It was a beautiful day, with crisp fresh air, a hot sun shining, and a cool breeze.. we first started by taking Bunji out to his boat, for he was taking his family sailing for Easter weekend. After we dropped him at his boat, allowing us to use his dingy we motored into the city, saying our peace we parted.
It was a beautiful time spent out there catching up with old friends and making new ones. Saxton island, you've found a specially little place in both of our hearts.
After grabbing our bikes from the strangers castle where we left our bikes, we packed up and shifted out. the ride was very easy into Richmond, the bike lanes and all.
We stopped into Geoff's course to see him and have our selves another good bye. But while there he showed us a piece of bush on the internet that we couldn't not go exploring. We all decided that we would meet near the Pan Cake rocks two days from now.
So that was it we had made the arrangement. Leaving we said goodbye and goodbye to a couple of his class mates which we had met.
Back onto the road with nothing but tarmac and distance to cover we pushed ahead, we encountered our first of many hills, it was longer than excepted though it was thoroughly enjoyable, this first hill was called Spooners Range and we made it up with ease. It would have had a beautiful view of Nelson if it wasn't for the Pine trees right in front of the look out. While sitting there, a little Weka joined us and soon left.
Enough time wasted we still needed to make more ground before getting too relaxed.
The down hill was long and enjoyable, the sun still glistering its orange rays on us... we continued until I yelled out "peach tree"
We pulled over, hot and stinky we removed our back packs which dripped of our sweat. Put them on the ground and picked some peaches. The odd thing was that these peaches had the typical orange skin but a red flesh... they were sweet and soft. We pack up several and continued on. This same road around 4 km ahead held a apple tree in the middle of this farm.
Seeing red pebbles all over it we had to stop. We parked up our bikes then jumped the fence and approached it. To our surprise this apple tree was towering... holding thousands of apples we selected only the finest apples we could find. These apples were so big you could only hold one with two hands. After stocking up our bags with enough to assist us on our journey, we thanked the tree and headed on our way..
The mix of beautiful Native tree's made the land scape seem unreal. As if you have entered into a new land that's never been discovered before. Everything looks like its in harmony, for all the trees consider each other sometimes even growing off each other. Such a lush green, it made me imagine an array of mystical creatures that could have galloped this land.
We found a little spot next to a river where we decided to camp. while preparing our dinner we were accompanied by a little robin which shared its songs with us. Throughout the whole night all we could hear were the songs of nature, where water running over stones and the wind flowing through trees acted as the instruments.
In the morning while packing up, the little robin came and farewelled us on our journey. As we began our bike it was sad to see that we where placed in such a beautiful place that was right next to massive destruction in the form of deforestation.. A whole landscape of mountains torn up for lumber, although that was miss fortunate, we came across some lovely natives ahead..
As we climb our first hill that morning we finally deciding to listen to music, we pushed quite easily to get to the top. as we reached the top we parked our bikes and went to the look out.
Coming down the hill is always the most fun of all. And the more we escalated downwards, the faster and steeper it became. we hit whooping speeds! and meanwhile we had beautiful scenery to fix our eyes on.With the sun on our backs, riding through this gully next to the Buller River was pretty chilly.
By mid day we made our way into Murchison, a small town of the west coast of the south island. We stopped only long enough to get water and to look at a map in the information centre.. Nothing to exciting, it looked like this little town must get cold in the winter.
We then continued until we reached the "Buller Swing Bridge" we contemplated going in because it was a $10 entry fee for both of us. But we did, and it was a lot of fun.. crossing the swing bridge was hilarious and we made two Travellers feel as if they were going to fall off the bridge from because we were swinging it.. "sorry, but it was fun" :)
The Buller swing bridge connected the main road to a bit of conserved nature, with native trees and birds throughout the walk. We decided to go for a swim in the river.. "It is also a jet boating area which is pretty neat."
Getting back on track we walked and walked, all around this little park.. it wasn't that cool to be honest. But as we did travel the area, we found an awesome rock jump.. We looked to see if it was deep enough and it look it so we jumped.
After jumping, Kurt told me he hit his jaw and it hurt "like taking a hook to the face, he had trouble chewing for the next two days due to the bruising." while walking back we noticed this girl who was working there as the flying fox thingys supervisor... We started chatting, she normally runs white water rafting as a guide but due to low numbers she had to do this job instead.... Lame! anyhow as we kept chatting, she soon offered to takes us white water rafting for free, this sounded like an awesome idea. But we couldn't have stayed around for a few days as we where meeting Geoff to go into the bush shortly. She gave us her number and if we make it back she'll take us.. Sounds like a deal!
As we continued we rode along side the Bulller River, it was beautiful, with steep cliffs and fast rushing water. The sounds where astonishing.
It started to get late and our leg soon couldn't push much at all. we came to a stop at a place which we could camp.. But as in the past we would stop merely kms from an actual camp site so instead of making camp there we continued and sure enough just up the road was an epic camp-site We set up, had our dinner, played some music then went to sleep.
In the morning there was a beautiful moon
But the Sand flies where starting to get quiet annoying so we packed up and started riding cause we where getting eaten!!
It was a beautiful day and our ride ahead was going to be amazing. The Gorge was unreal, with the Buller River on our side the whole way in. Crystal clear water, and Native trees everywhere.
I wish I could explain it better but it was just beautiful, the best scenery we've seen so far. And as we exited the mountains, there was west port. the farm land was some of the best we've seen, as they had huge Native trees sprinkled about them.
When we arrived into West Port we stopped at a New World and had a feed.
Now starting back up was pretty tiresome. our knees started getting built up with pressure and the lactic acid in our legs started to come about. The hills ahead held so much beauty, we climbed them and it was as if we where riding on top of "and this is a Barrier Reference" The white cliffs. the same scenery but the only thing that was different was that we had the view of larger mountains on our left. With Towering trees like that off Avatar "the one with the blue guys :)" and having Manuka shrubs actually blending into the mix. It all seemed to work together. And while we where still biking we finally made it to the top, it was an array of ups and downs but we had made it to the west coast. And you gotta love downhills as an entrance.
We took a little break to see were we needed to be.
As we biked a long we saw caves popping up all down the coast. We both got Super excited, and we knew we where going to find a cave to sleep in for tonight. We ended up stopping 15 km from where Geoff was mean't to come meet us and decided it would be best to find a place to camp seeing as its going to be dark soon and huge storm clouds were building upon the horizon. The Fox river bridge was ahead and we could see a cave. as we parked up our bikes we scouted the area. the first cave was pretty dull and damp. Hoping this is not the only cave we walked around till we meet a this old woman who we shared a conversation with for awhile. after that she pointed us in the direction of a cave. we went and scouted it to see if it was live able.. It was perfect!!
This cave was used by the Maori's hundreds of years ago when transporting green stone for trading. so we felt very privileged to experience this very cave. So we collected our things, as this would be our home from the next several days as the weather was coming in.
Hi where are you now?
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