Update February 04, 2011: After 17 lazy days on Fiji we go for a big challenge of cycling on the south island of New Zealand. Our plan is in 3 weeks around the south island. We hire the bikes in Christchurch, where our trip begins and also hopefully ends with big muscles:-)
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| Christchurch with the famous Cathedral - our startpoint |
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| Rugby World Cup Countdown |
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| Our last bar before we live very healthy |
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| Our last beer before we will live very healthy :-) |
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| Preparing for our cycling-trip behind the bike-shop |
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| That's the way we travel for the next 3 weeks |
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| Roman from behind... |
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| ...from the side... |
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| The Swiss team |
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| ...and from the front |
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| First camp....YEEESSSS!!! |
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| Food smells good after the whole day of cycling |
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| First the smile... |
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| ...later the first cramp!! |
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| 2nd day after 75 km cycling with wind - already tired? |
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| Our second camp for free in a little village right next to a swimming pool |
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| Maehhh.....Maehhhh...they follow us everywhere |
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| YES, we made our first pass! |
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| Very nice scenery and beautiful weather after a rainy day |
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| We arrive on our 4th day in Lake Tekapo |
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| Nice view from the campground |
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| We are hungry, but to tired to hunt this ducks |
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| Back on the road again..... |
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| ....and still fit enough for some bullshit acrobatic sessions..... |
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| ....... |
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| Lake Pukaki and in the backround Mt. Cook (3700 m.u.M.), to high to climb with our bikes, maybe without panniers we would go for it:-) |
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| Same look!!! |
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| Mt. Cook |
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| Watch out!!! Lambfish on the road in New Zealand |
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| Our Camp No. 5 on an awesome campsite next to the Lake Ruataniwha |
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| Freezing cold but a good refreshment after cycling the whole day |
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| Always very hungry in the end of the day |
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| On the way up to the top of the Landis Pass |
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| Icebreaker good shirts in the rain and in the sun, the Kiwi are very proud of their brand |
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| Yes we made also this little hill:-) |
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| New record in Day No. 6. Long day and very painful for our ass |
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| Day No 7 on the way to Queenstown |
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| Queenstown - Here we are. After 7 days of cycling. This day was hard and painful. Christians bike had a buckled wheel and I feel my left knee like crazy. We are both happy to rest for 2 days and do nothing before we pedal to the westcoast. |
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Lamb chops |
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Steep uphill but nice view |
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More lamb chops :-) |
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In the background: Queenstown |
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Wanaka |
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Wild camping |
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It's just amazing to cycle here |
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| Not good! One spoke is broken, problems with this wheel again. No way! |
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Keep on going |
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The next day the wheel is still broken, but we keep on going and Romans knee is hurting, but he is a strong man and can take this pain.
In front of us is the Haast Pass. There's no village here for us to get help, so we need to cross this pass. 300km further up the west coast we get a new wheel. |
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We made it up! |
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But still 63km to go |
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Nice watherfall on the way down to Haast |
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Closer to the west coast the forest turns into a rainforest |
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From Haast we took a bus up to Hokitika, on the way we crossed Franz Josef Glacier |
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Roman is done |
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We arrived in Hokitika and camped on the beach |
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Sandflies are native in New Zealand and protected, if u kill one u may get a fine :-) |
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Roman is a flower and always crying because of his knee |
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On the road again we met this goat. Actually, I would like to take a wheel off the wheelchair for my bike... but I felt guilty |
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Camp in Ahaura, small village, only one pub |
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Reefton stampede, once a year in this little town there is something on and we were there at the right time. |
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Bullriding |
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On the way to Hanmer Springs we camped wild on this river. Very nice but hundreds of sandflies |
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No comment |
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Can u see the sandflies? |
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Roman is falling apart. No wonder original oakley from south america:-) |
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Before Hanmer Springs |
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Sonja and Marina from Graubuenden, Switzerland who we met the night before, cooked lunch for us on the road - very delicious! Exactly at this time we felt the earthquake from Christchurch, happy we were out here. |
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Earthquake Survivor! We met Family Albisser (Friends from Switzerland) on a campground 50km before Christchurch in Waipara |
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Nicole and me. Once we worked togehter for SWICA, now me met us in New Zealand |
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Good job. Andrin is helping us with packing our stuff together. |
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In Kaiapoi 20km before Christchurch we had to stay for 3 nights because the city is closed. Out here we met people from the city. People came out here to shower and buy some food, there is no electricity and water in the city.
We felt very bad about what happend and tried to be nice to the people who were coming out here. So we had some beers on the grass with them and a good afternoon |
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Don't worry, this is not Romans new girlfriend! She is a 60 year old cougar and just needed someone to hug her. |
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Kaiapoi Beach |
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Holes in the ground from the earthquake. There used to be a swamp here, so mud is coming up everywhere, even on the street. |
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The last two days we spent in Auckland before we fly to Australia |
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Albert Park |
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Harbour |
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Let's sail to Australia |
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Update February 28, 2011: After almost a month cycling with over 1'000km we are leaving to Australia.
Our Track list:
Christchurch - Glentunnel 60km Glentunnel - Mayfield 75km (windy day) Mayfield - Geraldine 40km (heavy rain) Geraldine - Lake Tekapo 90km (over the Burke Pass, 800m elevation) Lake Tekapo - Twizel 65km Twizel - Lake Dunstan 125km (over the Landis Pass, our longest distance) Lake Dunstan - Queenstown 75km 2 Days recovering in Queenstown Queenstown - Wanaka 95km Wanaka - Makarora 65km (First time broken spokes backwheel) Makarora - Haast 80km (over the Haast Pass with broken spokes:-)) Haast - Hokitika 300km (by bus) Hokitika - Ahaura 78km Ahaura - Reefton 45km Reefton - Wild camp spot 106km (over the Lewis Pass) Wild camp spot - Hanmer Springs 40km (Recovering in the Hot Springs) Hanmer Springs - Waipara 80km Waipara - Kaiapoi 40km 2 days stucked in Kaiapoi because of the earthquake Kaiapoi - Christchurch Airport 16km Flight to Auckland where we spent 2 nights downtown |
