Part II: March 2007

Friday, March 30, 2007

Tasmania, Australia

We arrived in Hobart with the agenda to rent bicycles and figure out how we were going to meet the Flemings who were currently making good progress up the East coast of the island. We did well on our second day in the lovely city and soon had our backpacks traded for panniers and bicycles. We boarded a bus to Launceston, and then to Scottsdale, where we arrived at a free campground just as Jeff and Pele pulled in after a long days ride. It was amazing seeing them in such a strange place after being on our own for so long. The reunion was really enjoyable. We spent the rest of the evening (and coming weeks) catching up.

Tasmania has to be one of the hilliest places in the world. At least it began to feel like it after our first couple days on the bicycle. Our bums were very sore, our legs ached and we sweat more than we have since central America. By the third or fourth day however we found our rhythm and both really enjoyed the change of pace (no pun intended). Jeff is in great shape and set the pace most days, but Pele was the real hero conquering hill after hill and refusing to give up. She did really well, rarely complained, and worked harder than the rest of us far and away. We would often break at the top of hills to give her a chance to catch up, but as soon as we did, we were off again, and so was she—with scarcely a break!
We camped the entire time and stayed at some fantastic spots, often right on the beach. We ate like pigs after long days peddling (everything was so delicious after a hard day on the bike) and got creative making great meals with one pan on a propane camp stove.

In route to drop the backpacks

Mike all geared up

Reunited, and it feels so good

Lets do it!

Pele doing it

Camping with a view

A tree

Mike won't give up

The guys match

The seasoned cyclists

Mike and "the shiek"

The shiek ponders his next dessert

This ferry saved us many kms

The shiek takes the lead

But then Pele pulls ahead!

Amie likes her cow photos

My hero

Rural Tassie

Tassie kids

The Tasmanian Devils Cycle Club

5 Lane drive through liquor store

Ma and Pa Fleming

Mike and the Wallaby are friends

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Tasmania

Wow, it has been hard to get online! Even now sorry to say, no photos. :( We will upload a bunch when we get the opportunity. The south island of NZ was great, we saw alot of beautiful scenary and really enjoyed ourselves, however our budget didnt get us very far and we were eaten alive by sand flies.

For the past week we have been in Tasmania with Amie's parents huffing and puffing our way across the north coast. It has been alot of fun and really challenging. I prefer twisting the throttle to peddling any day, however it is a great change of pace (from 120km/hr to about 60km/day). :)

We are well, having fun, camping every night, making chile on a campstove often, swimming in crystal clear water, swatting flies, passing wallaby road kill, living with sore bums, and loving every minute.

Just a quick note to let you know we are A-OK. More to come...

Saturday, March 10, 2007

South Island - New Zealand

The South Island of New Zealand was more beautiful than the north as far as scenery goes, but we didn’t enjoy it as much. This may have been because we saw some really great spots on the north island that were really low key and mellow, without the hustle and bustle of heavy tourism. Also, we are both famous for getting the most mosquito bites out of anyone in a group and it was no different with the pesky sand flies that are all over the South Island.

That said, our last 10 days in NZ were still great. We headed down from Picton to Nelson, then worked our way down the west coast stopping at the pancake rocks and the Franz Joseph Glacier. The glacier in NZ looked like glorified ice cube compared to Perito Moreno in Argentina (dirty too). The further south we got, the more extreme the scenery became. We found ourselves comparing the surroundings to another spot in Patagoina, Torres del Paine. There were steep granite mountains rising up out of sky-blue opaque lakes.

We pushed on south to Queenstown and were happy we did. Amie thought it was the most incredibly beautiful place she had ever been. I wouldn’t go that far, but definitely top 5. We’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
As time was running out we headed up the east coast to Christchurch—another nice city with a very British feel to it. Three weeks was a good amount of time to get a feel for NZ, we could have used another week easy however… Next stop Tasmania!

Love birds on the ferry

Mike's favorite: Cafe Lambretta in Nelson

Assortment of meat pies

Rise and shine lazy bones

Vineyard in NZ

Lake front property in Queenstown

The lake

All time skipping record: 24!

