offered me a place to stay on the sofa, gave me food and offered me to dry my wet clothes next to a warm fire. Next morning I was ready to face the uphills again and I want to say big thanks to Duncan!
Glacier guide Duncan. Legend!
So at the time I was in this Glacier area where it rain 400+ days a year. I spotted two British cycle friends Ali and Adam who were also quite frustrated with the terrible soaking wet weather. I hooked up with these two guys and we pushed ourselves out of the rainy weather. Guys were cycling had a big trip cycling around Southeast Asia, New Zealand and Americas. In the evening after cycling alone for a while I realized the trip is much more fun with friends.
Ali and Adam. Good guys!
Our roads separated briefly though and I made my way up to top of the South Island to Picton. In Picton I met Tommi a Finnish guy who was also traveling around New Zealand and planning to hitchhike back to Finland one day. It was good to speak Finnish and drink beer with him. Next day I took a ferry too Wellington to gather my strength back from south Island for three days.
My budget wasn’t enough to get in…
From Wellington to Auckland it was around 750 kilometers and I decided to make this trip in ten days. It was a bit struggle because I had to take few massive truck filled roads. The sun was also fairly brutal and you can tell since they don’t sell less than 40 protection suncreams here. I took my shirt off and exposed my whiter than sheet skin to sun and cycled like that couple of hours. Now my whole back is changing the sun burned skin. I survived to here to Auckland in one peace.
I arrived to New Zealand with a bit of too much confidence but this wind blasted, sun burned, rain soaked country made have total respect to it. Nature varies here from dry steppes to rain forests to swamp areas. The scenery is spectacular and my mobile phone camera don’t often give justice to them.
I changed my sleeping mattress to Helinox Cot Lite. It’s not the worst life eh?
Bad headwind you can see it from my face.
Somehow I get the feeling that New Zealanders don’t like wild pigs.
Classic sight in NZ!
Basic.