Day 20: Lake Mahinapura to Lake Mapourika 115km

Is that spelt correctly? Will have to double check at a later date. You will have to forgive me about these blogs but the gear I'm using does mean a few things are limited -like I can't resize the piccies and pop them in the right place in the blog and well don't always double check my spelling so you'll have to forgive the general casual nature of this but well at least you're getting something!

Anyway started from this great DOC campsite (stands for Department of Conservation if you don't know the reference and I can honestly say that every camping site that belongs to DOC has been superb apart from the free one which was a bit of a knoblbly field and didn't feel so safe.

Anyway this was a long day cycling in fact 115 km - to date the longest cycle yet. I was honoured by a glorious day which meant that I stopped rather a lot to take piccies and most importantly to to collect some more information on women in this area. I spent over an hour in a tiny wee place called Ross which is connected to Hokitika because of its gold mining past - a past that still continues today but unfortunately not in the way it used to be. Before I ran about that let me say how welcome the lady at the wee museum made me feel and she soon showed me to the right collections to find what I was searching for. There are a couple of women here that would be worth looking into further and both with interesting stories to tell. Her museum colleague was going to do some further investigation to see what they could bring up locally also so that was great and I went around taking lots of piccies.

We also spoke about the gold mining and the museum lady told me that the gold mining was still going on but modern methods are a far cry from the individual miners who roamed NZ fossiking for gold and taking small bits that helped them get by. Nowadays its the large machines owned by essentially a businessman who has nothing to do with the locals rape the land-that is the only way as harsh as it sounds that I can use to put across the horrendous scarring that is going on just outside Ross. She told me to look at what was going on on my way out and to see why the locals are so upset and yet powerless to do anything about it. All this going on in some of the most previously unspoilt natural bush we have. We have learnt nothing and the continuous placcards with the ever smiling businessman John Key kept reminding me of the New Zealand that I continuously struggled to comprehend.

After the mixed emotions of leaving Ross behind I made my way south through what I can only describe as some of the most spectacular sceney to date. Immediately I say now to skip the rest of NZ and head to the West Coast for full gorgeous beaches, ever growing mountains capped with snow as you gently make your way across rolling roads through the rugged landscape that cries out "Just you try and make something so beautiful"....I swear I spent most of the time on the cycle completely in awe.

I fell in love with a town that consisted of two buildings - a pub and a cafe - all you need to survive I feel. The former closed the other my stop for a cup of tea and a lovely fruit scone and a chat with the owner. It was like cowboy/bushman heaven and inside two guys sitting down looked up and one of them laughed and said - you're doing alright I passed you by in Ross and you've caught up with me!!

With the seats covered in the different species that had been shot by the owners over the twenty years that they were there I laughed at all the antics on display - with many a pointed placard set up to delve into the disastifactions that I had been feeling since returning to NZ - I had felt like I had found my home here in the minds of the Westies? My favourite placard added to my photo album below.

So the day was to move on and I clocked up 100km before the sore legts started kicking in and managed another 15km before the temptation of a DOC campsite by a river 15km from what was going to be my final destination (Franz Joseph) won me over - especially as lovely English couple pulled up behind me in their camper as I was negotiating with myself to invite me to dine with them on the grounds that they had offered a glass of wine only to realise they had drunk it the night before!!

With the kindness of the offer and the promise of a lovely evening chatting with new friends I found a spot for my tent on top of the bank over lookingg the river whilst a number of camprs over the evening appeared and disappeared and stayed.....

Turns out that Mike and Biddy are from Exeter and Mike had just completed a five month cycle through the USA - - Biddy had met him in NZ and together they were touring NZ in the campervan. I was in awe of Mike's adventure with bear stories and other fascinating tales. I would love to cycle through the states but I fear after the bear encounters I would want to do that with someon else with me - we just have a few birds that come out to play - like my friendly weka last night that was trying to make off with the rest of the pasta I had made in my wee pot.

And so endeth one of the most satisfying cycling days over number of hills but forever heading towards the mountains and the glaciers.

Day 19 Christchurch to Greymouth to just south of Hokitika - train and cycle

So finally I was on the road again. Having left my music gear behind at Susan's in still war torn Christchurch I headed off finding the train station and making it on time despite the rather early 7:45am check in time! Off we went at 8:15 and I had been looking forward to this immensely as it was taking me across Arthurs Pass and through some really magnificent scenery. Unfortunately the train did not match the wonderful smooth trip I had had the day before on the new train that they had actually made in Dunedin - after much harranging the governmnet not to get it made overseas. It was certainly not a patch on that....

