Catlins, Cadbury, and a Crazy Climb

Hey everybody! We've got a big post in store for you. Finally, we were able to find a computer that we could upload our images to. We are in Akaroa, at the Top 10 holiday park, where Luc stayed with his family three years ago! Tomorrow we plan to go on a hike to Purple Peak, overlooking the harbor. For now, here are a bunch of pictures from the past few weeks - they're in reverse chronological order, so we'll have to tell our story from finish to start.




Earlier today, we conquered a giant 8 km long hill, whose summit is known simply as Hilltop. We were rewarded with this view of the Long Harbor. On the far right is Akaroa, where we are writing this post from.








This morning, we were in Christchurch, where we have been fortunate enough to stay with Donal Sinex, Luc's long-lost first cousin once-removed and his partner Julie. Yesterday the four of us celebrated Earth Hour by hanging out in the dark and enjoying each other's conversation and the occasional hedgehog sighting in the back yard. For dinner Luc and Torrey baked an eggplant pizza and Donal and Julie supplied the best NZ wine we've tasted, made just 60 kms away from Christchurch. An excellent Saturday night.





This is the beginning of Le Race, a 100 km cycling competition from Christchurch to Akaroa. We were lucky to catch the start - we just happened to be downtown at 7:45 am picking up our forgotten bicycle helmets. Every time we take a bus we leave something behind.








Here we are with our adoptive Kiwi grandparents
Des and Denise. We spent a comfortable week in their home, which came to feel like home to us too. There's nothing quite like being served three desserts at once, every night. And sleeping in a warm bed after taking a hot shower. We know they won't be reading this (they don't have a computer) but we are very grateful for their kindness and consider them to be like family.





One of our days in Dunedin centered around a tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory. It smelled incredible, and tasted even better. We were given loads of chocolate throughout our 90 minute tour. The best part - seeing a metric ton of liquid chocolate fall 28 meters in the world's only chocolate waterfall.








Downtown Dunedin.












During our time in Dunedin, we spent two days riding out onto the Otago Peninsula and back. We visited Larnach castle, the only castle in New Zealand, and toured the grounds. The theme of the gardens was Alice in Wonderland - here's Torrey doing her best to mimic the Queen of Hearts (Luc thinks she looks like Queen Victoria. The expression is spot-on.)







Another view of the lovely Torrey at Larnach castle. If you look hard enough you can see Dunedin in the background.











Another attraction on the Otago Peninsula was the wildlife. Can you find the albatross in this picture?















Here's handsome Luc and our third
roommate at Des and Denise's
- a rather creepy little doll that
watched us while we slept.














Our trip to Des and Denise and Dunedin took us on a five-day tour of the Catlins, the wild south coast of New Zealand, with our friend Mikaela. Completely coincidentally, we three stayed at the same hostel in Invercargill (the world's southernmost city), and decided to join up for a final bike gig together. The Catlins turned out to be one of the most amazing parts of our trip. We saw lots of dolphins, a sea lion, seals, and these yellow-eyed penguins...





...and a lot of beautiful scenery.

This is the view of our campsite at Curio Bay, home of a 180 million year old petrified forest. It was around during the Jurassic! After seeing the sunset, we set up camp on the edge of a cliff and got to watch the moon rise before bedtime.








Getting there, however, was a challenge. Here's Mikaela during our 14 km stretch of gravel that came at the end of a long day.










That day started in Bluff, the gateway to Stewart Island and home of the famous Bluff oysters. They were all sold out when we got there but we were lucky enough to be gifted with a big slab of freshly caught blue cod. We had it for breakfast. Mmm mmm.









Before meeting up with Mikaela, we had a few days on our own, riding through farmland. Here's what happens when Luc and Torrey are all alone on a playground in the middle of nowhere.










These last two pictures are from the Kepler track, which we detailed in our last post. The first picture is of our second campsite, Iris Burn, in a hanging valley. The second picture shows us up in the mountains taking shelter from the snow with our two French companions, Yohan and Alex.

We hope you enjoy the pictures!

Winter Wonderland

Snow! And lots of it!

The past three days have been crazy ones. We began the Kepler Track on the 9th, with a very short day of only 10 kms. There are only two places on the track where camping is allowed (most people stay in huts), forcing those of us roughing it to hike one teenyweeny day and two very, very long ones. It was fun to connect with friendly neighbors at our first campsite, Brod Bay: a frenchwoman who gave Torrey a hat, two French guys who were brave enough to go swimming in Lake Te Anau, and a group of Americans, including one from Terre Haute, Indiana! We were all a little nervous about what the next day held in store for us, but we were excited about the challenge.

From Brod Bay the next morning, we climbed from about 400 meters above sea level to 1400 meters above sea level, all in a couple hours! At first we were peeling off layers, sweating, but soon we were pulling them back on with numb hands and chattering teeth. When we got above the tree line, the wind and the hail hit us like a wall, but the views that appeared when the sun came out were stunning. The lake shimmered far, far below us. After 45 minutes of stinging hail, we arrived at Luxmore Hut, complete with a roaring fire. We took the opportunity to take off our soggy clothes and attempt to dry them, all the while eating our lunch of Bavarian salami, brie, and Vitaweat crackers. We were also able to make ourselves some yummy hot tea with the gas cookers at the hut, something that surely helped us through the next section.

