Christchurch (Draft)

So there Wolf and me where walking down what I think was Ricoton road or somewhere close to it? Heading to stay with our brother Josiah. We started looking around trying to find his street number. It turned out we didn't need it as right on one of the driveways was a knocked over letterbox and next to it a massive penis drawn right onto the concert driveway, we knew it had to be his place.

Jizzy was sitting inside and heard us coming from a mile away, I guess there's only two people in the world that laugh like we do. He stepped outside to greet us and it was just like old times straight into banter and then straight into his kitchen to scheme some food.. To bad there was none of Jenny's (His mums) Home made bread.

Josiah's house was a full on man cave, complete with a little pond inside the house, on the carpet next to the front door. It wasn't hard to tell that this house had seen better days. To add to it they owned a heat pump at one stage, to bad the remote was broken!! Have you ever see that ad were people turn off the lights, tv or appliances and money poops out to reward them? Well believe it or not, but Josiah threw that heat pump remote at the wall and right there from within  its shattering components pooped out $3,000 in cash money! Just how utterly amazing must it have been, and totally worth freezing throughout the entire winter.


Its sad to say a lot of our time down in Christchurch was actually spent being zombies, nerding out, playing mindcraft, which I've sworn to never play again. However when we weren't playing video games we did get out for some pretty wild nights.

Unfortunately we ended up getting really sick and mixed with those crazy nights a lot of other people must have also become really sick, oops our bad!!!

As we recovered the days ticked by and weather started to get colder.

I had just gotten over most of my cold, when we decided we best try and make it to Picton within the next 4 days, as a huge cold front was coming through and with it snow and other nasty s, if we didn't leave it would have been two weeks before another clearing. Wolf was still in a pretty run down state but we peddled on none the less.

Hokitiki to Christchurch

Day 1 Hokitiki to Lake Mahinapua

Last meal leaving Hokitika (12 eggs a litre of milk and some chicken)

Grass area lake Mahinapua

More of lake Mahinapua

Lake Mahinapua

Day 2 Lake Mahinapua to Lake Mapourika outside Franz Josef

Otto Mac Donald Campsite, Lake Mapourika

Snowy mountains reflecting off the beautiful Lake Mapourika

Wolf and Kurt Lake Mapourika

Day 3 Franz Josef to Lake Paringa

Breakfast Franz Josef

Franz Josef Glacier from a hill we climbed

River draining Franz Josef

Half way down a big hill

Kurt being Boss

The boys keeping positive

The day getting late at Bruce bay 

The bikes taking a rest

Our cooker at night

Franz Josef Car park

Franz Josef Glacier

Day 4 Lake Paringa to Haast

First Cereal the most important Cereal of the day! 

Knights point lookout

We borrowed some binoculars and saw seals here

Ship Creek

Ship creek

Ship creek

Wolf at Ship Creek

A little walking area at Ship Creek

The boys taking a Quick Break 

Big Native tree

Bush walk Ship Creek

Climbing some Rata vines

Slightly sketch Climbing the Rata vines together

Haast Campsite/Backpackers

Making Sushi in the Campsite Kitchen

Day 5 Haast to Pleasant flats

Haast fighting a head wind and the rain

Smiley Kurt

The scenery was amazing through here 

The cold and altitude changes gave Kurt his first pouring blood nose around here.

When the body and mind is tired you can't help but look weird

Emergency ponchos to keep our rain jackets dry.

Seriously though our rain jackets didn't keep the rain out without the extra  layer.

Walking to a little waterfall

The water from here to Queenstown is the cleanest and most beautiful I've ever seen  

Pleasant Flat Campground

Building a fire

We struggled lighting the wet tinder with our flint stones but finally got it going

Fire makes a cold night enjoyable, sometimes its the simple things that make you happy

Day 6 Pleasant flats to Boundary creek

With our new cooker we got to enjoy warm porridge :)

View of the Alps at the turn off to Pleasant flats 

Climbing through the Haast gates, a view of the Haast river

Haast definitely left an imprint on our minds, what a stunning place 

Blurry signs  not sure why this was uploaded??