Still despite the somewhat jolty ride and the busy train with too many tourists trying to get shots in the one open viewing car for my liking - the journey was great. I was a bit tired after the antics of the night before and hoped I would get some energy soon for the coming cycling afternoon.....a wee bit of a snooze and plenty of photo shots saw me come right and after arriving at 1pm at Greymouth I got my bits together knocking off my sunglasses in the processes thinking rain was coming and then forgetting to pick them up. Unfortunately realising five minutes later and dashing back to the platform was five minutes too late as someone had popped them into their own pockets - was surprised that they had not been handed in. As I was quietly niggling at the dishonesty of people wondering if it was someone who had hopped on a tourist bus this guy comes up to me and hands me over his sunglasses having heard of what had taken place. After his insistence and remark that they were returning to the UK tomorrow and there was no sun there anyway I gratefully accepted his generosity and headed south feeling he had made up for the pre thief!

It turned out that the road from Greymouth to Hokitika was a dream - so lovely and flat and my cycle and I covered the ground quickly soon arriving 40km down the road into Hokitika. I stopped off to a cafe for acup of tea and a look round a gallery and was singing one of my new songs "Barbara Weldon" as I walked down Revell Street where she had once swaggered through in her slightly drunken state before finding some work for the night - keeping at least body alive if not soul.

Her world seemed so far away from the streets that I now saw as the hotels closed down to tourist shops, the cafes inviting passing tourists but not offering the morsels she had for sale.....only a hundred and forty years.....gone were those bustling streets that saw forty hotels on Revell St in its gold mining prime and here were the remnants of those days displayed in the fab museum and in a few random signs hinting at days of glory ? gone by.

As the clear blue sky gave way to thickening clouds I took that as a hint to make my way to the DOC campsite before getting caught in the coming rain. 10km down the road did see me caught out slightly but fortunately enough time to get into camp with ten t up and gear inside before too much damage was done. An hour of brief sunshine gave me time to wander around the lake, make dinner on my stove and get all done before putting on the thermals for the night - the air was decidedly colder tonight.

Day 18 Picton to Christchurch Train

So in order to catch up to my schedule (I was on a tight schedule having to meet in my flight from Invercargill to Chch on the morning of the 24th November) I decided that I would be taking the train ( a new south island experience for me) from Picton to Chch and then the following morning catching the train from chch to Greymouth.

I managed to get the gear across to the train in plenty of time which was good as it took about an hour to sort all out and get it ticketed, stored and finally handed over when the train arrived. I was very nervous about the safety of my guitar after the train guys popped it ontop of backpacks saying it was safest up there- I had visions of it all coming tumbling down and my expensive gibson at the bottom of the heap.....I managed to distract myself with the magnificent scenery and the just fabulous train journey. I loved every minute of it and its whole four hours whisked me away in sheer awe of this beautiful country I come from. Defo a must for all those kiwi and tourists when you come to town....

It was only capped off from the sheer delight in seeing my friend Susan - or Camp Mother as she has become and I Camp Leader (Topp Twins if you are confused look em up!). Needless tosay the evening was just not long enough and plenty of merriment was hard on on guitar and banjo alike with perhaps a bottle of white along the way...not easy to wake up the next day from a day like that!

Day17 Interislander Ferry Wellington to Picton

First off a big thank you to Sue for getting me to Wellington with all my gear and an equally big thank you to Mike for dropping me at the Ferry Terminal.....I managed to leave a couple of things behind but nothing that in retrospect wasn't rather good that I had!!

Thirdly HUGE thank you to Interislander Ferry for supporting me by donating my ferry ticket with me and the bike - we had had many shifts ofd date and time and always met with a very happy to alter person at the other end so HUGE thanks for that - really helps reduce the costs of the whole cycle tour.

The crossing was the most extraordinary day and I took loads of photographs and videos of the crossing -including the opening of the ship when in port (as I was first off with my cycle - a first for that!). I can highly recommend anyone reading this that a must is this crossing- its like booking a cruise through the sounds just sheer spectacular scenery as you enter the malborough sounds and of course bifd farewell to my favourite city Wellington.

Picton was in good form and arrivingat 6pm I made my way to a nearby backpackers that I had seen on the net called "The Villa". Had a great night here meeting loads of travellers once again and enjoying good wine over an outside fire recounting stories of my adventures on the road and hearing of the experiences of all the others as they emerged from different parts of the world. A good night and made better by realising that my second ever royalties payment had come through and it was finally a decent amount - finally it felt like I was on the road to feeling that I could really develop this into a decent living. Perhaps one day all the hard work and the countless hours and often brow beatings would count for something - a world away from my relatively cushy lifestyle pushing buttons from 9 to 5.There was nothing easy about this road to working as a full time musician/songwriter but the rewards on the way and the immense feeling of satisfaction were completely unknown feelings to me from my previous life.....finally I felt there was a point to my life.

