It's been over a week since we've really been around internet access and the last few days i've simply been soaking up the luxriousness of my Aunt's house. We are for all intents and purposes, done with our bike tour. Margaret's house is about 50 kms from our drop off point and Skyler's and Lucas' bikes have broken more spokes than I can keep track of, so we will probably catch a ride from Margaret for the last leg. We finished much quicker than the 4 weeks we allotted ourselves, so we have about a week to enjoy our own bedrooms, free hot showers and internet, a stocked pantry, a garden with fresh vegetables...
We are just besides ourselves. My head was spinning when we arrived: "Do I take a shower first or go eat some fresh tomatoes, or do I go to one of the two supermarkets to buy a beer, or should we go gorge ourselves at the thai restaurant, or should I go take a nap on that queen size bed." How do you get to such a state you ask? Well lets see...
Luckily for us we have had sunshine since I last wrote in Punakaiki and the west coast has been nothing short of spectacular. Unlike Greymouth, Westport was a great town to spend some time in. It felt like a town that kiwis lived in, not just a tourist center, and there were very nice beaches with no sandflies. Skyler decided to bus back down to Franz Joseph to try and get on a rafting trip while Lucas and I rode on to Nelson lakes to do a backpack trip. The morning Skyler left Lucas was feeling really sick so I left him to sleep and spent a nice day at the beach. The next day we decided to ride to Murchison, but 15 km into the ride it became obvious I wasn't going to make it. What just seemed to be a really full stomach from a big breakfast turned out to be a gnarly case of stomach flu. We slept in a very basic backpacker in Berlins (basically just a cafe that tour buses stop at along the river). Luckily we were the only ones in the compact hostel, so nobody had to listen to me wretching up my stomach lining. After vommitting all day and not eating anything we set out the next day to Murchison.
Due to our sick days and Skyler not being able to get on a raft trip, Sergeant Spreads (aka skyler) was able to catch up to us here despite blowing out his tire. Of course the nice backpacker was full for the microlite airplane convention (?) so we ended up staying at the Gold Shack--a real top notch place where you had to wear sandals in your room so your feet didn't stick to the floor. Before we went to bed we all prayed that we didn't get any skin diseases from sleeping in the questionable bed linens.
Riding to St. Arnaud turned out to be peaceful ride. It was almost eerie being outside and having the sound of your tires hitting the pavement be the loudest noise you can hear. Once I was sure we were about in the middle of nowhere we came across a sheep dog competition that was actually very impressive. The owners would use a series of whistles to direct their dogs to herd sheep up a hill through some slalom gates... something I'm not sure I could even do just chasing after the sheep myslef.
Once we got to St. Arnaud we splurged and bought ourselves some fried fish and fries (or chips as they call them here). The next few days we walked a circuit through Nelson Lakes Park. We had some gorgeous weather and some very sore shoulders and legs. The first night while we were cooking our cous cous and canned tuna a search and rescue team came through the hut looking for a Swedish hunter. On our walk out of the park we saw the recue helicopter lifting someone. When we got out, the DOC office told us the hunter fell over a waterfall and died. It was weird because it didn't seem to be so abnormal. I guess tourists are rescued almost on the weekly from getting lost in different parks, but usually they are unprepared and with no outdoor experience (but usually alive I believe).
From St. Arnaud we had almost entirely downhill 100 kms, stopping occasionally to eat apples or snap pictures of the various rivers. St. Arnaud's store was limited and expensive so I had banana cake and a boiled potato for my lunch. We got into Motueka just before Margaret and Tom left for Golden Bay to celebrate her 50th birthday. It has been a renewing experience having a home to live in after traveling from campground to hostel and living out of bags for over a month. To have a personal space where you don't have to throw pillows at your neighbor to stop them from snoring. The three days we've been here we've cooked cookies, an apple crisp, incredible toasted sandwiches and salads. We've sat on a beach and drank local beer from the Monkey Wizard Brewery. We've had delicious burgers from the Fat Tui and scrumptious curries from the thai and indian restaurants. Sure these might be common meals or experiences back home, but when you are eating a diet of canned, freeze dried and deep fried food for a month a simple salad becomes a godsend worth blogging about. Also, when we weighed ourselves last night we all discovered that we lost about ten pounds since we were last at Margaret and Tom's. It is pretty shocking since I've been consistently between 180-185 probably since high school--regardless of excercising and eating habits--and now I'm 170.
Once we turn our bikes in on wednesday we have about a week before we need to be in Auckland to catch our plane back home. We are casually planning what to do that week but most likely we will be headed to the northern tip of the North island if we can swing it. As always here are some more pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56993065@N03/
