Happy New Year and so much more!

A bit of a warning about this post...it will be very long as so much has happened since the last one and we've just generally been slacking on posting pictures and writing :)

We finished up our time in Hamilton by visiting the famous botanical gardens that were alluded to in the last post.  Although the weather wasn't great, Peter was able to take some nice pictures.  It was pretty cool to so many different types of gardens all in the same area.  We toured through the Chinese scholars garden, the Renaissance garden, the Indian garden and the Japanese contemplation garden and the English flower garden.  The best part was that visiting the garden was free!

Japanese garden

Chinese garden

Indian garden

From Hamilton we made our way back to Wellington by bus to meet up with Travis, Dave and Sharon who were arriving on the 31st.  Everyone arrived safe and sound, although we did have some anxious moments when Trav's bike wasn't on the flight and the airline had no idea where it was.  Not having a bicycle is a bit of a problem when you plan on cycle touring around.  It almost seemed like each time Trav called the airline, they had a different story.  It went from the bike arriving for sure on the 2nd to the bike arriving for sure on the 1st and then back to it arriving on the 2nd.  The location of the bike would also change from "It's still in San Francisco" to "Oh, we found it!!!  It's in Auckland and will be on the next flight".  Needless to say, Travis was riding an emotional roller coaster (instead of his bike) all day.  In the end it did arrive on the 1st and we left on schedule, catching the ferry to Picton on the 2nd. 

The gang before we board the ferry

With a quick stop in Picton to pick up the rental car for Sharon we began our first cycle of the south island.  The bike ride was beautiful, hugging the coast line with lots of look out spots. In a car, scenic means "beautiful winding road" but on a bike this translates into "beautiful winding road that you have to climb your butt off to see as the elevation gain is terrible".  The hills did have Travis wondering what he had gotten himself into and Dave "The Sheik" Branson stopping at all the viewpoints to take some beautiful pictures.

Dave "The Sheik" Branson

Pete and Dave after a long climb

View  from the top

Trav on descend

The scenery at the bottom of the hill

From Havelock, we made our way to Nelson.  This ride included two pretty big elevation climbs that had all of us in our granny gears.  There were some killer descends along the roads and close to the bottom of one of them, we came across a freezing, but lovely stream that cooled us all off.

Dave going for a swim

Atypical day for Pete and I

Nelson is a super cool town right on the coast with lots of beaches, cafe's and restaurants.  We soon realized that there is a pretty large Germain population in Nelson and Travis took full advantage of this by ordering the largest beer ever.

Bottoms Up!

Pete trying out Sharon's scooter in Nelson

The boys loading up on free sunscreen in Nelson

Jazz in Nelson

From Nelson we made our way to Mouteka, which is the gateway town for Abel Tasman Park.  Along the way we decided to have lunch at a winery, instead of the usually peanut butter and jelly wraps.

Now, this is the way to cycle tour!

Scenery along this ride

We had heard from everyone that the thing to do in Abel Tasman park was to Kayak.  We were hoping to do an unguided trip, but found out that they wouldn't rent out the kayaks unless someone in the group could demonstrate an Eskimo roll.  While we could all talk about the technique of performing a roll, sadly none of us could actually do one.  Instead of kayaking we decided to take a boat cruise up the length of the park.  We woke up the morning of the boat trip to a bit of rain, which once we arrived for the boat trip had turned into a torrential downpour.  The entire way out, the people running the cruise were busy handing out vomit bags and cleaning up vomit messes...it was not a pretty sight!  Through the rain, wind and massive swells, what I did see of Abel Tasman was beautiful but I would definitely recommend going on a calm sunny day.  In a twist of fate when we arrived back at our campsite completely soaked through, the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

 

Split apple rock

The one moment when it wasn't raining!

While we were in Mouteka, we did a bit of planning and soon realized that we couldn't actually achieve the distances and days that we originally thought we could.  After some planning, mostly by Dave and Pete we modified the distances and have included a shuttle transfer from St. Arnaud to Westport.  The only thing we have to do now is cycle to St. Arnauld...which is all up hill :)

Looking at our route over the next week...

The elevation gain is what?!

From Mouteka we made our way to Tapawera today and enjoyed a very gradual elevation gain and an awesome river swim, but we'll save that for the next post.  We leave for St. Arnaud tomorrow, wish us luck on the climb!

If you've made it through this marathon blog post...thanks!!