Monday, 14 April 2014

Christchurch (Draft)

So there Wolf and me where walking down what I think was Ricoton road or somewhere close to it? Heading to stay with our brother Josiah. We started looking around trying to find his street number. It turned out we didn't need it as right on one of the driveways was a knocked over letterbox and next to it a massive penis drawn right onto the concert driveway, we knew it had to be his place.

Jizzy was sitting inside and heard us coming from a mile away, I guess there's only two people in the world that laugh like we do. He stepped outside to greet us and it was just like old times straight into banter and then straight into his kitchen to scheme some food.. To bad there was none of Jenny's (His mums) Home made bread.

Josiah's house was a full on man cave, complete with a little pond inside the house, on the carpet next to the front door. It wasn't hard to tell that this house had seen better days. To add to it they owned a heat pump at one stage, to bad the remote was broken!! Have you ever see that ad were people turn off the lights, tv or appliances and money poops out to reward them? Well believe it or not, but Josiah threw that heat pump remote at the wall and right there from within  its shattering components pooped out $3,000 in cash money! Just how utterly amazing must it have been, and totally worth freezing throughout the entire winter.


Its sad to say a lot of our time down in Christchurch was actually spent being zombies, nerding out, playing mindcraft, which I've sworn to never play again. However when we weren't playing video games we did get out for some pretty wild nights.

Unfortunately we ended up getting really sick and mixed with those crazy nights a lot of other people must have also become really sick, oops our bad!!!

As we recovered the days ticked by and weather started to get colder.

I had just gotten over most of my cold, when we decided we best try and make it to Picton within the next 4 days, as a huge cold front was coming through and with it snow and other nasty s, if we didn't leave it would have been two weeks before another clearing. Wolf was still in a pretty run down state but we peddled on none the less.




Monday, 27 May 2013

Hokitiki to Christchurch

Day 1 Hokitiki to Lake Mahinapua


Last meal leaving Hokitika (12 eggs a litre of milk and some chicken)

Grass area lake Mahinapua

More of lake Mahinapua

Lake Mahinapua

Day 2 Lake Mahinapua to Lake Mapourika outside Franz Josef


Otto Mac Donald Campsite, Lake Mapourika

Snowy mountains reflecting off the beautiful Lake Mapourika

Wolf and Kurt Lake Mapourika

Day 3 Franz Josef to Lake Paringa


Breakfast Franz Josef

Franz Josef Glacier from a hill we climbed


River draining Franz Josef

Half way down a big hill

Kurt being Boss

The boys keeping positive

The day getting late at Bruce bay 

The bikes taking a rest

Our cooker at night

Franz Josef Car park

Franz Josef Glacier

Day 4 Lake Paringa to Haast


First Cereal the most important Cereal of the day! 

Knights point lookout


We borrowed some binoculars and saw seals here


Ship Creek

Ship creek

Ship creek

Wolf at Ship Creek

A little walking area at Ship Creek

The boys taking a Quick Break 

Big Native tree

Bush walk Ship Creek

Climbing some Rata vines

Slightly sketch Climbing the Rata vines together







Haast Campsite/Backpackers

Making Sushi in the Campsite Kitchen

Day 5 Haast to Pleasant flats


Haast fighting a head wind and the rain


Smiley Kurt

The scenery was amazing through here 




The cold and altitude changes gave Kurt his first pouring blood nose around here.



When the body and mind is tired you can't help but look weird


Emergency ponchos to keep our rain jackets dry.

Seriously though our rain jackets didn't keep the rain out without the extra  layer.

Walking to a little waterfall



The water from here to Queenstown is the cleanest and most beautiful I've ever seen  







Pleasant Flat Campground

Building a fire

We struggled lighting the wet tinder with our flint stones but finally got it going

Fire makes a cold night enjoyable, sometimes its the simple things that make you happy


Day 6 Pleasant flats to Boundary creek


With our new cooker we got to enjoy warm porridge :)

View of the Alps at the turn off to Pleasant flats 

Climbing through the Haast gates, a view of the Haast river






Haast definitely left an imprint on our minds, what a stunning place 












Blurry signs  not sure why this was uploaded??

