Ulmo's garden

The sea.
 

Kaikoura is about the sea, all the kinds of sea you can think about. This village is a thin, thin and long strip of road along a great bay with beautiful mountains closing the horizon. In the middle of your eyes, no matter where you are in the village, is the sea.

When we got here, after many hazards already told in previous posts, we were shattered, dusty and tired of mountains and a big change of rhythm and scenery was needed, and boy, did we get it!

First, we booked in a luxurious hotel to rest our hurting legs, got a spa and fed our tired stomachs. Of course, this is Kaikoura, so we had fish, and it was delicious.

The next day, we took the bikes to the repair shop (850 kms on the onboard computer and they are starting to screech and groan all over the place) and got back to the hostel to prepare the afternoon. There we met a British couple who had gone on a fishing tour that morning and had been lucky enough to get two big crayfishes. Being British, they never ate fish, did not look too keen to eating a huge crayfish and they were looking to sell at least one to anyone who wanted it. Josele and me took the opportunity, they were asking for 6 times less price than in a restaurant and we fancied a little cooking.

The photos will show what a crayfish actually is and what we did with it.
This first photo shows the live crayfish:

This second photo is after we laid our hungry paws on it and had some special moments with a big pot, some fire and the crayfish:

And yes, for all you British readers, we did all the disgusting things you are supposed to do when eating seafood, biting, sucking and making horrible noises. We just left an empty shell, none of the insides was spared. It was delicious!

I would say it was an absolute success, awesome lunch and lots of enjoyment.

After that, we took a long walk on the cliffs. We had absolutely stunning views of the ocean, the birds and the seals. And after that, we had fish for dinner.

So, it seems like we had a lot of fish and sea, no?

Well, we just were getting warmed up, because I remind you that officially that day we were not supposed to be here, but on the road, so it was and off day, so to speak.

Today it was really Ulmo's day. For those who have not read the classics, first of all, shame on you and second of all, use Wikipedia, that's what it's there for!

First thing, today we went whale watching.

Kaikoura is famous for it's whale watching tours, you can basically get on a boat and tour around an area where there are big chances of seeing sperm whales. As an average, each tour gets one or two whale sightings, so it is pretty cool.

We had four sightings, got videos, saw the whales, saw hundreds of dolphins jumping all around us, saw the big Wandering Albatross (around 3 meters wingspan!)... We had an excellent tour, an awesome experience and we both said it would be an unforgettable and insuperable memory we'd cherish for a long time...

And in then, we went for the afternoon activity, swimming with the seals.

Only five places in the world allow swimming with the seals in the wild, and of those, the safest and less shark infested place in the world is Kaikoura. We basically had a snorkel, flippers and a wetsuit and were taken by boat to a rock cliff where the seals slept, took baths and basically played all over the place.

Now, that was f***ing an unforgettable and insuperable memory we'd cherish for a long time.

I have lots of trouble describing the feeling of floating less than 50 cms away from a seal biger than you that is basically lazily swimming by your side and that then decides to play with you by diving, changing direction, swimming very fast straight at you and in the last second, changing direction again and basically playing with you until it gets bored and then another comes in, and another, and another...

It has been incredible, absolutely bonkers, this animals are territorial, have big teeth and are actually very big. And yet in the water it's like playing with kitties.

Kitties with teeth.

Ulmo's kitties.

I will never forget today, I am pretty sure of that.

(edit2 from Josele) Here come the videos!

(edit from Josele) Well, for obvious reasons I don't have photos of the seals while we were snorkeling, as my camera is not waterproof and I did not bring a waterproof case with me to the trip... What I can say about the seal swimming activity is that it has been my best dive to date (I do 3-4 dives per year  in the Mediterranean); being able to see a wild animal as big or bigger than you so close to you is pure magic, and their eyes! They were constantly getting closer to inspect us and then swam around us... at the beginning  it was a bit scary but soon it was clear they were just playing... The guides told us that Fur Seals are very territorial on land but not in the water, so a great activity if you ever have the chance to do it, because you don't need to have a diving license to do it... The guide did take some videos, and he told us he would try to burn a CD with some of them so that we can pick it up tomorrow... if we get it, we'll post a video in this blog entry.

How to avoid being eaten by Sheep

(Hi, I'm Josele again... Change of plans... An English couple fished two crayfishes, similar to a lobster, and offered one to us for only 20NZ$, so we could not pass the opportunity and are going to have it for lunch at the Youth Hostel. This means I have time to create the second promised blog entry about yesterday's bike stage).

