A messy night in Wellington followed by a puncture-tastic bike ride

Another long one I'm afraid folks...

As the title above suggests, my memory of my last night in Wellington is sketchy at best. What I do remember is that myself, Stu, his partner Hayden and friend Lucy went out for dinner at a lovely little cafe place. The food was awesome and the wine was lovely too. Lucy called it a night at this point (as I bloody should have), so the three of us went on to various bars, where I got absolutely hammered and probably made a tit out of myself in front of Stu's very nice new boyfriend.

I had a taxi booked to come and pick me up at 7.30am the next day as my flight to Christchurch was at 9.15am. I woke up at 8.15am still pissed and almost weeing myself I was that desperate to go. I had to wake Stu up to use his phone to book another taxi and by some miracle managed to get my shit together before it arrived 10 minutes later. The taxi driver (Brian) was very talkative and was asking me loads of questions. I was trying not to be sick and wondering why he hadn't noticed what state I was clearly in.

I got to the airport at 9.05am fully expecting to have missed my flight calling, so went to customer services to see when the next available flight was. I casually mentioned to the guy on the desk my situation and he immediately lept into action and started printing luggage tags and my boarding pass. He frogmarched me over to the check-in counter tearing my backpack off me as we went, threw the boarding pass at me and shouted "well run then!". So I did and I bloody made it too. So relieved.

Christchurch is a lovely city and despite the terrible hangover, I was able to appreciate it. I collected my hire bike, had some food then headed back to my hostel for an early night. My roomy was an Irish chap who has been in NZ for 2 years now and was flying home the next day. He was a lovely bloke, but he asked if I didn't mind him playing some music, to which I said I didn't. He proceeded to play some hard house trance shite, so went off him a bit. He was considerate though and turned it off when I got into bed, so I then thought he was nice again.

The next morning was an early start as I had to catch the Tranzalpine Train to Arthur's Pass, which is the starting point for the bikeride. It is a really lovely journey and took about 2hr 30mins to get there. It takes you through all the mountains and I started to realise just how beautiful this country really is. Just stunning. When I arrived at Arthur's Pass, I stocked up on water and grub and then set off on my way. According to my instructions, this first day covers 83km and takes you along just one road, so very easy to navigate. The journey started off really well, although with it being a highway, cars and lorries do pass by you very fast and sometimes there was sheer drop to my lefthand side. I quickly learnt that when I heard a lorry approach, the best thing to do is stop and let it pass.

Again, this ride was visually amazing, I'm glad there were no flies about as I was open mouthed throughout most of it. The mountains are all snow-capped at the moment and quite often you see low cloud hanging below the peaks. I felt very lucky to be able to see all this.

Several hours later I stopped at a little lodge for some food and coffee. My instructions said this is the last place to stop before Springfield (my destination for that day). Whilst the highway was easy to navigate, it is also very isolated. The best way I can describe it is by comparing it to those iconic images you see of deserted American highways, where there is nothing but desert either side. It is just like that but with mountains and forests instead and the lodge I stopped at was one of only two places on the entire stretch of road. I realised that I would have to make sure I'm in Springfield before dark as there are no lights on the highway and my rear light had fallen off some way back.

This was going fine, although the hills were really hard going. The route is essentially climbing a mountain over several kilometres and the hills were very steep and long. I knew that once I reached the summit of Porter's Pass, it was basically downhill or straight most of the way. That thought did keep me going but the route was a lot tougher than I thought it would be.

I got to Porter's Pass eventually and the view was magnificent, I didn't have time to dig it though as I could see that dusk was coming so had to crack on. I floored it down the hill and the highway then stretched out very flat. I guessed I was approx 10-15km from Springfield so was fairly confident I would make it just before dark. I then got a nasty puncture on my back tire, which was a bit of a problem really. My first thought was to just mend it at the side of the road, but dusk was really coming on at this point and I wasn't sure how long it would take to sort it all out. I decided to just flag a car down and see if I could get a lift. Just as I thought this, a red estate car came along, I waved it over and it stopped. A bloke came out of the car and I explained I had a puncture and needed to get to Springfield. Straight away he offered me a lift and luckily the seats were back in his car, so the bike could fit. When he opened his boot, he pulled out a rifle and must have seen my expression as he quickly explained that he hunts deer. When we got in the car I proceded to just babble rubbish at him so he would think that I'm too irritating to kidnap. I am of course joking and didn't think anything of the sort :). He was a lovely guy and he even dropped me right in my hostel carpark. It turned out I was only 8km from Springfield, so really annoyed that I was not able to cycle that last part. It was just as well that I did wait to mend the puncture though as the bike pump needed some adjustments to fit the valve and without help, I wouldn't have known what to do.

The hostel in Springfield was fantastic, it was so small and cosy. There was a furnace fire going and free tea and coffee. I was put in a dorm with an English guy called Russell who had cycled in from Christchurch. The other guys staying at the hostel were 3 rather strapping chaps who work for an NZ rail company and have to travel all over to work. I had a very relaxing night at that hostel as it was like being at someone's house, the company was ace too. The next morning Russ very kindly brought me tea and a banana in bed and then cycled off into the sunrise. I've just realised how that sounds. He's happily married and no we didn't, he's just a nice bloke. Filthy sods...

I set off early too as I had 73km to cover and again hills were involved, not as bad as the day before though! This route was lovely too and took me through lots of farmland and farm communities. There were so many places that were selling free range eggs and organic fruit and veg, that I wished I was driving as I'd buy loads of stuff. I got another puncture but had the benefit of knowing I had lots of daylight ahead of me, so took my time with it at the roadside. My destination for this day was a town called Rangiora, but I had actually booked accomodation at a little town called Woodend about 5km onwards. When I arrived in Rangiora, I got a bit lost and couldn't find the road I needed so asked an old lady. She asked where I had cycled from and when I told her Springfield, she exclaimed "oh darling!" and told me where I needed to go. She then slapped me really hard on the back and said "go girl!". I really do like the people here.

After the last two days, today's bikeride was pretty easy. It was a mostly flat 42km route back into Christchurch and this took me along coast. It would have been fantastic except it pissed it down for the entire journey. In fact, I reached saturation point very quickly and soon didn't even notice how heavy the rain was. I got another puncture and didn't fancy changing it in the rain, so I made my way to a nearby farm and the farmer let me use one of his sheds to change it in. Despite the rain, the coastal roadway was amazing and the sea was lashing everywhere, so looked awesome. I made it back into Christchurch at around 1.30pm this afternoon and once I sorted out returning the bike and the equipment, I checked into a hostel and stood under a very hot shower for a long time.

A very awesome 3 days and quite an adventure too I have to say. I have also seen a huge part of this country that I wouldn't have normally had a chance to, so totally worth it. Great to be on the bike too. Tomorrow I have an early coach to catch to Kaikoura, where I will be staying two night and doing some whale watching (weather permitting of course). Will blog in a few days!