Campervan bliss.....

What can I say, campervans are fab, since leaving Auckland we have travelled miles and miles and miles, my bum does not hurt, my legs do not hurt, I am not exhausted by 3pm and just wanting to lie down and go to sleep. Having said that, it can get a bit boring, travelling for miles, getting out having a look at the sites then getting back in and carrying on. Its been good this week, it has made me realise that I do in fact like the achievement of cycling to a place of interest, it makes it all more worth while, humm..... best not let Rich read this post he may get ideas of going further than we need to.

We are on our way back down to Auckland to see Beks and Emma, they were fantastic and let us stay with them for 3 days while we checked out Auckland they have also been bike minding for us as the tandem was no way going to fit in the camper. Thank you both.

We have just two days left in NZ, it seems all very strange that it was nearly two months ago that we set off from Oxford on that cold March evening, its weird to think that we have been here for two months and have only scratched the surface of this amazing place. I will be sad to say goodbye, and a little apprehensive about what is to come as NZ was known to me, OZ is a whole new experience for both of us.... bring it on

If you want to see more photos of the trip go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/denandrich/ this is aswell as Richards account http://www.flickr.com/photos/rdtandem please have a look and a giggle......

Road to nowhere inparticular...

Made light work of the 3 day ride up the Coremandel penninsula from Rotorua. It was along lovely, traffic light and for the most part flat roads. The weather feels like it's made the change to autumn. The days are that little bit cooler, the dew a bit more hesitant to clear in the mornings and the number of tourists on the road has plummeted.

We spent the nights mostly at quiet, backwater camp grounds, that seemed a world away from the commercialised, overpriced stuff that makes up the centre of the north island's tourist hub. All invigourating stuff for (the bank balance nursing) cycle tourists on a strict budget.

We caught the ferry into Auckland, arriving just after dusk, and what a great way to have your first sight of the city, with the highrises all lit up behind the shipping port.

Now we have four days in town, then we pick up the keys to a camper for a week so that we can get round to all those places in the far north of the country that we haven't have time to cycle to, before we fly over to complete the Australian leg of the journey.

Seemingly the only thing that isn't great, is that Den has taken an unprecidented lead in the mini game.... 76-73. Grrr,.....

Smelly rotten eggs....

This is the smell that is all consuming in Rotorua, the thermal tourist spot in NZ. We arrived here yesterday have cycled for 60 miles from Taupo, having stopped at a thermal area on the way, we arrived a bit late, it was dark and it took us a while to decide on the best place to pitch the tent. Not due to darkness so much a Richard wanting to find the warmest tent pitch, yes the camp site has warm spots. Which sounds great until your tent resembles a sauna at 3am then it is not so great!! We are planning to move it today after it has dried out from the torrential rain that yet again created pond on the roof of the tent, Terra Nova here comes an email....

So from the last post we have traveled so distance, from Wellington we caught the Train to National Park where we stayed in a department of conservation campsite, this was very basic and for the very first time we got to use the camp stove, water filter, and kitchen sink that we have been carting around, Yippee. from here we were able to see the three volcanoes that make up the Tongariro national park. Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe, these are three immense volcanoes that dominate, Ruapehu was last active (visually) in 2007, so three years ago, luckily for us no ash, rocks or molten lava were seen, although we did see a rising cloud of mist coming from one of the sides of Ngauruhoe which alarmed us some what, until we got further to Taupo and Rotorua and then they become the norm.

We have two days here in Rotorua, Rich is going to spend one mountain biking, I on the other hand may just partake in a mudbath and thermal spring dip...

next stop the Coramandel.....

Bribery gets you.... everywhere

Okay, as of last post, we were going to try and travel back to Christchurch from Geraldine. Well we tried to get a bus, and found that with it being easter weekend then we couldn't get on with all our stuff, so we pedaled the 35 miles north to Ashburton before trying again to catch the bus on the Tuesday. Luckily, a brief chat to a taxi driver provided the answer - apparently a little extra incentive for the driver would ensure that he found some luggage space. Low and behold, he was right, $20 later we were on the bus riding towards Christchurch, bike, trailer and luggage taking up an entire hold below the coach (out of a total of 4 luggage compartments on a bus for 50 passengers).

The next morning we had an early start and caught the train to Picton (very scenic journey) at the north of the south island, and then the ferry into Wellington.

Since then, we've been living like backpacking tourists in a particularly rubbish hostel, killing time seeing the sights until we can continue our train journey, tomorrow, to take us up to National Park in the middle of the north island.

Happy Easter

Well Easter is upon us and we have settled in a place called Geraldine 50 miles north and considerably lower that Tekapo (oh, the down hills are some much easier that the up hills!!), we are trying to be here only for 1 day and two nights but things may be playing aganist us!! we had hoped to catch a bus up the dreeded state highway 1 as it is a nightmare with lorry drivers wanting to ride the tandem as aposed to give us an inch of room, but things are not going well and we may have to ride a little further and hire a car if all else fails.

On to brighter things, we now know our tent is kind of water proof!! it retains water well, like all good pond liners; as this it what the roof of the tent resembled at 2am AND 5am this morning. Needless to say Rich was a star and went out to sort it out, there is a serious design flaw in a tent that is perfectly pitched when going to bed and pond like 4 hours later with wet stretchy fabric.

(Rich is gloating and wanted me to pass on the good news that he has just had a fab mini spot of a clubman which brings the total up to 50-38. I need to get in some serious spotting in Christchurch.)

Rich would also like to add that we have a new top speed....... 45miles an hour, I would like to point out that I was imploring him to slow down and he was breaking when we hit that speed I dreed to think what speed we would hit otherwise. (this was on a down hill section just incase anyone was thinking we were both super fit or something!!)

So we venture on to Christchurch on two wheels? four? or a bus?..........

North from Alexandra over the Lindis Pass (962m above sea level)

Our replacement trailer parts arrived in Cromwell (20 miles west of Alexandra) a few days ago, so we headed over for a night in what was probably the grottiest campsite of the trip so far. In reality it was a chalet camp for out of work dole bludgers and roadbuilders, we just happened to pay 30 dollars to be allowed to camp on a patch of earth between the chalets. Lovely. Town of Cromwell was worth a diversion for a couple of hours though.

From there we cycled the 25 miles north to Tarras, where camping was limited to the field of the local community centre, where there were no amentities. We ended up staying in homestead accomodation run by our host Phil. First B&B I've ever stayed in that came with free booze supplied by the landlord, and in the morning he even haggled us down on the price. It wasn't all great though, decor was a bit 1980's student squat. You can't have everything.

The next day we took on the main challenge of the 50+ miles over the Lindis Pass to Twizel. Spent all morning, and most of the afternoon climbing the 962 metres to the top, and then spent an hour and a half running down the 20 miles to the town of Omarama. Thought we were doing well until we met a girl on a touring bike who had come from Queenstown that morning (about 100 miles away). Checked into the deluxe camp ground and found that 500m down the road there were private open air hot tubs overlooking a private lake with the southern alps as a backdrop, so we pitched the tent and hurried down for a couple of hours of well deserved soaking.

Today, in an effort to recover from yesterdays exertions, we've just headed up the road for 20 miles toward Mt Cook and have had a relaxing afternoon in the town of Twizel, which was originally a temporary town for the construction workers and families on the nearby hydro electric power plant, but when they came to demolish it so many of the residents wanted to stay that the government let them.

Anyhow, I'm off to the supermarket to get some food, tomorrow we continue north to Lake Tekapo.