Sorry this is late !

Thursday 24^th Feb  3.30 pm

A lazy day today before I set off for Wellington early tomorrow morning on the Tranzscenic Overlander train. This morning Tania showed me around the area by bike and thankfully mine is all assembled and working well.

At 1pm I took the bike and all my gear into the local school to talk to two classes of 12 year old kids about my trip as part of their IT lessons. Their teacher heard about my trip and asked me to talk to the kids about my Blog the Satellite Tracking as well as everything else and they are going to follow my blog and my progress over the next month. They were great and inundated me with questions on just about everything from whether I supported Man United to whether I was carrying toilet paper with me. One little girl finished by asking me if I was famous ???.  Naturally I told her I was…..n’t.

I’m not sure whether I feel more under pressure to complete this trip from the fund raising perspective now or from not letting the kids down. Either way I better get peddling.

Tonight I’m meeting an old friend Jeannie an Air Stewardess for NZ Airways and her fella Mark for dinner in the city. Better not drink too much as I am up at 5.30am.

Friday 25^th Feb 11.45 am

Well I’m now sat aboard the Overlander train which runs from Auckland to Wellington and takes 12 hours to travel the 650 kms  through some of the most scenic parts of NZ.As I write this we are around 500 metres above sea level and I can see for miles around across rolling hills. I’m glad I’m not cycling back along this route as it would kill me. There isn’t a flat part as far as the eye can see.

I slept around 2 hours last night after going out with Jeannie and Mark in Grey Lyn near central Auckland. We hit one of the trendy bars and had a few beers and a good catch up. Thanks to Jeannie I now have two more places to stay on the route back up the South Island as her Parents live in Timaru and her Grandad lives in Blenheim where they make all the wine !! Great news !!

I was then given a whistle stop tour of the city and the main view points on the way home. Auckland is littered with dormant volcanoes that make great view points. I think there are around 20 in total in Auckland alone. Thankfully none of them have erupted in a long time though given recent events it makes you realise that New Zealand is one risky place to live but still worth it regardless.

Once back at Tania’s I could not get to sleep as there was so much on my mind and about the next few days and I was certain my alarm would not work for some reason. Anyway I managed 2 hours at the most and got up at 5am and headed out on the bike to the main Railway Station in Central Auckland “ Britamart” to catch the train. This is the first time I have ridden my bike fully laden with all my gear and boy it’s heavy. So much for travelling light this time !

I finally arrive in Wellington at 7.30 tonight and will be met by my Uncle “Bob” who is lives on a boat on the Harbour and will be ferrying me down to Invercargill in his “Yute”. Everyone drives massive gas guzzling 4wd’s in New Zealand and the fuel prices are almost as bad as they are back in the UK.

It’s going to take us a 5 hours to get to the South Island on the Interislander ferry and a couple of days to get to the southernmost point of NZ , Bluff where I start peddling. It should be a great road trip especially as the weather looks like it will stay sunny.

Anyway, I’m off to see if the buffet car stocks any beer. Catch you later.

Saturday 26^th Feb – 2pm

Well I finally arrived in Wellington at 7.30 pm last night bang on time despite it being a 12 hour journey and felt surprisingly tired despite the fact that I hardly left my seat all day. My Uncle picked me up at the station and we headed back to his boat on the marina to chill out before we set off for the ferry at 1am. I managed a whole 2 hours sleep before we were up again and back in the Yute to head for the ferry. After boarding at 2.30am we tried to sleep in the restaurant area but it was frankly impossible in the upright chairs. So after dozing for three hours it was back in the Yute and we disembarked in the dark and headed south.

The weather has been rotten all the way down and it has rained all the way pretty much. The scenery however is spectacular and I have been more than a little perturbed by the size of some of the mountains that I will be climbing on the way back north in a few day’s time. They are massive!!!!

The roads here are also very narrow and some of the trucks that are up and down here resemble trains they are that big. I am gonna have to be pretty careful and wear my Hi Viz I think.

On the way down we passed through Christchurch and although we could not get anywhere near the Central Business District we saw the devastation that has been wrought on this city. It is quite unsettling as so many roads are flooded and riddled with giant cracks and crevasse’s. Thank god we are in a 4wd as without these 22inch wheels we would not have got through one or two of the roads. We visited Bobs relations near Lyttleton which was hit pretty hard and they have cracks in just about everything and no electricity or water. We arrived as they were barbequing some water for a hot drink. They were as cheerful as hell though which shows great character as just imagine how much us Brits would moan at such a situation. They have had 270 quakes/after shocks in the last 6 months and 2 more today measuring 4 on the richter scale which puts things in perspective. I guess they are used to the earth moving ( much like all my ex’s ! )

I now find myself in a little hotel called the Studholme Hotel in South Canterbury between Timaru and Oamaru as Bob has flaked out and could not drive any more. I am sat in the bar having a couple of pints generously donated by the owner who I have just regaled with tales of my Cycle trip. He has even offered me a free room on the way back up north should I need it. These Kiwi’s are so generous. It takes a bit of getting used to.

It looks like I will be able to start cycling a day earlier than expected at the moment so I have rejigged my itinerary …again ! It’s nice to give myself an extra day despite adding another potential 100 mile day but it’s pretty flat where we are now so hopefully it will be ok. I hear that there are some pretty big mountains down near Dunedin though so I may have bitten off more than I can chew. They can’t be as bad as the ones up north though as they almost made me feel sick driving down.

If I get through this on schedule it will be a miracle but I will give it my best.

Anyway, I’m off for a nap as I’m “jiggered” as they would say here. I still have to find a place with broadband to upload this to my blog but that will have to wait till tomorrow now. Catch you all soon.

Sunday 27^th Feb  8pm

Well Believe it or not I am now sat in a small motel called “The Falls” in Mataura which is north of Invercargill on state Highway 1. I have just cycled the first 50 miles of the trip having set off from Bluff at 3.30pm today after mad dash down from South Canterbury about 300 miles away. I was keen to start a day earlier than planned after seeing the size of the mountains I have to traverse over the next few days. They are soooo much bigger than I expected. I really thought the South Island was flat.

After a few photographs at the southern most point of New Zealand I hopped on my bike and started peddling only to find I was cycling into the wind which was a bit of a bummer. It wasn’t too bad though and my intention was to get to where I sit now by 7.30 and I was pretty much bang on time. The roads were pretty flat in the main but they were monotonously straight which gave you the feeling that you just weren’t getting anywhere. I decided not to stop at all and just peddled solidly for 4 hours and feel knackered now as a result. This is nothing to what lies ahead tomorrow though as I have 100 miles to Dunedin and many many hills to climb. The place I am staying in is a bit dodgy but Its next to a Police Station and I have introduced myself to the Police Officer who actually lives next door manning it alone and he has been really helpful. I have just wolfed down the biggest plate of gammon, sausage, eggs and chips ever and now I need to head over to the Police station so I can use the Officers wifi to update this blog as he kindly offered earlier.

Hopefully I will find another wifi tomorrow.