The Journey Begins - Auckland to Nelson

We have begun our long awaited cycle tour of the South Island of NZ. On saturday we set off on the Overlander Train from Auckland to Wellington. Leaving early saturday morning we were treated to fantastic weather the whole trip. The sun was rising over Rangitoto on the way out of Auckland and was setting by the time we reached wellington over 12 hours later. The train was mostly full of international tourists and the odd NZ'er training down to Welly for the weekend then flying back. We stopped off at National park for 30 mins where we could sample some great jam scones while enjoying clear views of Mt Ruapehu.


An Old Man waiting at the National Park Train Station

After arriving in wellington we had a decent climb up the Ngaio gorge to Annas, Nick's cousin, house. Since the train was late we had to ride this in the dark, but with led lights flashing and safety vests on we arrrived safely.

The following day after a fantastic breaky at Maranui Cafe and the Lyall Bay surfclub we wandered around wellington with Anna and Sam and frequented our old eating haunts, Fidels and Satay Kingdom.

On monday we caught the ferry to Picton on a lovely calm day.


Nick on the road out of Picton with our ferry behind

We arrived at 2:00 and set off for a 40km ride to Havelock our first stop. We rode along Queen Charlotte Drive, which climbed in and out of quiet bays with some stunning views of the Sounds from the tops of some hills. We stayed at Havelock (the Green lip mussel captial of the world) for the night and of course we purchased some fresh mussels from a shop and cooked them up at the campsite. They were delicious, nothing like the ones we get in Auckland which are probably days old.



A stop off for afternoon tea with the ducks along the Queen Charlotte Drive in the Malborough Sound.

On tuesday we joined Route 6, the infamous route down the west coast. We were headed to Nelson, 80km away. This road was much busier than yesterdays ride with a lot of big trucks wizzing past. Most drivers gave us quite a bit of room, but dont really slow at all, flying past in excess of 100km often. A few trucks got pretty close as there was not much shoulder on the road.

We had a couple of saddles to climb around 300 and 400m each which we slowly worked our way up. The weather heated up in the afternoon, on one climb the thermometer on my bike read 34 degrees!! We stopped off at some lovely stream side picnic areas for some breaks and enjoyed dipping our feet in the (still) ice cold streams.


Nat celebrating at the top of one of the climbs!

We have come across 4 other cycle tourists so far. An english guy on the boat, a Japanese couple and a solo german doing a round the world trip.

We are both really happy to be back on the road and have got back into the swing of camping pretty quick (see: handwashing clothes, cooking on a camp cooker and waking up at sunrise, bedtime at sunset).

We are now in Nelson and are heading up to the Abel Tasman National park for a few days then down to St Arnaud to tackle the off road Rainbow Road.