Feb-1.  Liz and Mike (Curren) picked me up and we drove to LA to pick up Hal (Berger).  After a light meal with Paula (Hal's wife) we drove to LAX, checked it and waited for our flight.  Finally we boarded our plane and spent the next 12-1/2 hours in transit.  UAL took pretty good care of us -- the food was okay and there were plenty of movies to keep us occupied -- mostly we just tried to sleep.  Liz did the best at this -- the rest of us arrived tired.

Feb-3.  With one day lost, we arrived in Auckland -- our first time in New Zealand.  With Has a navigator and me (Frank) as pilot, we negotiated the roads to our first stop -- the Bamber House in Mt Eden -- a suburb of Auckland, south of downtown.  Of course we had to drive on the other side of the road!  MT Eden is a very charming little community, many of whose houses feature interesting decorative facades. After a lunch we went downtown to visit the America Cup pavilion.  Not too much to see -- of course it is a big event here because New Zealand is the current defender.  Poor Liz -- she is full of energy, but the rest of use are dragging.  We had dinner at an Irish Pub in MT Eden.  Then we went to bed.

Bamber House in Mt. Eden

Feb 4.  We traveled west of town to a wilderness area - the Waitakere Range.   Some great views and the dense forests of ferns, palms and other trees.  We continued west to the little town of Piha and did some more hiking -- visiting a pretty little falls there.  They have a rock at the shore that looks a lot like Morro Rock.  We tried to find the local wineries, but got lost and gave up.  We had dinner in MT Eden again.  We are impressed with how busy the restaurants and roadways are.  Evidently, this is especially true in Auckland -- they party until late in the night.

Reservoir in Waitakere	Morro Rock look alike
Thick bush.	On the trail
Our first waterfall

Feb 5.  We got out of Auckland and traveled south passed Hamilton.  Along the way we found this small winery and tried some of their wines.  Then we tried the maze through the cornfields next door.  We were doing pretty good for a while, but then got stuck.  Had to look at the map to get out.  It was fun.  Quite an elaborate maze -- they build a new one each year.  We continued south passed Hamilton to the Waitomo Caves and their Glowworms.  These are the larva of flies that live on the walls and ceilings of the cave.  They hang down tendril to catch bugs, which they attract with their glowing lights.  We went by boat into the caves -- it was very quiet and beautiful there.  Then we found this lovely B&B (the Big Bird) where they raised Ostriches (the reason for the name).  After dinner the owner took out so we could walk with the birds.  It was quite interesting.  Then should took us to another place where we could see the glowworms on the walls along this "roofless" cave.  It was dark and we also got a great view of the southern sky.  My first view of the Southern Cross and the Milky Way.  I really liked the latter.

In the middle of the maze	Adult ostrich
Big Bird B&B	Smaller ostriches

New Plymouth

Feb-6 We are currently in Wanganui, which is on the south coast of the North Island, about 100 miles from Wellington. 

Feb-6 From Waitomo, we continued south passed New Plymouth.  The scenery was quite beautiful -- lots of varieties of trees -- but most (all) may be imports.  We stopped in Egmont -- by MT Egmont.  Great views (sometimes) of the mountain -- a volcanic mountain that really stands out (like Mount Shasta).  Stayed at another great B&B in Stratford.

Resting at lake	B&B in Stratford
MT Egmont .	Dawson Falls

Feb-7 We're now continuing south.  The scenery today is not as pretty -- much like the middle west, we thought. Anyhow, that's it for now.  I'll have some pictures when I return.  If you have any news, I'd love to hear it.

Our last message was from Wanganui (on Feb 7) which is on the road
to Wellington.  We continued from there all the way to Wellington.  When we got there we discovered that there were no hotels because of the world "7" championship -- this is a version of rugby.  The car rental company, however, called all over the place and found a place where we could stay.  At first it looked like it might be 25-50 km up the coast, but they finally found a place in town.

Hotel in Wellington

When we unpacked, I discovered I'd left my camera in Wanganui.  So
Liz and I had to drive back there (some 150 km) on Feb 8 while Hal and Mike did some shopping at (Mike's favorite) backpacker stores.  I got my camera and Mike got a pair of pants.

Unfortunately, this left us with no time to see the sights in Wellington. 
But we did see the end of the final game of the "7" championship -- New
Zealand won a close game against England.

Took the ferry from Wellington to Picton and the train from Picton
to Christchurch.  Very arid country.  We went through one ranch which was so large it took us 2-1/2 hours to traverse it!!  We stayed at a nice lodge in Christchurch -- one of many setup by Hal Berger.

