Thursday 10th March - Lazy day

Today has been a very lazy day and to be honest I have hardly done a thing. I went for a quick ride into town to see how my ankle felt and to get some flowers for the lady of the house for looking after me. On route I realised that my headset on the bike was  a bit knackered so took the bike into a local bike shop and they fixed it for me free of charge in half an hour. How good is that ?
The ankle feels a bit better so I will be testing it out properly by heading to Bulls tomorrow morning some 133 kms away. There is a 1550 foot climb to start with so that should either make me or break me. Cant wait to get going again though as there is so much to see and I'm looking forward to heading up into the mountains where all the volcanos are. The scenery is amazing especially the desert crossing in Tongararo.
I have an early start tomorrow so this is short and sweet . Wish me luck !

Wednesday 9th March - Rest Day

Wednesday 9^th March  1030pm                                                             

Today has been a much needed rest day in Upper Hutt, Wellington with Richard and Clare and their three young sons Jack aged 6, Ollie aged 4 and Tom aged 2. Three little whirling durbishes!

I arrived swearing never to cycle again such was the pain in my left achilles and the situation still hasn’t changed drastically. I have struggled to walk today and my sight- seeing tour kindly lead by Richard has been mainly by car.

 I had a lovely long lie in this morning and woke to a cooked breakfast which was inhaled in record time. I have built up quite an appetite in the last few days after my body has finally recognised that I will be exerting myself more or less every day from now on and needs the fuel. I haven’t really gone on about calorie intake much for fear of being boring but my fancy cycle computer kindly donated by POLAR ( thanks Lynne) tells me I am consuming around 800 cals an hour on the bike which means on average my body needs around 5600 extra calories if I cycle for 7 hours. I really struggle to eat that much so have lost around 8lbs so far. I’m hoping my beer intake will make up the difference though as I have no problems drinking.

Today Richard and I went into Wellington as I mentioned earlier and he showed me the Parliament building, and many of the other significant landmarks. One thing that is very apparent here is pride they take in the city. It is very relaxed, clean and manicured with well defined areas of use. The city itself has a Central Government area, a Retail area, an Industrial Sector and a Party area where all the bars are. It looks like a great city for socialising and everywhere you look you see the mountains behind with an abundance of trees making you feel that you are in a small industrious oasis carved out of a giant forested mountain range. Everywhere you look you see places that you would love to own a house because the views from the hillsides are spectacular. We drove up to Mount Victoria which overlooks the city and has a great viewpoint that takes in not just the city but the surrounding suburbs, airport and marina’s. I just clicked away with my camera like a Japanese Tourist as every view was amazing. It helped that today has been a beautiful day but all the same, this is a place I could live as it is relatively compact, exceptionally well laid out and attractive and many of the houses are individually designed, inventive and have plenty of space. It feels like one big friendly village.

We toured a couple of suburbs around Upper Hutt to see land plots and building sites and I was gobsmacked by the value for money you get here. For the price of my 2 bed city centre pad I could buy a 4 dbl bedroomed 250 sq meter luxury house with a dbl garage and half an acre of land on a hillside overlooking a fantastic view. Wellington really is a fabulous place to live,  full stop! I’ve no plans to move here though so don’t get your hopes up !

Finally today I managed to get to see another Physio who no sooner looked at me she stuck a bunch of acupuncture needles in my legs. I also had some ultra sound on the offending achilles and was diagnosed with Achilles Tendonitis, which I knew already thanks to the internet. It was no surprise when she strapped my ankle up and told me to give up on my cycling trip and lay off exercise for at least two weeks. Yeah Right !  I said.

 I now find myself with a dilemma as I don’t want to do myself irreparable damage and I don’t want to fail in my endeavour. I have decided for the moment to take another rest day tomorrow and have re-jigged my route so it’s a little shorter and less mountainous. This way it should be easier on the ankles and I have slightly longer to repair. I’m not entirely sure my ankle will be ok as the pain was unbearable yesterday but I am determined to give it my best shot. Richard and Claire have been great and are looking after me. In return I read stories to the boys and act as their punch-bag. It’s a fair deal I guess.