Soon we were sidling mountains, and topping peaks. Well, one peak: Mt. Luxmore, an altitude of 1492 meters. We stopped for a celebration at the top, and this proved to be a costly error. We were quickly punished by the wind gods, who pummeled us with the harshest wind we've yet experienced in our short lives. We ran back to the trail, to continue on through the snow. The rest of our day was punctuated by short stops at emergency shelters (don't worry, there was no emergency), in between long, snowy stretches along the mountain spines. It was incredible - being up there made us feel like we were in a fantasy, as if we were on top of the world.

Of course, we had to come down eventually. The descent from the peaks lasted forever, with switchbacks going on and on and on. When we arrived at Iris Burn Camp, it was nearly dark and we were ready for a hot meal and warm sleeping bags. During dinner we met a group of friendly Israelis doing their post-army traveling. We were glad to see all of our fellow campers from Brod Bay had arrived safely too (some after us, and some long before).

The next morning we woke up to amazing views, and wet socks. We made a quick breakfast while our toes froze, then hit the trail. It was to be the beginning of a looong day, you might even call it a marathon (really, we walked over 40 kms, about the equivalent of a marathon). The terrain was mostly flat, but the conversation with two fellow American hikers was anything but. They regaled us with tales of their South American tramping adventure, through Bolivia, Peru, and the mountains of Chile and Argentina. Maybe there is another adventure in store for Luc and Torrey?

Finally, we reached what we thought was our final destination: Rainbow Reach. At this point we had already walked 23 kms, and were ready to take the $9 bus back to town. Of course, the alternative route - completing the loop then walking back into town (and thus saving $9 each) - proved too tempting, and we set out on our final, exhausting stretch. When we made it back to town our feet were blistered and heavy, our legs limped, and our stomachs growled. So we headed to Subway! Then to the dairy for ice cream! We walked back to our holiday park while gobbling up our triple and double scoops (guess who had which) and made it back just past closing time... luckily the owner was kind enough to allow us to stay the night, with the promise that we'd pay him today.

Oh yeah, judging from the comments on the previous post, our secret is out. We went skydiving! And yes, jumping out of a plane is all it's cracked up to be, and more. We highly recommend it - there are no words to describe it. You just have to experience it yourself. Lake Wanaka is an excellent place to try, if you happen to be in New Zealand.

Cheers, everybody!

Wanaka, Queenstown, and Milford Sound...etc.

Hi all, long time no post. Sorry about that. Anyway, since our first broken spoke and our bus ride over Haast Pass to the nearest bike shop in Wanaka, we've had lots of adventures and lots of beautiful riding. It almost made up for not getting to ride Haast Pass :(

Wanaka was a great place to take a few days off the bikes. We went to Puzzling World! Luc won the maze... AND had to come back for Torrey to help her find her way out! We also ran into John and Mikaela in Wanaka (they were eating ice cream of course) and got to have a farewell lunch. John is leaving New Zealand in two days! Mikaela has a lot more time left, so maybe we can team up with her again.

The ride from Wanaka to Queenstown took us over the Crown Saddle, the highest highway in New Zealand (about 1100 meters). Going up was grueling and dusty, but the view on top was well worth it. We were able to see Queenstown from 50 kms away! Going down was breathtaking. We rode through Queenstown to a DOC campsite 10 kms away. The next morning, as we were eating breakfast, a Safari of the Rings guided tour van pulled up next to us. Curious, Torrey asked what scene they were pointing out, and learned that the scene where Frodo encounters Olifants was shot 10 minutes from where we slept! It actually looked familiar. After checking it out, we hurried to Queenstown to catch the Earnslaw steamship across the lake to Walter Peak.

Most tourists onboard the Earnslaw stayed at Walter Peak for a barbecue and then took the ferry right back to Queenstown. We were the only ones to continue on down the 70 km gravel road towards Te Anau! We rode a veeerrryyy long 50 kms to Mavora Lakes that afternoon. It took us 5 or 6 hours and boy, were we dirty. So we washed off in the frigid water before settling into our camp for the night. The next day took us to Te Anau.

We stationed ourselves at a nice Holiday Park with free bag storage for our journey into Fiordland. The first day of riding towards Milford Sound brought us some rain, but also some sun, as well as some mystical mountain views. At the very end of the day, another spoke broke on Luc's bike! Frustrated, we decided to set up camp where we were and hitchhike into our destination the next day. A friendly Australian picked us up and dropped us at Milford. The ride there was fantastic, with waterfalls everywhere. Passing through the 2 km Homer Tunnel was a highlight. Milford Sound was impressive as well, despite the mist and low visibility. After a hot chocolate at the cafe we hitched a ride back to our campsite with two nice Swiss people. We spent the night reading and the rain never stopped. Both of us finished our books - Mr. Tucket for Luc (recommended by 14 year olds everywhere, and Nick Sinex), and Farewell to Arms for Torrey, a real tearjerker.

Today we tried to ride back to Te Anau, but another spoke broke! Aaagghhh! So we got some help from two more friendly Australians in a motor home. We are slowly recovering from our ordeal through the use of hot showers, hot food, and chocolate bars. The owner of the holiday park was even kind enough to rent us a cabin for the price of a tent site! He must have taken pity on our soggy cycling souls.

Miss you guys, lots of love from both of us.