Ferry Ride

Thistle Guest House

We went and saw our bikes but could not get them -- not until the
next day.  So we did a little shopping and then moved onto our next place -- a really lovely B&B west of Christchurch in West Melton.  Lots of horses, sheep, etc.  I expected the area around Christchurch to be plush green farms -- but it is plains -- dry -- mostly used as grazing country. These are photos taken in Christchurch.

The Wizard	Christchurch Cathedral
Playing Chess .	Interesting Fountain
Weeping Willows	Melton Park
Clydesdale Horses

HOT day.  We got our bikes and did our first ride -- from Christchurch to West Melton.  Found a route that got us off of some of the main roads in Christchurch so the ride was quite enjoyable -- but HOT.  The temperature got up almost to 100.  It was good to be on our bikes again.

COOL day.  The day today is overcast and cool -- never getting
above 60 -- quite different from yesterday.  We rode the gentle climb from West Melton to Springfield -- the gateway to the Alps.  Again an easy day of riding. These are some photos taken along the road to Springfield.

Tree Farms	Hedge around property
B&B Featuring Oak Trees.	Their Oak Trees
What else? Sheep!	Smylies Lodge

WINDY day.  This is the day that we must climb Porter Pass -- a
final climb of 1000 feet in about 2 miles.  There is a beautiful blue sky
without a cloud.  It was really pretty cold when we went to breakfast, but it warmed up quickly and stayed that way all day -- in the 70-80's.  The first 8-9 miles continued the gentle climb from yesterday -- although the climb slowly gets a little steeper.  Then you hit the HILL and climb.  The last 1/2 mile, or so, was a 15-16% grade -- it was tough.  If that wasn't enough, we also picked up a head wind about 1 mile before the steep hill.  At the top there was a gale in our face.  We fought this throughout the day.

Finally, it got too much for us and we let Hal SAG us in the last 10 miles or so to Bealy.

First View of Mountains	Panorama View
Hill to Porter Pass.	Porter Pass Sign
Castle Rock Area	Lake Pearson
Barren Hills along Road	First view of the Alps
Bealy Hotel

WET day.  When we got up it was raining and the wind was still
blowing.  We decided this was a vacation and we didn't want to get all cold and wet, so we too our SAG to Greymouth -- that's where we are now.  Some really spectacular scenery along the way -- especially at Arthur's Pass.  We would have had a 16% down hill -- I don't think I would have enjoyed that anyway.

Loading up in the Rain	View from B&B
Maryglen B&B

After we got settled in Greymouth, we drove out to the "pancake" rocks at Punakaiki, north of the city.  These are some beautiful rock formations along the beach.

Pancake Rocks

Pancake Rocks

This was a long, but nice day riding from Graymouth to Hari Hari.  There was little wind and no rain.  The road was mostly flat (although we did get rollers at the end of the day.  Much of the trip was through rich "bush forest" roads -- thick foliage on both sides of the road.  Not much traffic.

About 20 km from our destination, Mike's gears got jammed and he fell off his bike onto the side of the road.  Hurt his shoulder and had to take the rest of the day off.  Liz and I were able to continue the last few miles to Hari Hari -- logging over 70 miles for the day.

Bush	Deer Farm
Roadway through bush	Deanes Farm

Liz decided to keep Mike company -- Mike didn't want to ride because his shoulder was still causing him some pain.  So I road alone.  Again it was a pretty nice day -- a little cool.  The start was much like the day before (except there was one pretty good climb up Mount Hercules).  Then the "bush" opened up and you could see the foothills of the Alps -- really quite beautiful.  This part of the county gets about 5 miters (200 inches) of rain a year -- and it shows.

After getting to Franz Josef (the first of the two glacier areas), the road changed to three steep "rolling" hills -- each about 600 feet.  Generally, however, they weren't too difficult and I got to Fox just fine.

View openning up	Snowcapped Alps
Pekanga B&B

Maybe it is time for a little commentary on bicycling in New Zealand.  You need to come here with the right expectations.  The roads don't, for the most part, have any shoulders, and they are fairly narrow in places.  So you are sharing the roads -- sometimes with some wide trucks and buses.  I think seasoned touring people are probably quite comfortable with that -- but I'm not an "old hand" so this has let to some discomfort for me.  Last year there were evidently 14 cyclists killed along the west coast -- don't know
if it was cyclist carelessness or the fault of the drivers -- maybe a
combination.   I do know that one women who waited on us for lunch in Ross would rather the cyclist weren't there.

These are days off for us to rest and see some of the signed around the glaciers.  If you've been to glacier areas in other parts of the world, these are pretty ordinary -- to small.  What is significant is that you have these glaciers so close to the coast.  The Alps just jump out of the sea and the glaciers are fed with all the rain that occurs here.  We've had some rain.  We might go on a short ride to the coast this afternoon. 

Franz Josef Glacier

Waterfall

Is it summer in New Zealand?  You wouldn't know it from our experiences, of late.