I guess in the meantime I can write more dross for you to read with your morning coffee and upload some more boring pictures of roads. Enjoy!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Monday 7th March & Tuesday 8th March

Monday 7^th March - 9.30pm

What a great day !  I didn’t get as far as I wanted to get as I am now in a small village called Ward around 25 miles south of Blenheim but it has been a good ride today.  I set off pretty early at around 8.30 and stopped for breakfast early on and to upload yesterday’s blog. After a quick breakfast  it was back on the bike and off towards Kaikoura, famous for whale watching. The only problem was a range of mountains in-between called the Hundalee’s.

Due to the fact that the map I have been using is completely crap I didn’t really know where these mountains started but what was apparent was that the road was no longer flat and the landscape became rolling again with barely a flat or straight section at all. To be honest it made a pleasant change though obviously it wasn’t quite as easy. After an hour the road started getting steeper and I thought, “well here we go, this is gonna be a slog” !, but it didn’t really get that difficult and after another 5 to 8 miles of rolling hills it straightened out.  I thought “well that wasn’t so hard was it” but I spoke too soon. On rounding the next corner Mount Everest loomed before me and I took a sharp intake of breath “ Shit !”  For the next 15 miles I climbed one steep road after another and although they didn’t really go beyond 800 feet climbs there were plenty of them and many were 13% gradients or more.

To be honest I still felt very strong and it didn’t get too much though I did have to pop more than a couple of pain killers when the Achilles problem returned. It definitely hurts more when I’m going uphill.  After 32 miles the Hundalee’s swept down to the ocean affording some amazing views and a twisty 38 mph decent which flattened out into a 12 mile coastal run through numerous tunnels. I was always within a few feet of the sea and I kept stopping to take photos as round every headland there was a better view. Eventually I arrived in Kaikoura with a massive appetite and ordered two main courses at a local café. Kaikoura is rather bohemian with lots of travellers ( not the ones who tarmac your drive badly ) and an abundance of people with dreadlocks, goatee beards and sandals.  I felt right at home… !

After spending an hour on lunch I saddled up again and headed north onto a flat road heading inland for a while then back out to the sea again to follow the beach for the next 40 miles. With a slight southerly wind I flew along the coast at around 18mph for ages only slowing for the odd climb or on one occasion when a truck came so close to me the wind pressure it created sent me into a ditch ! ( I’m ok though mum J )

Finally the road turned inland and a sign came up saying Blenheim 55kms. I looked at my watch and it was 6.30pm. I was never going to make it before dark. The venture into the ditch had resulted in a lost map and a busted front torch so I wasn’t going to be cycling in the dark even though I felt able to. I really wanted to do the 120 miles to Blenheim today as I felt so good.

A few miles later around 7pm and after 96 miles I came to a small village called Ward which has a small pub/Inn and a motel. There was no room at the Inn so I ventured on to the motel which also had no room. Fortunately they had a rickety old caravan in the corner at $25 a night so this is where I now sit tapping away on my laptop. There was nowhere open to eat so the Manager kindly gave me some bread and a can of beans so it was  ”Beans a la Toast” for me tonight. I have spent the last hour or so  nattering away to a group of people on a four wheel drive holiday across the remote areas of the south island. They were a great bunch and are having a ball. It looks like great fun. They even gave me a beer and some good advice on where to avoid on the north island.

So I guess this means that I leave the south island tomorrow as it is only about 42 miles to Picton where I catch the ferry to Wellington. It’s been emotional as they say. It has been a beautiful and incredibly friendly place to travel and although I have only stuck to the main route ( The A1 ) I have seen some great sights. The best thing though has been the people and everyone has been brilliant. Complete strangers have been really generous, I have made some new friends and obviously I have experienced some sobering sights in Christchuch. I have even felt my first earthquake and 13 more on top of that so that is something I will always remember.  I have even stuck to my schedule which for me is a first.

Tomorrow night I will be with Richard (Plug) and Clare in Upper Hut above Wellington and then it’s a day off again, thank god. This is of course if I manage to get on the Inter-islander Ferry as I haven’t booked a ticket !!!!!

