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New Zealand Trip Update |
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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Tom Lambert
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Sunday, 01 April 2007 |
New Zealand Trip Update
 | | Bike Stand |
Got into Christchurch at about 10:00 AM and started building my bike at the stand outside the doors of the airport! Only in New Zealand!!! Right away I met another guy Bill, who was from California. He was riding from the airport to a town about 30 miles away to work the vinyard harvest and to make some wine. I went into town for the day/night to get stuff ready so I could go out the next morning. I took a few pics around Christchurch - one of this statue which was neat.
 
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I didn't come to NZ for the cities, so the next morning I got up early and biked the 72Km to Springfield as it was on the way to Porter's Pass (as seen in the photo from Springfield, and Arthur's Pass National Park for some tramping (Hiking).
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Spent a 'Margeless' the night in Springfield and got up early and headed up Porter's Pass - which is at 940m above sea level (masl). Springfield is at about 300masl so I had some climbing to do. With the B.O.B. trailer this was going to be tough.  | | click to enlarge |
Little did I know how tough. The last 4km of the climb goes up 400m. Ouch. But, after pushing the last 1km because it was too steep to ride, I finally made it. Once at the top the big climbs stopped, and there was a little descent, but this tired pooch was getting beaten by the relentless 1-2km climbs through the valley.  | | click to enlarge |
I'm sure altitude played no role whatsoever in making me feel like puking. On the way I passed Castle Hill. I stayed the night in Craigieburn Forest at a free campsite.  | | click to enlarge |
I was running out of food and needed a rest day (already). At the campsite I befriended some boulderer's who took me out to Castle Hill to take some photos and do some bouldering the next day to visit Cave Stream Park and gave me some food. One guy was from Brunswick, ME!!! Even bought a bike at Bikeman.com once upon a time. Great guy! He's in NZ for a while livin' la vida loca.
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The next day I rode about 45km to Arthur's Pass National Park  | | click to enlarge |
where there's a 130m waterfall. That night I met Arnaud from Belgium at the youth hostile and we decided to do a 2-day Tramp (hike) the next day up Avalanche Mountain and down to Crow Hut. Watch out for Keas. They'll eat your lunch for you quickly and your bike tires too!
 
 | | Pretty picture |
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When I left Arthur's Pass there was these guys who rode the pass on the big wheeled bikes. The guy on the right handmade both bikes.
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I rode 109km that day all the way to Rakaia Gorge. I was dead tired because man, was it a hard and hot day on the road.  | | click to enlarge |
I stayed at Rakaia Gorge for a day, and then just this morning rode the 82km to Geraldine. There's a bike shop here and I need to fix a few busted spokes on my rear wheel!!! stupid me.
Anywho. Go to my Flickr page for some more pictures (hopefully!).
Tomato |
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