After rain in the morning, there was a break and some nice weather in the afternoon.  Liz and Mike enjoyed a full afternoon of riding around the area. I rode for a while and then came in to watch the third America Cup race -- the same result -- New Zealand down 3-0.

More rain so we took our car to Haast and missed some beautiful
riding along the coast.  Around Noon it cleared up and we went to lunch.  Afterwards we did some riding -- dodging the showers that came.  A pretty area -- especially the route back to the north along the coast.

Jackson Bay	Southern Bush
McGuires Lodge

More rain all night.  When it broke in the morning, we tried to
ride, but the rain, wind and cold just took the pleasure away.  So we took the car up the Haast pass to Makarora where we had a really beautiful home stay.  The owner came to NZ from Montana 27 years ago and decided to stay.  This is a really remote area -- there are only 80 people living over an area 165 km long!

Falls	Larrivee Homestay
Falls	Rapids

Finally he rain stopped, but it is COLD -- 37 degrees when we
finally left around 9:00.  Today we are actually able to ride -- beside two very large lakes: Wanaka and Hawea.  The plants along Wanaka were the rich, rain forest variant.  Then when we switched over to lake Hawea (at the neck), the country changed dramatically -- still very hilly, but the hills are bare and dry looking.  That's because the annual rain fall drops from about 120 inches per year in Makarora to 15 inches per year in Queenstown where we are headed tomorrow.

The weather was definitely an improvement over what we've been having, but it was still not ideal.  Today was pretty cool and we had some pretty good headwinds in places.

We're now in Wanaka -- the largest town we've been in for a week.

One thing I forgot to mention the other day was the hilltops for this day's travels.  When we awoke in Makorora, we found that it was cold and that the tops of the hills were all covered with snow.  In fact we were told that the snow was over half as low on the hills as in the midst of winter!  So the rain we got was not unusual (when you are in a rain forest that gets 200 inches of rain a year, don't be surprised if it rains!), but the cold was for February.  So, while it was cold, the sights were really beautiful as we rode to Wanaka.

Fresh Snow	Lake Wanaka
Lake Wanaka	Lake Wanaka Homestay

The morning started cold but warmed up (to the mid 50's) pretty quickly.  The terrain was pretty much like California -- brown rolling hills and wide fields with grazing sheep or cattle.  This continued throughout the morning as we rode to Cromwell.  The second part of the ride from Cromwell to Queenstown was quite different and more interesting.  The trip was through the Kawarau gorge.  The route was rolling -- with ups and downs, but generally the first part was climbing about 500 feet - net.  Sometimes you could see the river in a deep canyon beside the road.  Later, when reaching the crest of the hills, there were grand views of snowcapped
mountains.  The fields beside the road were vineyards or other agriculture.  Some really beautiful scenery all along the route.  Finally, we reached Queenstown and the crowded roads.

Happy to be at the end of our ride.

Changing Scenes	Like Central Coast
Kawarau Gorge	Harvest Time
Use all land for vineyards	Panorama of Lake Wakatipu

Today we took a plane ride to the Milford Sound area --- and took a cruise on a boat there up the fijord.  While Milford Sound was beautiful, it is the plane ride we'll all remember.  There were just the pilot and us in the (small) plane.  There were some pretty bumpy places in the flight over the rugged mountains, lakes, rivers, treks, etc.  Absolutely breathtaking views. The landing into Milford Sound required the pilot to do a rapid descent from 8500 feet by running up one valley, doing a sharp turn, then going up another valley to do another sharp turn before bringing us back safely to earth.  This was necessary because the Milford Sound airport was in a pit below towering hills.  After the cruise we got to enjoy another flight over
the terrain.

Views from Plane	Views from Plane
Views from Plane	Views from Plane
Views from Plane	Falls in Milford Sound
Use all land for vineyards	Bush in Milford Sound
Falls in Milford Sound	Falls in Milford Sound
Falls in Milford Sound	Panorama of Lake Wakatipu
Maxwell Lodge	Sunset in Queenstown

Oh -- and I must say that you should hire Hal Berger to find the
accommodations for any tip you're planning.  All of the places we stayed in on this trip were grand -- in the sense that we felt more integrated into the New Zealand experience.  In several places we ate dinner with our hosts -- we gave us more opportunities to mix with them.  In Queenstown we're staying in a lodge that overlooks the lake on which Queenstown is located.  The house is several hundred feet above the water and our view is breathtaking.  Really a wonderful way to finish our tour.

After another day here, it is back to Christchurch and then to Auckland for our return trip to the US.  This is the last report from your "roving reporter."

Mt Cook from Lake Pukaki	Pear Drop Inn
View of Akarga Bay	Bank in Akarga
War Memorial in Akarga