So in celebration of my royalties I sat on a park bench over looking the se, sitting eating fish and chips before buying a bottle of wine and sharing the open fire with new friends at the hostel.

Good times :-)

Day 15 & 16 Rest Days and Travel

Day 15 was spent arranging my gear and sorting out how I was going to get it down to Christchurch (this is my amp and guitar) -needed for gigs post Chch.

Worked out that I could put all I needed in terms of different clothing post cycle into the pannier bags along with myc cycling gear and balance the amp on the back of the bicycle (all 16kilos of it) with my tent on top and with my guitar on my back - manageable for short distances walking of course!

Day 16 was travelling down in the car with Sue to Wellington dropping me all the way to my friends in Island Bay who like Sue and Gary put me up for a night once again (this weary traveller returns or should that be homeless waif?!). Felt strange having anotherday of rest but great to catch up with Mike and Jane and the kids and to have the delight of one of the kids and her friends all entertaining us with 'ABBA' dancing for the night - definitely brought back memories with my friend Casie H and myself strutting our stuff when we were 10 years old or maybe that was 13?! Just shows you there is no time limit on great songs and their enjoyment to all different generations.

My two days rest in the North Island were also met with the realization that I had in fact cycled over 1,060km in two weeks -the length of New Zealand. There was some heart to be taken in that feat for sure.....

Day 14 wanganui to Palmerston North

Having realized what a fantastic back packers this was i wished I had come back after the pint and sang and chatted away as it turns out that the cyclist who waved to me was also a lone cycle tourer from Belgium and had been asked in to the school for cup of tea, saw me pass, and had tried to catch up with me. Bizarre was he went to same back packers but having seen my bike couldn't find me until the morning! We swapped a few stories and hope to catch him at some point but he was staying on to visit a farm etc and I had deadlines to make.

Wish I had stayed too as today ended up being the worst cycle ride of the whole trip to date. What should have been an easy 70km pretty flat (except first part) road ended up being a road of head winds for the entire trip and I struggled getting passed 13km.

Having left at 9am I should have had loads of time to reach palmy in time for gig but with two 10min stops only I only made it to Shannon at 2:30pm absolutely exhausted and legs about to burst. Rang through to cancel gig. Felt soo deflated. Rain started and had to work between walking and cycling to make last 15km. I arrived in at 4:30pm thoroughly broken and felt like I had really let myself down and palmy and in the end wellington for next day. They were both so understanding though and rebooking for later without cycle.

I think I realized that trying to do these long days where I had not allowed for any rest days, plus the specific time for gigs and collecting stories was too much. Average of between 80-100km a day was enough with stopping to collect stories where appropriate so that's what I decided to do till the end and was the best decision for my own sanity. I was pleased though to get another emailed story from wanganui a few days later though. Almost there with the missing areas for my collection and next stage.

Needless to say apart from the piccie of me with the Belgium cyclist at the hostel no piccies were taken that day - no time and nothing to take - dull scenery, horrendous traffic and head wind does not a happy cyclist make!

Day 13: Ohakune to Wanganui

After a fab night at 'the hobbit' in Ohakune including spa and own room for 25 bucks I went on my way down the road ready for a big cycle day.Yesterday's ride had been fantastic even though it was hampered with the drizzle and cold air but the scenery (what I could see of it - National park but no views on that day) made up for it.

This trip though from Ohakune was about as perfect as it could have been both in terms of weather, ease of cycling, and fantastic scenery! What an amazing trip!!

I would definitely recommend any cyclist to make this trip - the lush vegetation, magnificent views, quirky locals (seen in the shoe fence), all made to make the day one of the most beautiful! Little traffic on the road which is every cyclists delight. Getting over 100km was still tiring though and as I approached Wanganui I could feel that it was enough. Passed a school on the way in and saw cyclist waving at me - story there tomorrow! A real rarity to see another cycle tourer.

Made it to Wanganui and over an hour to spare before the library gig. I had set off from Ohakune at 8:40am and was there by 2:45pm with a couple of wee stops enroute and a whole lotta stops for piccies - can only paste few here!

Great staff at library and enjoyable gig with some great feedback about wanting to get album and book when out so on the right track! Headed into town and went for back packers. Checked in and walked to town and for treat bought pint English Ale and went to see Anonymous at the cinema - enjoyable just to see London in Elizabethan times!! Oh forgot to mention that the heavens opened when walked to town and stayed that way all night - but I was in cozy bed inside- excellent call!!