Finality

I'm leaving tomorrow. My bike's all packed in a box and I hope the girls in the lfight companies were right about me just strolling over to qantas and paying 120 aussie dollars for them to fly the big box home to Denmark. We'll see tomorrow. It's very interesting.
It's also very strange to be leaving, it felt so familiar to come back, or home to New Zealand. It's autumnal and recognisable and mountainous and might as well be Scandinavia, just with nikau palms and cabbage trees.

But I do look forward to home, to see my friends, my family, have a job, eat Danish rye bread and liquorice, hold hands with the loved one every day and sleep in the same bed every night, to not share dorm rooms with snooring strangers, to have more than two sets of clothes. It's also slightly scary. What if I forget how wonderful this was and don't go out again? If I just get a nine to five and have kids and tell about back when mum was cool and biked New Zealand and sailed to Fiji?
I don't think I will forget though. I'll probably remember so hard that there is no option but going out again.

Again, again again, I have to come back to this place.

Last ride

I'm at Nelson lakes now, sneaking time to one last bike ride before I'm going home. It's cold, and dark early, and a lot of camp sites are winterclosed. It's nearing to cold for tent in many places anyway, and definetely up here in the mountains. Luckily there's still backpackers and friendly Kiwis. It's pretty rough biking with a load after so long time lounging in ships and on beaches, but very rewarding.The scenery is fantastic. I have to come back.

Practicalities

New Zealand is nicer in the sun. Actually so nice I'm trying to sneak in a last little tour before I have to fly back. Tomorrow the mission is to get my tickets finalized and bike to St Arnaud. I'll continue to Greytown and take the train across to Christchurch, then fly home. Hopefully it works.

Hotching with bikes

I've already had one bike break down - the derailer twisted itself into bits right after leaving Picton and I got it replaced and pedalled on. Betty the bike didn't seem quite happy though, and both me and a couple of English lads on bikes (Alan and Rob of the Possum Posse) fettled quite a lot around to fix her up to run smoothly. It didn't quite work out fully, and the blame was put on a slightly twisted derailer hanger in need of a change in Nelson.

I didn't make it any further than Pelorous Bridge, which is app. 15 km off Havelock. There I had a lunchbreak, went up the hill and heard a nasty crunching sound, which I recognized before I put my foot down as a broken derailer. This time it was the hanger snapping of, the gear wire breaking, and the rear tyre axle which holds Bob the trailer bending a bit. Not possible to go anyfurther anywhere. The ressourceful person runs up to the Kiwi experience bus full of kids with rasta hair, hangovers, purple harem pants and new SDI's and asks the driver if there are any free seats. There isn't. The driver's pretty cool, though, and checks if there are other buses passing by today. There isn't.

Pelorous Bridge has a nice little camp site, so there's no need to panick, apart from the fact that there's no phone reception, and I was supposed to call Madeleine when getting to Nelson. I can't even call to say I may be a day late.

The resourceful person then mills around the parking lot noting all the big cars that could fit a bike, asking if they are going to Nelson. No one is.

Then the ressourceful person stretches out a thumb, and several sympathetically stop to ask if they can help with a quick fix, they do have tools, but unfortunately not space for a bike and trailer.

I do another car park round and someone does have space, it turns out, and that's the NMIT having been on a field trip with the full Asian student body. I go in one car with bike, and the luggage goes in the other van, and all goes to Nelson, where the story ends happily at Stewarts bike shop, where everything damaged is straightened, replaced and fixed within a couple of hours. Betty the bike rolls smoothly on again, and I apparently wear out chain per thousand km.

Masterton - and random rambling abut food

Delayed publishing - this was written on Friday I think.

