I spent two nights in Nelson. I don’t know why I spent the extra night, I was in a nice hostel and didn’t want to go back outside I guess. I picked up a sweater and some warmer gloves, so hopefully I can survive the cold weather that I’m headed into. My second night in Nelson I made some friends and for some reason decided that it was a good idea to start a game of monopoly at 11pm and drink boxed wine, what a horrible idea on both fronts.
I got to bed rather late and woke up with a boxed wine hangover, the worst kind of hangover. It was a nice day at least, sunny and warm. I headed along the coast to Mouteka which was a nice town. I went for a bike ride along a bike path by the beach which apparently was a mountain bike path. I got stuck in sand and cringed as I rode across the path which was filled with large stones with my steel framed bike. Other than that, it was nice and rather relaxing.
I was planning on going to Kaiteriteri beach the day before but the people at the information center convinced me to stay in Mouteka because it was supposed to be a long and hard ride. It was only about 12 kilometers away and it took less than an hour, but oh well. It is supposed to be one of the best beaches in New Zealand so I wanted to stay there for the night. It was a good thing I did because it started to rain pretty early in the day and I already had my tent set up so I was happy. It stopped for a little bit at night and I hung out at the beach by myself because everyone else had left because of the rain. The next morning I woke up and it was still raining so I decided to stay an extra day. Someone gave me a ride back to Mouteka to go to the grocery store because there was nothing in Kaiteriteri. By the time I got back all of the roads were flooded and my tent looked like it was about to be swept up. The owner came by and let me stay in a cabin for the night which was awesome, because I don’t like sleeping in a pool of water. So I took the day off, finished the second Lord of the Rings book and started the third. I painted a few pictures, then painted my ukulele because you can’t be a hippie unless you own an instrument that you painted yourself, it’s a law or something.
The next day was clear and the roads were no longer flooded. I later found out that most everywhere else on the south island it snowed, but since I was at the northern part on the coast, it just rained. I was headed inland, which meant a long slow climb up into the mountains. I had some strong and cold headwinds which is never fun on a constant climb. I got 60km and stopped at a nice little town in the mountains. All day there were amazing views of the snow tipped mountains and I camped out within view of them.
I was excited to get going because I was headed for Nelson Lakes, which I saw on the map but didn’t know anything about, but at the campsite last night I saw a picture of it and it looked awesome. Of course, since I wanted to get somewhere, the day went extremely slow. I got a flat tire shortly after leaving, which I just stuck a patch on, which makes two patches on my rear tube and one on my front. I put all of my crap back on the bike and took off and shortly after my bike came to a halt. One of the bungee cords snapped and got tangled up in my rear gears. I finally got all of that untangled and luckily I had a spare bungee cord. I put that on and about an hour later I went to put my jacket under the cords and that one broke too, ugh. So, the rest of the day my rear bag was just barely holding on with one cord. I was getting higher into the mountains so the hills were getting steeper and there was still a lot of cold headwinds. I finally made it to Nelson Lakes and it was the most amazing view all trip. It’s a big lake with snow tipped mountains that look like they’re coming out of the lake. It’s pretty cool and it makes me all the more excited to get down to the Milford Sound.
Next day I headed to Murchison, nothing too exciting. I was headed in a different direction but the winds hate me and changed directions accordingly so I couldn’t enjoy coming down from the mountains. It was a gradually descending ride but I had to pedal because of the strong headwinds.
Shortly after leaving Murchison, I stopped to take a break and some people came up to me and told me I had to hurry if I wanted to catch up with my friends. I was confused and they said that there were two more cyclists a few miles ahead of me. So, I took off and tried to catch up with them. About an hour later I ran into them while they were taking a break. It’s fun running into other cyclists but awkward sometimes. So few people do cycle touring so I feel excited to see other tourists, but then I realize we don’t have much to talk about. We kind of just look at each other’s bikes and say how long we’ve been out then leave. It’s also awkward because I can either follow them, or just randomly bump into them for the next couple of days. I chose the latter. They were a couple from Switzerland and as a rule foreign couples piss me off. They just whisper between each other whenever you’re around and you feel like you’re in the way by being there. Anyways, I ended up riding 100km to Westport and camped at a hostel. It is a small town famous for coal, complete with a museum dedicated to coal. I decided to pass on that.
I woke up and it was overcast. I spent a few hours deciding what to do, stay or head south along the coast and hope for the best. I eventually decided to leave because I’ve had plenty of days where I decide to stay somewhere and it clears up in the afternoon. On this occasion I made the wrong choice. Ten minutes after heading out it started raining. But I’m stubborn so I kept going. It kept raining harder and harder and I rode for an hour and a half before I found somewhere to stop. By that time I was soaked and just got a cabin for the night so I could dry out all of my stuff. A few hours later the couple from Switzerland showed up and they set up their tent. We didn’t really say much, I felt stupid for being in a cabin when they set up their tent, I don’t know why.
The weather changes quickly so it was a really nice out in the morning. There were a few big hills after Charleston, where I stayed for the night. After all of those climbs, there was a hill going down to the coast. There were a lot of really nice views, it reminded me of Big Sur in California. I stopped at the Pancake flats and met up with the Swiss couple and went on a walk around there, it was pretty cool, check out pictures on Facebook. The rest of the day I spent riding along the coast and ended up in Greymouth camped outside of a hostel. I went to get groceries and there were the Swiss couple again but I don’t think I’ll see them again since they’re taking tomorrow off. It’s nice to be inside using the internet but there’s this two French girls, one of which only talks in shouts and it makes me jump every time she says anything.
And that’s the last few days, I don’t get much time on the internet so I just type really fast, sorry if some things don’t make sense.
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