I wanna ride my bicycle!
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2005
1
81
117
Trip End
Nov 2006
Kaikoura,
New Zealand
Monday, July 17, 2006
So, after Christchurch we got on, yes another bus heading to Kaikoura, which is a wee town where you can swim with dolphins and watch whales. Kaikoura, means 'éating crayfish' according to our bus driver, so we headed there rather early and stopped at a cafe on the way where i had to ask for a cuppa charr x3 times, do i really have that odder accent???
So, we arrived in the rather beautiful kaikoura, where the sea meets the mountains... dead pretty and due a reccomendation by the driver ended up in a rather special hostel 'dusky lodge', it was like staying in a house so homely, big sofa's and me and naomi had a room to ourselves so we were happy travellers! After alot of umming and arring from me, i decided not to go whale watching as there are things i'd rather do for fifty pounds, like a dive in fiji and whale watching is something i would do in the future so after a good half hour of indecisiveness me and naomi decided on the cheaper option of hiring a cycle bike for the day for the mere price of $5 less than 2 whole pounds.... bargain!
So, off we set, with our sexy cycle helmets, two girls on 2 wheels this was bound to be interesting and that it was for 2 mins down the road and with the hostel still in sight, the chain comes straight off my bike and i begin to cycle air until i realise, naomi being the practical one of the 2 sorts it out for me and we set off again.... we cycle down past mountains and along the sea front, the sceenery in NZ is just spectatcular and it is constantly that way! We take some pics.... of anything and everything like real tourists do and cycle on and on.... we then decide we should get the map and cycle to somewhere, we end up at the seal reserve, theres tons of them and man they are funny as, when they rush about, there were thin ones that could pick up some speed and fat ones that could barely move their heads off the rocks, me and naomi contemplated stealing a fatty seal, but decided agaisnt it as we didn't think we could get it on the back of our bikes, so instead we decided a adventure was the way forward!
we found a massive hill with a 2 hour scenic walking route and with bikes we think, ahh easy we'll have no probs doing this in an hour like! so we started to dragin our bikes up the steep hill until we come accross a sign with a pic of a bike, with a big cross through it! i shout up at naomi but x2 locals reckon that it's no bother trying to get round the track with bikes and why doubt a locals knowledge so off we go! we get to the top and cycle down the edge of the cliff which overlooks a rather beautiful drop down to the sea! we carry on till we reach the 1st problem, a fence, so with help of some local guys they pass our bikes over the fence and we keep going through fields of cow poo, hilss up & down, weird paths and then with a 'clunk' off goes my bike chain again this time the local guys come to our rescue and sort it out, we are then faced with a few more fences and some rather massive hills on which we are overtaken by the walkers! oops!
As we cycle on it becomes clear that i'm severly lacking in fitness, i can rate me and naomi on the diaggo maradonna fitness scale in that naomi is of the footballers fitness in his handballing days and my fitness is of recent years when he preffered a pie to a game of football! at one point i strugled slipping around up a hill in cow poo (didn't fall in though) that naomi took her bike up and then came back and took mine up too, man that girls strong as ten men!
so, we've been cycling now for 2 hours on a 2 hour walking track, we meet some french tourists who tell us that the end of the track is just over the last massive slope, so we get to the top, cycle quickly down the other end to yes the end of the track but one MASSIVE problem! the track has ended due to the tide coming in and the sea washing over the track! 'oh.......!'. we are faced with a BIG problem, we can't go back as that would take hours it was nearly pitch dark and we had no torch or reflective clothing so the only way is forward, put the bikes on our shoulders and balance over the rocks, hoping not to get too wet..... somehow we managed it, mocked by locals on the way but we did it! we also got the bikes back intime before dark and no-one was none the wiser of our near lost experience! what an adventure and for only $5! bargain!
That night we rewarded ourselves with a proper meal of beans and a baked potato and we even better we aquired some rather cool pals.... I'll give you a wee introduction, there was stuart from devon... he liked beer a lot and drunk x2 pints to my half! then there is keith from birmingham, who we are still traveeling with, very amusing guy and comes out with weird and wonderful comments like.... í'd make a great woman, cos i know how to dress - when we are talking about food! he's cool.... then there's the brilliant chris and laura from brummieland too, they like to have comps to see who can laugh the loudest and it's tres funny to watch - great fun and then there's the boys... james and neal from cheltenham, great laugh, always up for an adventure and a big giggle and finally there's naom and dave from the US of A... cool guys, so that night we headed off to a wee pub and dad, ypu'll be proud as we all partaked in drinking an ale called ''sheep shagger''... we then headed back to the hostel for keith to seranade us with the guitar! the next day we were off on a different kind of travelling device.... the ferry! x x x