We started the day a bit later than usual (about 10am) but well rested after our 1-day stay in Hanmer Springs. Our plan was to bike 50km. to Waiau, then decide whether it made sense to keep on cycling to Mount Lyford through the Pacific Alpine Triangle Road, an extra 20km. of hilly terrain.

We were incredibly lucky, and we did our first 50km. helped by a powerful tailwind that allowed us to arrive to Waiau in less than 2 hours!

We daydreamed about continuing to Kaikoura so that we could stay two days there, but we decided it would be too much (it would make a 130km. stage) and that it would be wisest to stay at a lodge in Mount Lyford. We started the ascent to the Mt. Lyford, a total climb of 350 meters, with several annoying 6-7% slopes and arrived at the lodge very tired... Unfortunately for us, the lodge was closed! It turned out it opens mainly during the ski season... The choice had been made for us: we should reach Kaikoura (there was no bar, shop or village between Waiau and Kaikoura except Mt. Lyford)... Fortunately, it was only 2:30pm and, according to our map, we were "only" 61km. from Kaikoura, mostly downhill...

The road was beautiful, full of gentle curves through wooded hills, creeks, and the most terrible predator of the New Zealand wild lands: the sheep!! (insert ominous music here). We had an interesting encounter with a swarm of them:

And I have uploaded to youtube an interesting video in which you can see us helping the shepherd with his sheep (Bikemaggedon style) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6eqOCIDrik

After 20+ km. (by then we had already biked around 90km.) of legbreaking biking, I started to be annoyed with every short or long uphill section of the road... I would start every climb thinking I would not be able to do it, cursing every single meter of the road, only to grind my teeth and push to my energy limit (probably a similar sensation to what the marathon runners call "The Wall")... The going was slow and painful, the views magnificent and inspiring...

In km. 115 we both stopped exhausted and tried to regain some energy (we had no food and no water by then)... another uphill section loomed on the road, and we felt we would need another hour to finish the trip... Then, after that uphill section, the road went downhill, and downhill, and downhill!!! It was 13km. of joyful ride, at 30kph speeds, so we reached the outskirts of Kaikoura in only 30 minutes... At the entrance of Kaikoura from the south, you have to climb a small 50m. hill... the toughest climb of my life!

We soon found the best Lodge in town, with spa bathtub and great views over the Kaikoura bay; it was drizzling in the distance, and I was able to catch a bit of the rainbow with the last rays of the sun at my back... the amazing Kaikoura is awaiting us... but that's for a future blog entry:

Relaxing in Hanmer Springs (aka Lothlorien)

(Hi, I'm Josele and I'll write this post and the following posts. We have not had too much time to update the blog these last days, so I'll write two entries, one for our trip and stay in Hanmer Springs, and a second one for our bike trip to Kaikoura... The very good news is that the computers in the YHA of Kaikoura read my Canon SD memory, so I'll be able to post photos in these two entries and add some photos for past entries.)


After a great train trip from Arthur Pass, we arrived in Christchurch where we spent only enough time for us to miss the mountains and to walk a bit around the town. Christchurch has very nice gardens, but apart from that we did not see anything really worth the trouble (apart from a short visit to a Starbucks cafe to take some photos with which to try to annoy Daniel the Starbucks-freak). We felt very happy with our change of plans (taking the train so that we could spend only half a day in Christchurch and be able to reach Hanmer Springs with the bike).

So the following day we woke up very early (a bit before 6am) to get another train to Waipara, a small village north of Christchurch, very known by wine connaiseurs as the site of the Pegasus Bay winery... From the train we could see huge plains filled with vineyards, the biggest we have ever seen, all beautifully arranged in rows, with their drip watering system and rose bush in front of each row...

We arrived at Waipara at 8am, and started our 77km. uphill stage to Hanmer Springs (during the day we would climb a bit more than 300 meters)... The trip was tough, but we had some help from the wind and from the nice cafes we stopped along the road, our favourite one in a village called Culverden, the Red Post Cafe:

We also had great views along the trip. This country is amazing, and you never get tired of the wonderful views. The landscape has changed from the West Coast, as it is now drier and more similar to the mountain landscapes you can see in Spain and France, though with no houses...

