Christchurch, the start of the Cycle trip!

We arrived in Christchurch at about 00:15 and realized that accomodation would be impossible to find this time of the day. So we laid down on the airport floor, thinking we could sleep for a few hours. Minutes later, we were awoken by an angry security guard, declaring that we may not under any circumstances sleep here, but we were however allowed to move twenty meters down the hall to sleep at the ”designated rest area”. Some hours later, we decided to go catch the bus to the city. We were of course aware that an earthquake had hit Christchurch a few months earlier but when the bus driver told us that the whole city centre was inside the ”red zone” and that he could not take us there, we were surprised! He did however take us to the bus station and we made our way from there. A few hours later, we decided to walk around the compound surrounding the damaged area. It was shocking to see it with our own eyes. Around 600 buildings in and around the CBD had been destroyed, taking the lives of 180 people with them. This happened in February, but the city still looked like the catastrophy that had struck it. 

Our main quest in Christchurch though, was of course to buy the bicycles this trip is going to be made upon. After walking through a dozen stores or so, we decided to go for the deal we had gotten in the first store.

We got ourselves two brand new Hybrid MTB -GT Transeo 3.0, with disc brakes, kevlar tyres, 24 gears, lockable suspension and all the necessary gear and gadgets, plus a tralier with a drysack, to keep all our belongings in, for NZ$-1300, which is around 7000 SEK.

We waited for another day for the guys at bicycle business to assemble all the stuff for us and then at 12:15 we took off on our great adventure. It took us some time to find our way out from the city, but once we did, we were so excited. The first day we cycled 45,7 km until we decided to call it a day and make some dinner. That night, we camped at the shore of lake Ellesmere.

We started the next day with some oatmeal in the sun, packed our belongings and took off. The landscape here in Canterbury is pretty much just farmland, farmland and farmland. You can see the beautiful southern alps in the horizon, but apart from that it's all just flat and green. (I've got a feeling that's going to change pretty soon though!) 

After about 50km we stopped for lunch next to the main road. After a few minutes, two fellow bikers came along and said Servus! It was a german couple that had been cycling for 19 months. Starting in Germany, they had gone all the way through eastern europe and asia down to singapore, then taken a flight to Brisbane and cycled to Melbourne for another flight to Auckland and they were just about to finish their trip once they got to Christchurch. It really inspired me and gave me all the energy I needed to keep on going the next 21km to get to Ashburton. Well there, we find ourselves a nice little spot just behind an old industry. We had to share it with some rats, but neither of us cared.

We are now in Oamaru, about 120 km from Dunedin, where we'll probably stay for the weekend, feeling proud of ourselves for cycling over 400 km already! After that, Invercargill in the very south of NZ is the goal and once we are there we are going to start cycling north on the westcoast!

See you soon.