Cindie’s Daily Journal: Picton to Nelson, Newton Livery, Buller Gorge, Charleston to Punakaiki, West Cost, South Island, New Zealand (January 16 - Feburary 2, 2008)
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
January 16 - 22 Picton - We found the town that was comfortable to work in and worked on the next phase of our book, all really boring reading but for me it is exciting to be moving along on the book and at this stage of the game there are so many decisions to make. Self publishing a book is really a logistical task and I have to be careful not to put the cart in front of the horse so to speak. Like working on the book layout is not practical before the edit of the book is finished. Well at least we will not be off the bikes for two months.
The day we planned to leave a huge storm rolled in so we are delayed by a day.
January 23 Picton to Peloras Bridge 55 km - We took Queen Charlottes Dr toward Havlock and it was a beautiful ride, a few minor hills but the scenery was stunning, we meandered in and out of coves and bays. Havlock was a nice little town, the green mussel capital of the world. We rode on to Peloras Bridge and camped, the sand flies were brutal, little did we know the worse was yet to come. One of the benefits of the North Island was the lack of sand flies Yeah!!!
January 24 Peloras Bridge to Nelson 55 km - Ok the traffic has increased on the road and the logging trucks are numerous. We had a bit of climbing with two hills over 300 meters (1000 feet), we stopped at a store in Hira about 14 km from Nelson and two cyclists arrived, Paul and Marjo were from the Seattle area. We road together to Nelson and it was really nice to ride with a women for a while, we chatted the whole ride into Nelson. We called Patty and Dave, a couple from Prescott, but they were not home, we had to decide whether to go to their house of find another place to stay. In the end we decided to go to their house and it was a steep climb at first and then it mellow out. When we arrived at the house no one was home, Tim convinced me to stay and wait until they got home. I probably would have left but the thought of coming back up that hill was not appealing so we stayed.
January 25- 26 Nelson - It turns out that we had met Patty and Dave, friends of Steve Becker, at my former bosses house, Bill Wellendorf. It was funny to realize that we had met before. We talked about Prescott a lot and I am amazed that I had forgotten some of the street names, Yikes, I think I have been away for a long time. It was a real shocker to find out that the area has grown from 75,000 people when we left to now over 125,000 people boy are we in for a real shock when we get back.
Patty and I went to the Saturday market where I tried Mussel sausage, it had a strong taste but I like mussels so I thought it was pretty good. We had some great meals with Patty and Dave, fresh fish hmmm heaven. Patty and Dave worked at a Bead gallery and when we stopped in to visit as we were leaving I really wished I spent more time there, it was fascinating, beads from all over the world.
We did manage to get a lot of work done while in Nelson, our book is moving along and we have a couple projects in the works, if things work out well look for some announcements in our next newsletter.
January 27 Nelson to Wakefield 35 km - We had a late start, we were late in packing, stopped in at the bead factory, and stopped for lunch in Nelson. It was well after 1 pm when we left and on our way out of town we met a Canadian couple Jason and his wife and talked to them for a long time, too bad we were not traveling in the same direction. We took the bike path out of town and followed the railroad path to Richmond, it was a little hard to find but after we were on the path it was smooth sailing. We stopped at the Pack N Save in Richmond and we loaded our bags with food, Ok I think I went a little overboard. I loaded food in Tim’s front pannier, 3 carrots, 1 head of broccoli, 2 onions, 4 small zucchini, 5 tomatoes, 4 peaches, 2 plums, 2 peppers, 3 bananas, 4 apples. 3 bags of coffee, 2 bags of muesli, pasta, pasta sauce, 2 cans of beans. whoa that pannier was really heavy. I carried the avocados, kiwis and ramen noodles, cookies, peanut butter and Nutella and the bread. We have a long way until the next supermarket and the local dairy (stores) are always expensive. When we finally left the store it was 4:30 in the afternoon, a really late start. We rode to Wakefield and stayed at a reserve called Edward Baigent Memorial Park it had free camping, it was grassy and had at toilet a really nice area.