 Hanmer Springs is a loooong looong village, and it took us the last of our energy reserves to get from the village entrance to our hostel, but we were happy we had one full day to relax after so much biking in the past two weeks... First of all, we had a big Flintstones steak in a local restaurant:

We spent most of our relaxing day in the Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools. We bought the "luxurious package" and received also a well deserved 60-minute massage, exactly what our exhausted body needed after 10 bike stages!... Of course I was more worried about not falling sleep and drowning in the pools than taking pictures, but this day Internet is a great place to find some cool photos of any place you visit. This is a good one I found in http://www.travel-location-blog.com/hanmer-springs-canterbury-nz-120-pictures.htm

And that is all for the moment. I'll make a second entry later during the day about our record breaking Hanmer Springs- Kaikoura bike stage... Now we are off to a winery in Kaikoura where we'll have a tasting and a lunch.

A day without Blog post

Hello all, I was going to post a very nice piece of post, but I have received very bad personal news from Spain I do not think I am in the mood for light (and bad) comedy.
Tomorrow I will try to post, today you'll have to endure the suspense.

A change of pace

Today we had decided to change the pace of the trip. The remaining 100 kms to Christchurch were going to be very downhill and boring, so we decided to take the train instead of spending two day getting to Christchurch. You'll see in two day what are we going to do with those extra hours...

The train was very, very nice, it is considered one of the most beautiful rides in the world and to be honest it is quite spectacular. We rode over steel bridges and into tunnels, all the while leaving behind the beautiful Alps. I already miss them, Christchurch is really not worth the time we are spending there.

Anyway, I am very short on time, just two more lines to tell you to look back all the old posts! Josele has finally found a way to add photos and you'll see how much better things read with a photo by them! Enjoy!

Following the birds

Today we had planned a resting day, after all the energy spent in the last days, we wanted a rest and a change of pace before we move on to bigger cities and other activities. So as we are sleeping in New Zealand's highest village, the best and only reasonable to spend our day resting is to a full day hike of more than 1000 mts climb. Obviously!

We got up and got the weather report, that seemed favorable, so we proceeded to climb Avalanche peak, a 1820 mts peak right on top of the village of Arthur's Pass. Very soon we were looking down into the pass and  the whole valley and seeing how the mountains around us got lower and lower. We did a very steep climb up a path called Scott's track and we got almost to the top.

At something like 50 mts in altitude  from the peak, we decided to turn round because the weather was turning and the wind and clouds looked dangerous.

The path is extremely steep and we did not want to be caught in a storm in that very exposed ledge, so we were prudent, went down and completed the hiking day with a very nice visit to a nearby waterfall, very romantic and all.

The only pity is that today we did not see many Keas, the famed alpine parrots from New Zealand. Officially there are less than 5000 left, but if so, we have seen probably 4000 of them already. we saw plenty in teh Milford Track, in Hasst Pass, yesterday in Arthur's Pass I saw five or six and they were int he village attacking the tourists... but we did not see then in the top of Avalanche Peak, where you are supposed to go to look for them! Anyway, I also want to declare Josele an official bird nerd, he has taken photos, read about and generally studied all the strange weird birds in the island. And believe me, there are many different types of wingless chickens prancing around this place. Well, by now, Josele knows them all! The Kea, the Weka, the Kiwi and the Wakakakaka, all of them...

The day has turned to rain, but we hope it passes by tonight so tomorrow we can go on enjoying the AMAZING weather we've had up to now.

Tomorrow, phase six!

Edit: This is what i mean when I say "extremely steep"...

Greymouth-Westport, one of the most beautiful scenic drives in the world

(Hi, I'm Josele; as we split in Hokitika, I'll tell my part of the journey until Arthur's Pass, aka Moria)

After leaving Fox Glacier I started feeling lazy and decided not to climb to Arthur's Pass with the bike, so I did an easy 40km. flat short stage to Greymouth and rented a car there. Greymouth was not too interesting (at least what I saw while biking) and I found Hokitika prettier.

We had met a couple of Slovenians during the Milford Track and they had told me that the stretch of road between Westport and Greymouth (100km. long) was the most beautiful road they had seen in the country (they had a camper van), so I was curious to see it... Later, I checked in the Lonely Planet, and they have put it in their Top Ten Scenic Drives in the World, so if you like driving and come nearby, think about doing it, because it is well worth it.

The drive is without doubt the best I've ever done in my life. Ok, I don't have a lot of expertise driving in amazing roads, but it's comparable (to me, even more beautiful) to the scenic drives between Nice and Monaco, and the route 1 south of San Francisco in western US (which I had the luck to drive).

