Blenheim

Erika--

Safely arrived. We left Rangiora last Sunday and made it to Blenheim on Tuesday. We came out to our new WWOOF hosts house yesterday (Wednesday the 31st). So we made it! We figure that we probably did somewhere around 400 kilometers. Uncharacteristically, I haven't exactly calculated it but it's over 350 from Christchurch to Blenheim the way we came and we added some extra in along the way. Can you believe we would be capable of so much? What is that, like 250 miles or something? I'm impressed with us.

Our last few days at Fons and Ellis' was fun. We picked various crops in the greenhouses (did KR say that they call them tunnel houses here? They do.) In the afternoons, we rode to a different destination every day. One day we went out to a new town a developer is creating called Pegasus. Just creating from the ground up. The plans are completely amazing. They made a lagoon with a bridge over it and there will be an underwater nightclub in it. The town itself will be mostly pedestrian. It's a really interesting project and we wished that our architect father were there to explore it with us.

On Saturday, I went with Ellis to the farmer's market in Lyttelton. It's a beautiful town on a harbor and I had fun selling veges in the market. Since Ellis didn't need my help first thing, she let me off on the way and I hiked a bridle path from a gondola area near New Brighton over the hill to Lyttelton. There were some great views and I really enjoyed the early morning walk but it was definitely a climb.

After a great service at the Anglican church in Rangiora on Sunday, we took off. We had really enjoyed getting to know Fons and Ellis and our predictable schedule at their house. It was sad to leave them. This is where we spent each night (in our little tent) along the way:

Sunday--Waipara River
Monday--over Weka Pass and bad headwind so short day to Waikari
Tuesday--long day to Rotherham
Wednesday--Mt. Lyford Lodge (this was our one month anniversary of being gone and it was a fantastic day. A sweet lady invited us in for coffee at her house, some great guys were staying at the lodge and we had loads of fun with them and we ate a celebratory meal out. We've eaten lots of porridge, rice and pb&j sandwiched recently so any change is exciting!)
Thursday--Kaikourra (For anyone looking this stuff up, it looks like we went a tremendous way through mountains. In fact, someone invited us in for a drink at their house, we ended up helping out a little in their woolshed for the afternoon and they gave us a lift into town.)
Friday--we cycled around Kaikourra, seeing seals and hiking as well.
Saturday--Waipapa Bay (we had a tailwind and could have done much more but it started raining so we called it a day)
Sunday--Waimau River
Monday--Seddon (Kristen had a puncture in her tire about 1 kilometer outside of town and we dreaded figuring out how to fix it--just knew it would take so long. Fortunately, our neighbor in the campground was proficient and helped us out, even helped me adjust my shifter that's been a little off. Sometimes I can't even believe the kindness of God.)
Tuesday--Blenheim. (we made it over a pass 30 kms or so against a horrible headwind.)
We averaged somewhere around 35 kms a day and it's getting a lot easier. It was shocking to notice that we have some muscle definition.

We have probably never thought about the weather so much. Everything affects us. We notice stuff that we'd otherwise never pay attention to and know about what the weather will be depending on how the wind is blowing. It's kind of bizarre.

Honestly, we've travelled by train, plane, bus, taxi, boat, you name it and have loved it all but this is really one of the coolest ways to travel ever. It has put us in the right place or maybe the right pace to see more of interest and meet more people than anything else. We've loved the small towns we've been in, the incredible scenery we've passed by and through, the kindness of strangers everywhere we've been, the seals we've nearly tripped on because we eat and take breaks in odd places and yelling at the thousands of sheep we pass. OK, we all know that that's me and not Kristen. Still, I'm sure she thinks it's funny every time.

We're at a new host now. They have a vineyard and lots of gardens and once again, we're looking forward to learning something new! You will, of course, be hearing about it. Eventually. Pictures to come.

Riding in the Rain

Kristen writes;

We're in Rangiora, about 3o km north of Christchurch. We took three days to do the trip from Karen and Glen's up to this rather quaint town and two of them it rained pretty steady all day.
There are four things that make me want to throw this bike in the ditch: 1. Round abouts. 2. Trucks (otherwise known as lorries). 3. Rain. 4. Headwind.
Round abouts are in every town and are not the easiest thing to maneuver on a bike, let alone with a trailer and watching Erika take a few of them have made me cringe.
Some of the trucks that pass us by have such a wind gust with them that it nearly drags you into their wake- you could die that way!
The rain wouldn't be so bad if it stayed warm the whole time and our rain gear was actually as waterproof as rain gear is supposed to be... Our jackets have let us down in this department a bit and that can get frustrating.
Wind is the devil and on this island it always seems to be blowing in the wrong direction, no matter what direction you are going.

Still, the trip was a nice one. We found a place to copy off the pictures on my camera so we have an empty card once again, we took a bike path that took us off the road for several miles and through the beautiful country, we stopped at a great truck stop that had a very warm dining room with great hamburgers to refuel us, everyone we've stopped to ask directions of has been absolutely great- even if they have no idea where we are going and we've realized how very funny the two of us can be when left alone for long periods of time. We've decided it's good that there isn't someone else to gauge our humor as it might not measure up if there were others to judge.
After two wet days we showed up at a campground as the sun came out full steam and everything, including the two of us, was able to dry out before we went to bed that night. The campground also had wild blackberries and we had a delicious dessert of them that night!

