Wellington

Lambton Harbour

i have made my way up the west coast of the South Island and crossed over to the lovely city of Wellington on the North Island. Wellington is the world's most southern capital city and a very dynamic cultural and political hotbed. i came here to see a orthopedic surgeon to check out my ailing right knee which i have been having trouble with. after consulting and viewing my MRI with him i determined to carry on with the bike trip up to Auckland where i will fly to Australia in a few weeks. from here the plan is to circumnavigate Mt. Taranaki on the west coast and possibly climb the mountain. then over to the east cape and slowly up to Auckland. the weather has been perfect since i have been in Welly, spring has become summer and everyone is getting ready for their holiday season. i have had some time to explore the surrounding area, rode up to the Mt. Victoria lookout, went to the Te Papa Museum of NZ and also spent a lot of time reading and making use of the fantastic library here.i have a lot of appreciation for this place.

Aoraki/Mount Cook

Mt Cook from Tekapo Canal (photo from Wikipedia)

perhaps i was a bit naive by expecting New Zealand to be more exotic than it appears to be. i thought that a very far away country in the South Pacific would have more distinct cultural differences than the United States. however that does not seem to be the case, either that or i have become somewhat jaded by my time spent in Asia and Europe. or perhaps the simple fact of globalization has taken hold on most industrialized nations.
having said that the personality of New Zealand and New Zealanders is very distinctive in it's own way just as every culture has a particular collective psyche. the main reason i chose to come here was for the majestic landscape and for that i am not disappointed. at times riding through the country side i feel like i could be in the middle of a Lord Of The Rings set. huge grassy pastures with a lake off to the right and a snow capped mountain rage on the left.
i have now ridden from Christchurch to the base of Mt.Cook. Aoraki/Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand, reaching a height of 3,754 meters (12,316 ft).
It lies in the Southern Alps, the mountain range which runs the length of the South Island.
As i rode up the valley leading to the mountain i could not have asked for better weather until the winds shifted for the final 10km climb up to the campsite. the wind continued all through the night and i thought my tent was going to snap in half.
i am spending a few days at this power place before carrying on south and then up north along the west coast.

distant view

New Zealand Bike Tour

Step 1 -

arrived in New Zealand after a very long direct flight from LA, of course i had the middle seat sandwiched between two big people for 15 hrs. man, i have never been
happier to get off of a plane. going through NZ immigration took a while cause i had to wait for the bike to arrive at baggage claim then they wanted to check my tent for soil. as a result i missed my connecting domestic flight to Christchurch but was able to get on one a couple hours later.
getting out of the Christchurch airport i was pleased to see an established bicycle
assembly area complete with racks. so i took my time getting the bike together and consolidating everything and took off down the road towards downtown Christchurch. it was a nice and pleasant Sunday afternoon but was starting to feel a bit tired at this point so i went to the library, did some email, got a beer and lunch at a pub across the street and then proceeded to a hostel down the road.
i had a great nights sleep and woke up very early. was thinking that i would spend another night in Christchurch but i took care of the things i needed to do and rolled out of town at around 1pm. it is going to take some time getting used to the NZ roads, there is not a lot of shoulder, cars don'tgive much room when passing, driving on the left side...
after all the planing and hard to work to prepare for this trip it feels good to have finally arrived and be on the road moving into the unknown.
i have been on the road for three days already and having a great time, the scenery is mind blowing and the weather has been perfect.

the journey continues with love and appreciation...


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