The road meanders through valleys (with many curves with 25 or 35 kph limit), the mountains covered with rainforest. At times, it gets closer to the sea, and then you find yourself awing at 50+m. tall cliffs over the sea. The whole coastline is dotted with the famous "pancake rocks" of New Zealand's West Coast... They are limestone rocks, formed approx. 150 million years ago from the fossilized remains of many long dead animals, fused with the rocks that emerge from the ocean (this area is where the Pacific and Asian tectonic plates meet). Some 100 thousand years ago, the rocks emerged from the bottom of the sea, and the water has been constantly eroding them, taking away the softest bits (the fossilized animals) and leaving only the hardest parts of the rocks, thus giving them the shape of stacked pancakes.

The coast has also many more things to see, although I only had time to visit a seal colony, 10 km. to the south of Westport. I had a lot of time, so I could thorougly enjoy the drive, never doing much more than 55-60 kph. I think I was also lucky with the light, as the sun was shining from the see and I could take really nice photos.

Talking about photos, I have loads of them to share, but the computer's SD connector does not seem to work... I hope I can fix it.

This morning I took the bus from Greymouth and arrived at Arthur's Pass a bit before 10am, so I was able to do a couple short 1-hour walks in the valley while waiting for JL Blasco. The view is amazing, a bit like the Swiss Alps, and we are being lucky with the weather (although it seems we'll get a storm tomorrow evening...hopefully it'll let us do some hiking during the day).


And now, I'm off to try to solve the SD connector problem and share the photos.

Driving Miss Daisy... up Arthur's Pass

As it turns out, this elephant could actually do it over the Pass!
I had an early start and got on with the biking as fast as I could, I was afraid it would rain and even if it stayed sunny, I wanted to climb in the shade, avoiding the midday heat. Anyway, the distance to cover was really short, but a big climb.
My plan was to do it in a Driving Miss Daisy style, going slow even on the easy parts and taking my time so not a single ounce of energy was wasted. It almost worked...
The first 4 kms were actually quite underwhelming, to be honest. I did them easily and if it all was going to be that way, then I had gotten stronger than I thought.

But then I entered the Otira Gorge.
Confirmation, it is a 16% climb at times. How can I tell? Because my front wheel actually started lifting from the ground when I pedaled, even though I was leaning forwards...
I had two stops on the way, and in the most steep part I actually fell from the bike when a truck driver did not move to overtake. I bruised my elbow but the most annoying part is that i could almost not even stand up, the slope was too steep. My water bottle fell from the holder and started rolling downhill, luckily it got stuck in a rock so I could get it back. In that part of the climb there was no way to get back on the bike, so I had top push uphill something like 80-100 mts until it became "only" 10%ish and I could ride again. From then on, I went all the way, the remaining 5 kms of climb, at a very, very proper 5 kms/h.
So I drove Miss Daisy steadily past the most steep part, did not wave back when Josele's bus overtook me (he could take a photo, btw...) and I finally reached the top of the Pass!
It took me roughly 2 hours to climb 500 mts and cover just 15 kms, as the last 3 were downhill. Btw, I improved my last speed record on that downhill, i got up to 59.1 kms/h, so 1 km/h faster than in Wanaka.
I am now chilling out in the hostel and ready for a big meal, as I've had no breakfast... it would have been too heavy!

Edit: i managed to put in two pictures from my Iphone, one of today, and one of the glacier... More will come, rest assured!
Re-edit: I took photos of two photos of the pass from a museum display so I could give you more perspective, they are blurry, but ok...

Can an elephant cross the Alps?

Today the fellowship split so that josele could get to Greymouth, rent a car and do one of the most scenic drives in the world, the strech of oceanside road between Greymouth and Westport. I am sure he'll be back wiht lots of amazing pictures that we'll post when we can. I promise we are trying...
I on the other hand have had a very good but hard day of cycling up the Otira Alpine Road. I got to the village of Otira, with it's sprawling population of 2. It is a beautiful, beautiful valley and the mountains surrounding us are getting scarily "alpine" meaning big, high and covered in snow.
However, Otira is a very interesting place to stop because I am now only 11 kms away from the top of Arthur's Pass. I have also climbed half the height, but the remaining 10 kms are the source of whispered rumours between the bikers we meet: Smoke coming out of the brakes of descending bikers, slopes of 16%, others say 12%...
The actual route I am following has even got a name, the Coast to Coast and this morning I passed by a spot on the beach where it was specified that the Coast to Coast started there. Later that day, a lady in a shop asked me if I was attempting the Coast to Coast. I said yes, becaus actually if I get through the pass, the rest is flattish and downhill all the way down to Christchurch, so basically Coast to Coast. But what worried me was the term "attempting".
So what do you think, people? Can this old elephant, overwheight, with weak knees and not good cardio who is too fond of wine, cross the alps?