Again?? It does look kind of cool



Its funny this was a really steep downhill but you could never tell








Road to Cameron flat

Under cover at Cameron flat

We were suppose to camp here but we still had energy left for another 40 km


The blue pools

Camera once again fails to capture the true Beauty

This place plus Summer would equal an awesome time

Kurt with puffy eyes, it only takes 500 km before one looks exhausted

Wolf and tongue

There were some big fish in here

Boundary creek, our favourite Campsite

We saw fish so headed in

Trying our luck at fishing

Nothing worse then seeing a fish sniff your bait and then swim off

Overly dramatic photo, although it was cold and wet 

I know it said no fires but we were freezing and the area was extremely wet 



Day 7 Boundary creek to Wanaka


Boundary creek in the morning showing off its stunning snow caped mountains and clear waters





Trying to act like we weren't tired


I can't believe I lived only a few thousand km from here for 20 years without knowing







Lake Wanaka goes on for ages, it's a nice sight




















Lake Hawea opposite Lake Wanaka


The sun finally Breaking through






Another one of NZ's Beauty





A quick break to look before leaving










Riding into Wanaka





Day 8 Wanaka to Queenstown


Cardrona

Kurt standing on the side of the highest sealed road in NZ

Wolf standing on the side of the highest sealed road in NZ
Add caption

We finally tested our cardio and made it to the top without Breakfast or a rest

A yawn was captured that morning

Maybe we started going crazy from the altitude??? No Probably not



So much stoke at this point

The beasts in there prime

The machines made it to the top. Unfortunately Wolfs front bikes were broken and my back brakes were gone, so yes our shoes lost some rubber to this mountain

Timer photo

Us making friends, hahah they kept a photo of us for themselves, I think that's the third time its happened. Then again who doesn't want a photo of us!

Day 9 Queenstown to outside Lumsden


Looking at Queenstown from Frankton

More of Frankton

The road to Invercargill

Leaving the Alps











Our Campsite in these scary woods (looking in)

Our campsite (looking out)

Day 10 Outside Lumsden to Invercargill


Last glance at the Alps




With the wind at our back we averaged 35 km/h Finally our large surface area working for us

Storm clouds gathering outside of Winton

Kurt ridding wet

Wolf loving the rain


Invercargill


Warm and dry at Layla's spare house

We loved this place

Kurt being a big kid (Touataras are one of his favourite animals) 


Hmmm not sure what's being achieved here?



Some art inside, no photos were to be taken

boss little tuatara






Some Maori art

Old Canoe

Old Maori fish hooks


Green stone




Food storage container for preserving food









We were bored so we tried to climb every tree in this huge park, we only managed 20



Kurt and Layla on top of a hill at bluff

The boy's looking like foreigners 

It was super windy up there

To cloudy to see Stuart Island


Bluff Sign post

Wolf and Kurt Climbing the Sign post

It's funny if there was a road we could have already biked to the Equator




The chain sculpture that imaginarily connects to Stuart Island



Hahah Wolf was a little stuck


And being his usual self

Day 12 Invercargill to Slope Point Catlins


I'm not sure how this ended upsidedown

Road heading to slope point the furtherest south you can go in NZ


Our Campsite that we found

Probably our best side of the road camping

Two pairs of track pants, two thermals, two woollen jumpers and my jacket, and the cold was finally tamed


Day 13 Slope Point to Outside Owaka


The Beauty of the Catlins, were the sea meets forest



We look like a weird Amish boy band

Purekaunui falls

Don't ask not sure what pose this is? Our interpretation of a tired gangster maybe? 

My tyres enjoyed these gravel roads









Yay punctured tyre



Our next off the road campsite, again it was pretty good

Day 14 Owaka to Dunedin


Yay another punctured tube






Another Flatty


Ran out of fresh tubes so puncture repairing















Four tubes failed that day, two were fixed. The Catlins in total caused 7 tube changes in three days, to put this in perceptive, From Auckland to The Catlins caused only three 

Entering into Dunedin

Dunedin out of focus





Dunedin


Papanui inlet outside Dunedin

It was windy and cold





Signal Hill overlooking Dunedin






Day 14 Dunedin to Oamaru










Moeraki Boulders





















Day 15 Oamaru to outside Ashburton

Day 16 Ashburton to Christchurch

Our Campsite outside Ashbuton

Trip map