We went to church the next morning at the Catholic church in town and afterwards were invited to lunch by a very nice mixed family (American,her - Kiwi,him). They were very sweet, they had four kids which was a bit much for us after not spending time with children for several days but good conversation and nice to hear from another American that Kiwi's are just more exercise directed than we generally are. (They have their first duathlon in the third year of school! First triathlon in the fourth!) They suggest that we should be able to make it fifty to a hundred km a day and we gasp a little bit! Our plan is thirty and sometimes that seems like a lot.

So we've been here at our second hosts for four days. Fons and Ellis are from Holland and came over about twenty two years ago and have been working on this property for about eight years after giving up their butcher business! They've kept us busy! We've learned how to trim tomato plants growing hydroponically (they look like trees they grow so long and are strung up so high!), weeded beautifully laid out raised beds of beets, carrots, asparagus, basil, and what they call silverbeet, dug out cemented poles in one of the 'tunnel houses' and done up the work in their backyard, which is beautifully kept. It's a bit different than our last hosts. We have a separate building to sleep in with an attached bathroom and small kitchenette which is nice but it's not exactly the same welcoming family atmosphere. It's been a bit of a transition but we've come to appreciate the way this works, we're just glad we had the experience we did with our first host family!

We've made sure to keep up biking every day and of course find it a lot easier when we don't have all our luggage behind us! We have another two days here before pushing on and taking about ten days to get up to Blenheim.

and sometimes, we work, too!

lots of pictures

Erika writes--

These are pictures of Christchurch and the flowers in the Botanical Gardens, our new bikes and little trailer (we've started loading it so it's not quite so top-heavy), our campground (permanent residents, the sheep), and great new acquaintances we made at the campground, Blair and Deb and their boys, Sam and Jared. Also, some of our camping trip with our WWOOF hosts, Glenn and Karen and their girls, Ruby and Islay. We went with some friends of theirs, Johnny and Nat, Liam and Jemma. We learned to play cricket (Islay is batting and Nat is the wicket keeper) and French cricket (I'm throwing the ball at Jemma's feet. We love the sports terms. My new favorite thing to say in any circumstance is "the game is the winner on the day!" Oh and there's also one of me on the zipline at the campground in Okains Bay. They call it the flying fox here. Also charming.

More on WWOOFing

Kristen writes-

WWOOFing has been great so far. Willing Workers On Organic Farms puts people in touch with hosts who give you free room and board for several hours of work a day. I don't know how any host will be able to live up to this first family! The work is work and we do about five hours a day, but there is a break for tea in the morning and another for lunch and time flies when Karen has us doing different chores all the time and mixes it up so we don't get stuck doing any one thing. Today we emptied the worm bin (something we've been looking into getting ourselves) and planted lettuce and spinach, kale and kohlrabi. Over the weekend they took us on their family holiday with friends of theirs to a place called Okains Bay. Getting there was great! Roads like we're used to driving through Colorado and amazing views out to the ocean on either side of you when you were up at the very top! NZers know how to camp, we've never seen such large tents! There was good food, great weather, a couple nice walks along the beach and some nice live music from the fathers of the families (one plays guitar and our host dad plays harmonica).

It does make you laugh a little bit when you're prepping someone else's beds for planting and you realize, I could be doing this to my own beds, planting my own garden and paying attention to our bees and chickens. Karen has been great though, the perfect source of information. Teaching us all about the organic systems in NZ, how they apply the rules to people, how the farmers best sell and when and where. All things that we were hoping to learn about on this trip. Seeing how a small organic farm can make it and make money.

We're thinking of leaving Thursday and having four days to get to our next WWOOF hosts on the north side of Christchurch. They are a Dutch couple who grow tomatoes with hydroponics, they won't be able to live up to the experience we've had here so far but hopefully it will also be a great experience.

One Week In

Erika and Kristen--

So, after 40 plus hours of travel, we made it to New Zealand. We were tired, that's for sure. We recovered, though, and adjusted to the time difference with very little trouble. We spent the weekend in Christchurch and thoroughly enjoyed the city. It's nicknamed the Garden City for good reason--we spent much of our time in the Botanical Gardens and the parks. So much is blooming here! We visited 2 stunning rose gardens, saw dahlias, clematis, fuschia, etc. It was fantastic. We also attended quite a few services at the beautiful Christchurch Cathedral. There was some great liturgy and friendly people.

As we were contemplating leaving ChCh, we realized that walking was going to limit us a lot. This, plus some other considerations, prompted us to look into other modes of transport. A lot of cars were advertised in our hostel but that seemed like a lot of headache and not really the kind of trip we wanted to take. One of our goals on this trip is to really enjoy the countryside and we would fly past it a little more than we'd like in a car. Also, a car would tempt us to try to see as much as possible, taking advantage of it, and we wanted to avoid that. When we stopped into a bike shop, we found some decent deals and decided to take the plunge. We now own bikes and a little trailer in NZ!

We have to ride on the left side of the road and learn to tow a trailer and carry our luggage but it is working out really well. Don't worry, we're taking it really easy so far and going short distances every day. Our bums hurt but we're enjoying seeing so much and camping as we go along. We've met super people along the way.

Speaking of super people, we're currently at our very first WWOOF host location, with a great family: Glenn, Karen, Ruby and Islay. Karen has huge gardens which she harvest for a local farmer's market. We have weeded and sown green cover crop so far and are staying in a little campervan. Riding the bikes out here was a little tricky since they live down a long gravel road but we managed and we're going to try to keep up every day (to toughen up our bums--otherwise, we're going to need some of those padded shorts really soon!)

Hey, it's super warm here and we're getting a lot of color and wearing shorts. All that fear about endless winter was for naught. So far.