Amie's favorite spot so far

...and she is pretty happy about it!

Snow melt

Still impressive, but no comparison

Good times in NZ!

Amie with beer and tabloid

More natural beauty

More still

and more

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Picton (South Island)

We’ve traversed the North Island; today we are on to the South Island. The South Island is everyone’s favorite, or so it seems, but the North Island treated us very well. We’ve done some pretty incredible things in the last week. We’ve been to a “hot water” beach, passed many gorgeous empty normal beaches, we’ve seen an incredible display of sheep (there are 10 times as many sheep in NZ as people), and I’ve gone Zorbing. What is Zorbing? Well, allow me to explain…

Zorbing was developed in NZ as they proudly proclaim, and consists of a gigantic plastic ball and a grassy hill. The ball or “Zorb” is large enough to accommodate up to three people and you get the option of “harnessed”, or “wet” eg, either harnessed into the ball rigidly so that you rotate with the ball end over end, or just tossed in with a few buckets of water. The harnessed approach was the way I thought I would have to go to get the full experience, but that wasn’t the case. When I was signing up, the option of a zig-zag course down the hill was presented and this was emphatically explained as the most fun option. Why not—after all I am signing up to roll down a hill inside a giant plastic ball, what difference does it make what the course is like. It made all the difference. The others that went down the mountain before me “wet” went down on there backs the whole way, nothing to intense… a lot like a waterslide inside I imagine. The zig-zag course on the other hand was another experience entirely. I got into the Zorb (you enter by diving like superman into a tiny belly button of the beast). And was told to just run forward. I pressed my hands against the top and my feet against the bottom and stepped forward starting down the hill in a hand stand for 2 cartwheels before I couldn’t hold it anymore, then it felt like I was in a washing machine. I tried a backflip and with the help of the inertia landed it. It was great fun and I was giggling like a child for the first 10 seconds. After that I started to not feel so hot and tried to gain control of my body and limbs. It was like I was in outerspace, with apparently no rhyme or reason the horizon was going end over end and from side to side. Just as I thought I was going to puke, it stopped. No wonder the course is only 200m, that’s all I could take! What an experience!

The Hot Water Beach was also a “only in NZ” experience. It is a beach that has just under the sand (in certain spots) thermal hot springs that you can dig to, and create your own hot tub out of sand on the beach. This sounded amazing to us and we headed off on a cool morning with spade in hand. When we got there we were amazed at the scene…. There were 50-100 people of all ages, shapes and sizes either digging, gawking, or lounging in their personal hot tub. I was doubtful at how hot the water could be as the ocean is cold here like the pacific in Northern California, but sure enough, in the right spot it was downright hot—hot enough to burn! Rather than dig a giant tub for ourselves we helped some others with theirs and jumped in. The water turned out to be too hot for us and we had to sit in the “cooler” corner. The tide was coming up and the cold ocean waves were mixing with the hot thermal springs. It was another amazing experience!

The other highlight of the last week was at the “Agrodome.” We paid our $30 for a sheep show which included an introduction and explanation of the 12 breeds of sheep in NZ, cow milking, sheep shearing, and sheep dog exhibition. Sounds dull? Think again. It was great fun. The dogs where running all over (including up and down the backs of the sheep!!), you could try your hand at milking a cow, and pet the sheep. Ok, maybe it wasn’t all that exciting, but we had a good time.

Other than that, we’ve just been enjoying ourselves. We are a bit more homesick here than we were in South America, mainly I think because we are just on vacation now and without a mission. I have taken it upon myself to read as many meaningful books as possible (be them business, history, or classics) and Amie is working on some projects on the laptop.

We’ve been camping almost every night. Camping runs us about $20, and more importantly, doesn’t require a reservation. We are pretty amazed how difficult it has been to find a bed at a hostel. All booked! The camping has been good though, most here are very clean and modern, with kitchen access, swimming pools, internet, etc.

The Kiwis continue to amaze us with there great attitudes and uncanny kindness. It seems like the whole country is on prozac. It really does. We were buying something at the store the other day and when we left we looked at each other and said almost simultaneously, was that checker on drugs?! No, just a friendly old lady!

Zorbing???