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!