Monday following the earthquake my friend, Max, and I decided to fill up the extra free time with a three-day, 200 km bike trip down the west coast. Serving a triple purpose as exercise, sight-seeing, and escaping the aftershocks for a little while, the idea was a good one. We rented equipment for a reasonable price from a place in Christchurch and headed through Arthur’s Pass to Greymouth on Tuesday.
Greymouth, which is a lovely town of about 10,000, was our starting point. The first day the weather was almost perfect. We rode 42 km to a little tourist town called Hokitika, which grew up around the processing of jade (greenstone). Though we originally intended to stay there for the night we decided we had more energy and continued another 27 km to Ross, a very small town with its history rooted in the search for gold. The next day I rode back to Greymouth while Max continued on down the coast. The weather was almost better than the first day, but there was more wind, which was slightly frustrating.
I met up with Max again in glacier country, where I payed quick visit to the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. We tried to catch views of Mt. Cook (New Zealand’s tallest at 3,754 m) but it was very much obstructed by the clouds and rain that moved in on day three.
That’s all I’ve got! This week I decided to take it easy after basically touring all over the South Island for a week. On Thursday I’m attending a concert by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra featuring Colin Currie on Percussion for MacMillan’s Veni, Veni, Emmanuel. The concert also includes Britten, Ravel, and Strauss – shouldn’t be a bad evening!
That’s pretty much it! Cue the pictures!
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