Again?? It does look kind of cool

Its funny this was a really steep downhill but you could never tell

Road to Cameron flat

Under cover at Cameron flat

We were suppose to camp here but we still had energy left for another 40 km

The blue pools

Camera once again fails to capture the true Beauty

This place plus Summer would equal an awesome time

Kurt with puffy eyes, it only takes 500 km before one looks exhausted

Wolf and tongue

There were some big fish in here

Boundary creek, our favourite Campsite

We saw fish so headed in

Trying our luck at fishing

Nothing worse then seeing a fish sniff your bait and then swim off

Overly dramatic photo, although it was cold and wet 

I know it said no fires but we were freezing and the area was extremely wet 

Day 7 Boundary creek to Wanaka

Boundary creek in the morning showing off its stunning snow caped mountains and clear waters

Trying to act like we weren't tired

I can't believe I lived only a few thousand km from here for 20 years without knowing

Lake Wanaka goes on for ages, it's a nice sight

Lake Hawea opposite Lake Wanaka

The sun finally Breaking through

Another one of NZ's Beauty

A quick break to look before leaving

Riding into Wanaka

Day 8 Wanaka to Queenstown

Cardrona

Kurt standing on the side of the highest sealed road in NZ

Wolf standing on the side of the highest sealed road in NZ
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We finally tested our cardio and made it to the top without Breakfast or a rest

A yawn was captured that morning

Maybe we started going crazy from the altitude??? No Probably not

So much stoke at this point

The beasts in there prime

The machines made it to the top. Unfortunately Wolfs front bikes were broken and my back brakes were gone, so yes our shoes lost some rubber to this mountain

Timer photo

Us making friends, hahah they kept a photo of us for themselves, I think that's the third time its happened. Then again who doesn't want a photo of us!

Day 9 Queenstown to outside Lumsden

Looking at Queenstown from Frankton

More of Frankton

The road to Invercargill

Leaving the Alps

Our Campsite in these scary woods (looking in)

Our campsite (looking out)

Day 10 Outside Lumsden to Invercargill

Last glance at the Alps

With the wind at our back we averaged 35 km/h Finally our large surface area working for us

Storm clouds gathering outside of Winton

Kurt ridding wet

Wolf loving the rain

Invercargill

Warm and dry at Layla's spare house

We loved this place

Kurt being a big kid (Touataras are one of his favourite animals) 

Hmmm not sure what's being achieved here?

Some art inside, no photos were to be taken

boss little tuatara

Some Maori art

Old Canoe

Old Maori fish hooks

Green stone

Food storage container for preserving food

We were bored so we tried to climb every tree in this huge park, we only managed 20

Kurt and Layla on top of a hill at bluff

The boy's looking like foreigners 

It was super windy up there

To cloudy to see Stuart Island

Bluff Sign post

Wolf and Kurt Climbing the Sign post

It's funny if there was a road we could have already biked to the Equator

The chain sculpture that imaginarily connects to Stuart Island

Hahah Wolf was a little stuck

And being his usual self

Day 12 Invercargill to Slope Point Catlins

I'm not sure how this ended upsidedown

Road heading to slope point the furtherest south you can go in NZ

Our Campsite that we found

Probably our best side of the road camping

Two pairs of track pants, two thermals, two woollen jumpers and my jacket, and the cold was finally tamed

Day 13 Slope Point to Outside Owaka

The Beauty of the Catlins, were the sea meets forest

We look like a weird Amish boy band

Purekaunui falls

Don't ask not sure what pose this is? Our interpretation of a tired gangster maybe? 

My tyres enjoyed these gravel roads

Yay punctured tyre

Our next off the road campsite, again it was pretty good

Day 14 Owaka to Dunedin

Yay another punctured tube

Another Flatty

Ran out of fresh tubes so puncture repairing

Four tubes failed that day, two were fixed. The Catlins in total caused 7 tube changes in three days, to put this in perceptive, From Auckland to The Catlins caused only three 

Entering into Dunedin

Dunedin out of focus

Dunedin

Papanui inlet outside Dunedin

It was windy and cold

Signal Hill overlooking Dunedin

Day 14 Dunedin to Oamaru

Moeraki Boulders

Day 15 Oamaru to outside Ashburton

Day 16 Ashburton to Christchurch

Our Campsite outside Ashbuton

Trip map