Tuesday 8^th March -  3pm

Well I am now sat on the Interislander Ferry between Picton and Wellington waving goodbye to the south island ( not literally though as people would think I was strange !) and more than ready for a rest day with Richard and Clare in Upper Hutt. The cycle this morning was not easy as my left ankle is now worse than ever and quite frankly I cannot cycle on it any more. It has taken me a while to get from Ward this morning as it has was pretty hilly to start with and cycling uphill is way more painful. The extra strong painkillers have ceased to have any effect so I will have to see another physio asap. I may need two days off if I am to complete this trip which is a little worrying.

The scenery on route today was beautiful with vineyards lining every hillside and winding roads affording great views. I was in too much of a hurry to stop and take photos and quite frankly it hurt too much to twist my ankle to uncleat my left shoe from my peddle so it was better to keep moving. Blenheim looked really nice but passed me by in a blur and I arrived just in time to book on the next ferry at 2pm.

I now have a 3 hour journey to Wellington to try and find out if painkillers and alcohol work better than just painkillers alone. This could be interesting !!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Sunday 6th March

Sunday 6^th March – 6.40pm

What a difference a day makes,  or on this occasion a Rest Day. I woke up this morning feeling completely refreshed despite a night interrupted by frequent heavy rain and the odd earth quake tremor.

Last night as I sat watching a film with Gordon and Michelle there was a big aftershock which measured 4.8 on the richter scale and shook the house for quite a few seconds. A bookcase started swaying next to me and I considered darting under the table as it was way bigger than the 13 aftershocks that I experienced yesterday alone. When a shock hits here, the family rush to their laptops to see what the measurement and location of the shock is on a website www.canterburyquakeslive.com   ( or similar ) which shows the measurements within a few minutes of the shock itself. This 4.8’r was the biggest since the big one on the 22^nd Feb and one of the top 30 in the last couple of years ( out of around 5000). Bet you didn’t think they got that much seismic activity here did you?

Anyhow, I digress. My aim today was to head for a small village called Cheviot on the A1 around 76 miles away. I had a quick breakfast and said goodbye to my excellent hosts, Gordon, Michelle, Sam and Jamie who have really looked after me over the last two days. I then headed back onto the A1 and pointed myself north. Thankfully the first 40 miles today were flat so I flew along. It felt like someone had snuck in and replaced my legs with those of Lance Armstrong during the night as my ankle felt good and there were no aches or pains at all. Even the wind was behind me on occasions which made a nice change.

 I ate up the miles averaging well over 16mph for the first 40 but then it had to go wrong didn’t it. I came to a small range of hills at precisely the same time a storm caught up with me and within 30 minutes I was soaked through despite wearing waterproofs. There was no shelter for 15 miles and no anything for that matter so when I finally found a café I was like a drowned rat.  It continued to pour down for ages so I took shelter for an hour and changed clothes before heading back out into the rain and on to Cheviot.

The hills finally ended,  the sun came out minutes later and finally I was rewarded with some fantastic views as I swept down into the Greta Valley and onto the flat again. In no time I was in Cheviot which is small but very pretty. There are quite a few cafés and a few motels and I pulled into the first one which ended up being rather too expensive for a poor cyclist on a budget. The lady who ran it was great though and organised a room for me further up the road. She even gave me a $10 donation for the charity which I will add to my list. The people really are great here.  I now sit in a small hotel room having hand-washed all my soaked clothes wondering how the hell I am going to dry them before morning.

It seems that I now only have one more night on the South Island as tomorrow I am going to try and make Blenheim which is 120 miles away. Then it is only 25 miles to the ferry at Picton and the official half way point. Tomorrow is going to be a stretch as a mountain range called the “Hundalees” are around 20 miles north of here and the roads are steep and go on for miles. I will give it my best though as to be honest there aren’t many other places to stay. Apart from the famous whale and dolphin watching town “Kaikoura” there is very little in-between.

Today has been great though so if the weather holds tomorrow and I have a southerly wind it could be my biggest day yet and it will keep me on target. Right, I’m off for a beer and to see if there is anywhere I can upload this blog. No tinternet at this hotel !!