Rivendell! I mean... Hokitika!

After a very easy but long ride, we are in a big (4000 people) city and we have decided to give us a very deserved pampering. We've gotten instead of a backpackers lodge or a camping, a chalet on the beach with spa bathtub and very nice beds. It is for us the Rivendell that we need to gather forces, as the toughest part of the journey is right in front of us. In two days time, we'll attempt to face Carhadras himself! I mean... Arthur's Pass. The climb has been scarified by anyone we've met and I think it is going to be too hard. In any case, the quest is the quest!

In a second important bit of news, Josele has decided not to climb Carhadras, I mean... Arthur's Pass. He had flu before New Year's Eve and wants to give it a day to recover, so he'll get a bus from Greymouth. That means that tomorrow we'll split and meet again at the top of Carhadras, if He'll let us pass.
I will let you know how it went from there!

(edit from Josele) While in Hokitika, we saw the Glow Worm Dell (the New Zealand West Coast is a great place to see them, and we also saw them in Milford Sound). The glow worms are the larvae of the fungus fly; they glow during the night to attract insects and eat them... I have not brought a tripod, so I could not take a nice picture of what we saw (something like a sky full of tiny stars), but here is one I found in Internet and describes well the view. I found the picture in http://blog.justcheaphotel.com/news/glow-worms

(edit from Josele 2) I forgot to say I also saw two live kiwis in Hokitika's Kiwi Center. As they are nocturnal birds, it was forbidden to take photos from them... It is a very strange bird, with a lot of features common to mammals... They are a very endangered species nowadays, as the rats, stoats (type of weasel), cats and dogs that were introduced by humans easily prey on them... A photo of this strange bird that I found in https://bcsengage.wikispaces.com/E2G5+Extreme:

Lakes and surprises

Today we have covered our biggest distance! Climbed the highest hills! We've been strong and courageous! We did lots and lots of good things and we felt positively great doing them!

After yesterday's restful day (the glacier hike was tough, but on different parts of our legs), we took the road with a sense of dread. The day was quite daunting, first the mountains to cross from glacier to glacier, two very steep hills of 300 mts altitude each and then a long, long stretch of undulating landscape until in km 70 we'd have to climb yet another major hill... Mount Hercules (Dun, dun, dun!). 300 meters of steep climb after an already long day, just what we like to do.

Well, we attacked the challenge with the aggressiveness of a hungry Rottweiler and before we knew it, we were in Franz Josef Glacier, past the first set of hills and enjoying immensely the beautiful light and the landscape. Today we've had sunny weather and mild temperatures, as well as a very weak tailwind, so the ride has been enjoyable all the way.

We did not expect to like the landscape after Franz Josef, on the map it looks quite bland and flattish. Well, it has turned out to go by some beautiful lakes and to have the greenest most lush forest parts we've yet seen. Also, a thing we did not expect is that, as the land flattened, the road took some distance from the mountains so that we could see them with perspective. This country is amazing, it is always as beautiful as it can physically be and yet, the next corner is even better. I am loving the place, all the way.
Anyway, to make a boring tale of happy moments short, we got to the center of Hari Hari at around 3 pm in very good spirits and very happy after having had the most enjoyable ride yet. We've covered 457 kms in our quest and there are no Nazgul to be seen anywhere. Maybe we're faster than their horses...
To be honest, I think one of the most important factors to today's success has been an unexpected bonus I got in Fox Glacier. I fixed my SPD cleat! I found an mechanics car repair shop in the old style, all grease and broken car parts everywhere and talked to the very kind and nice mechanician, explaining him my problem and lack of a dealer of Japanese specialized bike components for shoes in the whole west coast. He barely nodded, opened a cabinet and produced a standard screw that he then proceeded to cut and shape so that it would fit perfectly my cleat. With this awesome piece of real hardware in my now customized shoe, I have been able to pedal better and my knee is already saying thank you for the attention. I feel much more confident now for the crazy, crazy climb up Arthur's Pass that is coming soon. My knee will be ready, I think!