January 28 Wakefield to St. Arnaud 62 km - It was nice to get off highway 6 and on to 63 the road to St Arnaud, the scenery was nice and it was so quiet. We climbed to a top (735 meter 2,400 ft.) and it was really slow goin with all the food we had. I swear I never get in shape fast enough these days. We arrived in the town of St. Arnaud with some time to look around and then we ended up at the DOC campground. The camp site is nice with a great view of the lake but the sand flies are thick and get thicker the closer to the lake you get. I picked up some OFF for sand flies in Richmond and that stuff only works so and I never really liked the smell either but when the sand flies start driving me crazy, I use it. A couple of locals recommended taking vitamin B12 and this helps with the reaction, I can verify that it works well, I have not gotten the welts I use to get and last but not least when I am going out of my mind with the itch I use Tiger Balm from Singapore and it calms the itch.
January 29 St. Arnaud - Ok yesterdays ride took it out of me and I am having a hay fever attack again. The north and south island are so different and when we crossed the cook Strait it was like starting spring all over again. We took a few short walks around the area and did a little birding but overall we rested. It was hard to sit and watch people take off on these great treks but I knew if I did I wouldn’t be able to ride my bike for days. Besides there was no where to store the bikes.
We met mostly foreigners at this national park and one or two kiwis.
January 30 St. Arnaud to Buller Livery Inn 83 km We had a sunny day for the ride and a tailwind too what more can you ask for. It is days like this that remind me why we stay on the road. We were not sure where we were going to camp so we picked up water in Murchison and rode toward the Buller Gorge. Buller Gorge a scenic reserve and department of conservation land so we knew we could find a place to camp. We were hoping to make it to Lyell but found a nice grassy spot where we took a break and were making plans to have dinner. We had our tarp laid out and I was stretching while Tim was reading a book.
Then over the hill came a wagon being pulled by two Clydesdales at a trotters pace. I thought that they were going to turn into the drive way across the street but instead he guided the team next to us and stopped in the shade. I said, “Pull up a chair” and Steven said, “Don’t mind if I do” and that is how we met Steven who lived down the road about three kilometers. He invited me up to sit in the wagon that was built in the early 1900s and I was in heaven. As I was sitting there talking to Steven and Tim another cyclist road by and just looked at us, we waved but he just kept on going. How in the world could he do that. If I saw a couple of touring cyclists with a man with a white beard in a covered wagon waving at me I would definitely stop.
Anyway Steven invited us to spend the night at his house. I would say that Steven is a naturalist on the magnitude of Edward Abbey, some would call him a hippy. The house did not have electricity, the lights were powered by battery charge from a diesel generator, he grew his own vegetables, had fruit trees, and about 20 horses. We had stepped back in time, his house was the old Newton Livery Inn and he had lived there 33 years and was now living there with his daughter Rimu who is 11 years old. We had dinner out by the fire of home grown potatoes, garlic and onions, rice and home made sausages hmmm very tasty and organic too. Our coffee was grinded by hand, dinner was cooked on a wood burning stove and the hot water for the shower was heated by the stove as well. Yes I felt like we had a glimpse of what it must have been like in the 1920s or 30s. Rimu played the harpsichord for us.
January 31 Buller Livery Inn to Lower Buller Gorge camping 58 km We could have stayed most of the day but Steven had things to do and we had to keep moving while the weather is good. Not 20 minutes down the road we met Isidro a Spaniard who is cycling the south island and we continued down the road together.
February 1 Lower Buller Gorge to Punakaiki 66 km The sand flies chased us out of camp early today and we were meandering down the west coast of New Zealand before we knew it. We stopped in the tiny town of Charleston for a snack and continued on to Punakaiki where we set up our tent at Punakaiki beach camp. There were 4 other cyclists in camp as well.
February 2 - It is a rainy day a good day to work since we have so many things in the works I am glad to get some of it off our plate. We are in the process of the final edits for our second book and working on two other projects that are demanding our attention right now.
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