Rest Day Quakes

Well I guess it was only a matter of time before I felt the earth move and it finally came at 10am this morning as I was lying in bed in a caravan in Michelle and Gordons back garden. I had just finished a phone call when the caravan began to shake quite violently. My first thought was that my hosts were outside shaking the caravan as some sort of practical joke to wake me up but I soon realised this was not the case. It was actually a bit freaky as I've never really felt anything like it before and that was only a small one by comparison to two weeks ago. It only lasted about 6 seconds in all though and there was no damage done. A local earthquake website showed it to measure 4.1 on the richter scale so a reasonable shudder over all. Two hours later there was another one the same size so I will be used to the earth moving before I leave Christchurch in the morning.
This afternoon has been spent shopping for painkillers and ibuprofen gell for the ankle. Bloody expensive stuff. On crossing the road to the shopping mall I say JT the Korean cyclist who is cycling round the world. It appears he has caught me up!
We had a quick chat and it appears that he is taking a rest day here too. He looked quite shocked and scared when I told him about the two quakes this morning. I think he is having second thoughts now and may cycle on through to a safe distance. I'm sure I will catch him up tomorrow if the ankle holds up ok. At least I can walk on it today so that's an improvement.

Friday 4th March - Short day today

I've just arrived in Christchurch having flown the last 47 miles from Ashburton in less that 3 1/2 hours. The legs felt good today after yesterdays physio. Its just a pity the achilles tendons didn't as they are now both giving me Jip. If it wasn't for the last of my painkillers I don't know what I would have done. I will be buying shares in Nurofen when I return. I think I peddled faster just so I could stop sooner. Whatever works I guess. I think I'm going to have to take a rest day tomorrow whether I like it or not.
Anyway, enough of my moaning, the weather today has been hot and sunny and I am feeling quite self conscious as I sit here in a coffee shop as I must stink. Looking around there is a bit of space and everyone does seem to be congregating on the other side of the shop.Who cares though as they have free WIFI !!! The good thing about burning up all these calories is that you can eat what the hell you want so I have just guzzled a triple chocolate muffin, a cornetto, a bottle of coke and a large latte. I will probably come back from this trip fatter than when I started.
Today I had to cheat a little and get a lift across the Rakaia River bridge which is 1.1 miles long and extremely exposed to the wind. Its pretty damn dangerous as there is no hard shoulder and its quite narrow. If two trucks are converging on one another at speed then there is no room to pass a bike like mine with panniers and I was not risking getting blown into the path of one of these trucks as that would be the end of Andy. It took me all of 30 seconds to flag down a truck to oblige me. It was harder to get him to stop at the other side and let me out again as he wanted the company I think and couldn't really understand why I wanted to carry on cycling after a mile long lift.
The rest of today's ride has been one long perfectly straight road and I have climbed about 80 feet all afternoon. I just kept my head down and peddled like heck. As a result I have averaged 15mph which i'm pretty chuffed with.
I now just need to wait until my hosts are home from work  as they live just round the corner from where I am now. I'm really looking forward to putting my feet up for a while if they don't mind me staying an extra night.
I am now over half way through the South Island so about a quarter of the way through the trip. There is still plenty of time for people to sponsor me. I think the totaliser is on 71% so far so there is still a way to go. Thanks to everyone for the support and the texts. ( you cant get enough when on your own) I will try and post some more photos soon.

Wed 2nd and Thur 3rd Feb

Wednesday 2^nd March - 8pm

Well today was supposed to be an easy 54 mile ride along a flat coastal road from Oamaru to Timaru and I expected it to take about 4 hours at the most. How wrong can you be !

As I set off from the motel this morning the manager said “Watch that wind it’s going to be really gusty along the A1 today “ Gusty was an understatement and unfortunately the gusts were coming right at me all day almost head on from the north west. They were lovely warm winds but incredibly strong and on two occasions stopped me dead in my tracks, literally !  It became quite scary when the winds came from my side and blew me into the road and on many occasions I struggled to keep the bike pointed in the right direction.

Half way through the day I spotted the Studholme Hotel my Uncle and I stayed on the way down. The manager Sam had been great and had offered me a free room on the way up north if it fitted in with my plans so as it had not beed quite that convenient I thought I would drop in for a beer and a burger. As I turned into the road it was on a gust of wind actually took me from almost standing still to over 14 mph without me even peddling, That’s how strong the cross winds were today.

