Back in 2001 - Paul, Eliza (3), Karen & Sylvie (1)
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A big THANK
YOU!!! Our
New Zealand expedition was generously funded by the Yosemite
National Institutes and the Matthew
Baxter Memorial Fund.
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October 12, 2001 - El Portal/Yosemite, California, USA Nov 22 - Thanksgiving Day - Kaikoura! Nov 23 - The day after Thanksgiving Well, after all that cheery thankfulness about helping to end the drought over here, and for us loving the "cool moist ideal cycling weather," and if some of you think our trip has all been "tea and crumpets," here's what today was like... We did lots of errands, shopping, drying out gear and diapers at the laundry, then realized it was lunchtime. Soooo we quaffed some tasty items at a Kaikoura cafe, then plunged out into the downpour at almost 2pm. Not the best time to start a 50kms ride, especially since it included the dreaded "Hunderlees" (insert dramatic ominous music here.). We've been hearing about the Hunderlees, a series of steep winding hills climbs, for the past week. Folks have said things like, "tell me you won't be cycling the Hunderlees, right?" "Oh my, those Hunderlees will be a bit steep, especially pulling those little trollys you've got!" So we head down the coast at 2pm... 20 kms of soaking wet, amazing, windblown, jagged, dramatic coastline. Seals sleeping on the road shoulder, waves crashing twenty feet away, nesting gulls and terns at every turn, several short tunnels to ride through avoiding the steepest cliffs... WOW! Karen and I are whooping and hollering through the downpour to psyche ourselves up, and because it's a pretty astounding bit of scenery (...what I could see of it through my dripping glasses). Then we came cruising around another remarkable headland, into a driving headwind, shouting yaaahoooooo, and rode right through and over a fresh rockslide... POP! Karen's front tire goes flat, and we get to change it with no road shoulder in a typhoon! Road spray from passing trucks on the right, sea spray blowing at us from the left, and the road crew shows up with a bull dozer to say, "your lot has picked a fine day for cycling, you have!" All the while, Sylvie is cozy and asleep in the trailer
Turning inland from the coast brings and end to the stiff headwinds we've been dealing with, and the big hills provide a welcome workout to warm up our drenched bodies. Up up up indeed, but not as horrendous as we thought they'd be. It feels great to sweat! Wet inside the goretex, wet outside, toes sloshing around inside our sponge-shoes, all wet it is.... But the girls are happy and dry! So we do these Hunderlees as we've done the whole trip with the kids; slow and steady. The big climbs were hard work (3 steep 200 meter gains over about 10 kms), but the steep wet hairpin downhills, with us braking hard all the way down, were more challenging than the uphills... Finally we finish the last hard descent, and commence the gradual 15km climb to Hawkeswood. Arriving at the "Staging Post" around 7pm, we gets hung from the rafters, and the kindly hostess of the Inn comes in periodically to keep wood stove roaring. It feels wonderful to finally be dry and warm!
Dec 17, 2001 - BLUFF!!! The "Land's End" of southern New Zealand
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