Updates From the Road - The Amtutz Family

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Dec 14 - Riverton

We’ve been cycling south now for so so many weeks, and today we just plain ran out of land... There was this vast ocean in our way, and rather than continue south by swimming to the next land mass (Antarctica), we decided to turn left. "Left" (east) brought us along dramatic green rolling coastline to Riverton, and will lead us to Invercargill and Bluff tomorrow. It’s hard for us to believe, but we have just 2 cycling days left on this grand journey. We’ve ridden about 2,200 kilometers thus far, and are thrilled to be nearing completion... But we are also sad to see that the end of the journey is rapidly approaching... So what has the last week been like? Read on!

We left Wanaka in, you guessed it, a pouring rainstorm. The rain soon let up though as we climbed up the recently paved and strenuous Cardrona Road, and we welcomed the cool overcast weather. A few "sheep jams" slowed us down, with massive flocks of the beasts covering the road en route to higher pastures for the summer. Steeply ascending the Crown Range, rejoicing over the top, and then screaming downhill on scary hairpin turns towards Queenstown. Karen broke a spoke... The rain kicked in again as we rolled into the busy city.

Queenstown is the tourist mecca of NZ, and we were a bit shocked by the huge groups, fancy hotels, higher prices, and many creative ways to pay large sums of money risking your life flinging yourself off high places. We took a layover day here in hopes of hiking or perhaps a boat trip on the lake, and were lucky enough to get brilliant sunny weather!!! Eliza was thrilled to watch bungy jumpers, skydivers, tandem parapenters, jet boaters, and large eels in the lake. She declared at the end of a busy wonderful day, "Daddy I am so excited I can’t even believe it! When I’m a big mommy, I will actually tell my husband to hold the babies so I can go bungy jumping off that mountain!"

We continued riding south, leaving the traffic and crowds behind, towards Kingston. Awesome views all the way down Lake Wakatipu, as well as awesome headwinds to push against. Kingston was a great tiny relaxed town, the perfect contrast to Queenstown. We ate in the "family tavern" with boxes of toys all over the floor of the bar, and handfuls of kind locals ready and willing to play with our kids. The highlight here is a very old restored steam train that still makes a 10 km run each day. We hopped on it the next morning, with our bikes, for a wonderful ride back in time...

Back on the bikes, we passed through lovely rolling pasturland, ate lunch in Athol, and came to a fork in the road near Lumsden. Directly south was Invercargill, 85km to the end of our trip. To the west was the "scenic route" along Fiordland for about 250-300kms... We consulted the calendar, counted a few times on our fingers to be sure, and then chose the scenic route. We’ve found that, even with all the crazy weather, we really do enjoy this "cycling-with-the-family" thing! So we headed west, into more headwinds, through Mossburn, and onward toward Milford where we were met once again by our friend Preston, cycling out to meet us as we rolled into Te Anau. Glow-worm caves, boat trips on the lake, and a late night stargazing session trying to spot that elusive southern cross (still haven’t seen it!) entertained us there. We chose to skip busy Milford sound, and splurge instead on a day cruise out of Manapouri to Doubtful Sound. Awesome (rainy) day with massive towering cliffs, hundreds of wa

Leaving Manapouri, we rolled south once again through sunny farmland, with huge thickly forested peaks to the right, and huge arid peaks in the rainshadow to our left. We also stumbled upon Clifden caves, a tiny obscure cavern down a small country road that we had all to ourselves. The girls were a bit nervous, but Eliza really lit up when she spotted some glow-worms... amazing blue-green bioluminescent creatures lighting up the ceiling of the pitch black cave! That was a long 85 km day, and we rolled into camp after 7pm. Fortunately it’s still light down here until 9 or 9:30pm. It will be tough returning to long winter nights back home!

So we left Tuatapere (try saying that one) this morning, bumped into the ocean, and aimed east to continue our "scenic detour." This time the winds were at our back, and we cruised along blissfully, wondering if we could just call in sick for the next few months and keep on riding! But all journeys must come to an end, and ours will in just a few days... Next update from land's end at Bluff! Zoinks!

Dec 17, 2001 - BLUFF!!! The "Land's End" of southern New Zealand