After a long leisurely and free lunch ( Sam is a star ) I mounted the old steed again and set off into the wind once more which had not let up one bit.  It has actually taken me 6.1/4 hours to cycle what should have taken me 4 hours as my average speed was 10mph which is really slow. Instead of 54 miles the distance has been 62 as where I am staying is well north of Timaru towards Point Pleasant.

I am staying with my friend Jeannie’s parents Stuart and Dale. The house is really lovely and set in 50 acres. The living room is the size of a tennis court and the views are fabulous as you look straight out at a long mountain range in the distance. I am now sat with a beer and feeling pretty happy with my progress to date. I have a few niggles with my left hip and achilles tendon but hopefully a bit of rest will sort that. I think I may just do a quick 30 miler tomorrow afternoon rather than rest all day so I don’t have 100 miles to do the following day to Christchurch. If the winds are like they were today there is no way on earth I would make it. The forecast is actually wind and rain for the next few days so it’s not ideal.

Thursday 3^rd March – 7pm

Rather than leave myself a 100 mile ride to Christchurch tomorrow in those headwinds I decided to forego my rest day and break the back of the journey so  giving me a couple of easy days. After a good sleep and a long lie in I had a good chat with Stuart and Dale and Stuart took me for a look around the farm. They breed “Trotters” ( Not Dell Boys and Rodney’s ) which are race horses that you race sitting in a little light chariot behind the horse. They actually bread one of the best Trotters ever a few years back that won loads of races and there are pictures of his achievements around the house.  I helped Stuart saw up a large pine tree that had been blown over an irrigation ditch in yesterday’s winds and took a few pictures before heading off at around 1pm. The aim was to get to Ashburton some 40 miles away leaving around 55 miles for tomorrow. After 7 miles the pain in my left Achilles tendon was too much and I stopped in a small town called Tenuka for a coffee and to decide what to do. Miraculously there was a Physiotherapists surgery 20 yards away so I popped in on the off chance. The receptionist was great and on hearing my plight she sorted me an appointment 10 minutes later.

The Physio “Colin” was a Scottish guy and he took a look at my left Achilles and my left Quad and diagnosed the problem. I could not recount it to you now but basically the muscles in my left calf and Quad had seized up and knotted and these in turn were straining the achilles causing the pain.

He then inflicted ten times the pain I was having on the larger muscles in order to stretch them out and release the tightness. He called it deep tissue massage. Frankly I call it bloody torture!! A grown man nearly wept today. You could hear my cries in Christchurch.

Anyway, after paying the very reasonable bill and thanking Colin and the receptionist for fitting me in I jumped back on the bike and peddled to Ashburton stopping only for a quick lunch. The wind has been a lot calmer today so I’ve averaged 13 mph. The road has been flat and straight all day with views of the mountains to my left and views of the sea to my right. I listened to Adel’s albums all afternoon and have felt really good and pretty fit considering I haven’t had a day off yet.

On arrival in Ashburton at 6pm I saw a motel in the same chain as the one I stayed at in Oamaru called the Bella Vista Motel. It is identical in every way to the last one and there was a feeling of deja- vu as I wheeled into the car-park. The Managers Heather and Evan Glass informed me that there were no rooms to be had in the whole of Ashburton due to the earthquake but when they saw my face fall they kindly offered me their spare room in their own accommodation for free. How amazingly generous is that ? I just can’t get over how friendly and generous Kiwi’s are. They put us Brits to shame. When people see and hear what I am doing many of them want to stop and have a yarn and offer advice and support. Everyone has been so generous it has been quite humbling really. I can’t thank everyone enough. If I was doing this back home I would probably just get kids throwing stones at me !

Anyway,  I now lie on my double bed having had a lovely hot shower and you folks in the UK will be getting up to go to work about now. Wilmslow NPT will be just arriving at work to find handovers for prisoners in the bin and doing their best to get out of dealing ! ha ha. I am gonna head out for a beer as I only have a short 50 miler tomorrow to stay at a distant relatives place. It will be strange to be back at the scene of such devastation again. They are predicting another earthquake on or around the 21^st March. I hope it doesn’t come to fruition.