On the bike again, and having a muserum & internet stop in Masterton. It's quite nice, the museum and i found a booklet on Scandinavian immigrants, that I'm looking very much forward to read in the evening. Cmap sites usually have year old copies og reader's digest and OK! magazine (aussie's answer to se & hor for the Scandinavians)

The towns are quite close to each other here, so I think I'll continue to Greytown before I call it quits for the day. It's only 11 km more, and I have bottle of wine in the pannierbag to keep me going and the camp sites are uausally cheaper and nice in smaller towns. Oh, and the wine is for dinner when I've finished biking, not for drinking while on the bike.
I stocked up big time on food before leaving Napier, but here's lots of wineries and farm shops and I really did not need food for the full week before heading out, there are shops in between Napier and Wellington, and cafes, and bars, and restaurants and pubs and tearooms, so there's no risk of starving. It's really just a matter of how cheap or expensive you're going (self made sandwiches at rest stops on the road side is of course cheaper than the pub meal) and checking the route. I might need packing food for a week somewhere on South Island, and it's good knowing I can do that, but there's really no need to overload when I pass be a zillion road side fruit stands and cosy little country pubs a day, even though I go through quite a lot in just one day. Biking makes you hungry. It makes you happy too though.

Eketahuna - day off with the kiwi birds

I'm on the road, left napier on Sunday it must have been, and headed to the south. I've stayed in Waipawa and Dannevirke, had a long lunchbreak in Norsewood, where I was invited for coffee with a Norwegian family who works the infocentre and splits their time in between Norwegian and New Zealand summers. It\s been good going a lot cooler and very nice to get out again. Tuesday I arrrived at Eketahuna, where there\s a domain camping (which is a sort of nature reservee with camping) and it's only five dollars, with hot showers, laundry and farm eggs for the campers. Ekehatuna itself is tiny, there's only 600 inhabitants and it's basically just a stretch of houes and some cafes and shops and a library with free internet and use of computers (hence no pictures today) along highway 2. But my legs felt like logs when I woke up, which may be a delayed effect of running into a familiar face in Dannevirke and having a few at and irish pub.

Mount Bruce wild life sanctuary is just 8 km down the road from Eketahuna, I hitched a ride back and forth and saw kiwi birds in cages. They have a white one. It was quite neat, and now I know what the fuss is all about, but I might be too tired to really have appreciated it.
The plan for the rest of the day is to go back to the camping ground and hope nobody\s nicked my now clean underwear and there I'll faff about and read something, write something, eat chips & chocolate and drink tea. And napping. Possible tighten up a screw or two on the bike.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Masterton/Carterton/Greytown depending on the feeling, then Featherston and from there I'm taking the train to Wellington - there's a big bad hill, heaps of road work and much traffic, so it's not recommendable biking there.All in all, I ought t be In Wellie by the weekend.

Gisborne - Napier

I've arrived well and safe in Napier yesterday, spent the sunday going for a hike with an Englishman who gave me a ride the last bit into Napier (with bike and everything) and will post proper post with pictures and stories and everything tomorrow when the internet hopefully is more cooperative.

On the road

Jeg har ikke lavet noget særligt andet end at dalre rundt og vente på cykel og lege strandferie, og i går var den færdig. Rent teknisk er det en lyseblå Bauer, med en falsk bobtrailer til alt mit udstyr, cykeltaske til de dagligste nødvendigheder og en lille cykelstyrstaske foran og ellers udstyret med alt hvad hjertet kan begære på en cykel, inkluderet hjelm & matchende neonvest med refleksstriber, lygter (både baglygte på traileren og selve cyklen) og et lille reparationskit, så jeg er sikker at sende ud på vejene.

Freddy, som jeg har besøgt mange gange i hans butik, var også helt glad og rørt over at jeg nu rent fktisk skulle afsted. Det er i hvert fald sjældent at cykelsmeden hjemme på Nørrebro gav krammere. Han er i øvrigt en af ret få der laver bambuscykler,og hvis I synes det er spændende kan I se mere på Bikeys.

Og nu skal jeg pakke og spise og ud på vejen. Vi tales ved om en fire dages tid i Napier.

I'm off, the bike is here, and it's beautiful. Freddy put all parts together and was pretty much just as excited as me about my tour. He makes bamboo bikes too, and if you need anything bike relatede around Gisborne he's definately recommendable. Check his shop and bikes at Bikeys.
All left do is packing up the last bits and have some late breakfast, so that's what I'll do. See you guys in Napier in about four days!