Day 9:  Lake Tekapo

09 December 2010
Rest Day

We took a day off the bikes today.  Partly to rest our nerves but mostly to rest our bums and legs.  I’m not sure if we accomplished the latter, as Gina decided we should hike up to the summit of Mt. John.  It was about a 10 km, three hour (return) walk, switchbacking us up through a larch forest and depositing us at the top of the mountain, amongst several observatories.  The views of the surrounding mountains and lakes were fantastic, to say the least.

About halfway around the loop trail, we ran into two young men from Tokyo who we have been following (literally) over the past few days.  They, too, rode their bikes from Christchurch to Fairlie, where we first met up with them.  Yesterday we were all headed to Lake Tekapo, and sure enough, they checked into the cabin next door to us.  We haven’t been able to talk much with them – really, hardly at all – as they appear to struggle a bit with English and we speak zero Japanese.  But they are definitely special characters.  Why?  Well, the bikes they are riding look like they were purchased from the local Christchurch pawn shop.  They are not touring bikes of any sort, more like the bike you bought 10 years ago and then left outside in the rain.  They have no racks or panniers, just two backpacks and some extra padding on one saddle.  It’s basically crazy how these two are touring the South Island but they really seem to be having a good time based on the smiles they wear whenever we see them.  As Neighbour Cynthia taught us to say, “Good on ya’, boys!”.

Day 8:  Fairlie to Lake Tekapo

08 December 2010
45 km (28 mi)

First a Rant and then a Rave.

The road – the ONLY road – between Fairlie and Lake Tekapo is absolutely, positively NOT safe for bike touring.  Yes, I know, several hundred thousand bike tourists have ridden the road and it’s popular because of the scenery (see Rave section below), but we truly felt as though we were lucky to pull into camp alive this afternoon.  The road is a highway where the 100 km/h limit appears to be the minimum speed at which all cars, campervans, motorhomes, tour buses, and large rigs endeavor to exceed.  There is no shoulder and despite this sign, very little sharing on the part of motorized vehicles:

Things I saw today that I’ve never seen bike touring before … getting passed from behind by two cars who were, at the same time, being passed by another car.  Seriously?  There was not room for all three of us to be abreast like that.  Then there was the passing in the opposite direction, where a truck was coming toward us who was then passed  by a car coming straight at us in our lane.  Either the kid driving that car was blind or stupid or both as once again, there was not enough room for all of us to be sharing the road like that.  There was also the sheep truck with its second trailer that gave us not one inch of space to spare as we stood by the side of the road to let him pass.  Now why he couldn’t move over a titch, given that we had gone so far as to get out of his way at our own expense, I cannot understand.  In fact, I cannot understand the mentality of drivers who see no need to slow down even the slightest bit or give a cyclist a foot of extra space as they speed past, sucking us into their wake and/or pushing us off the road.  Do they really want to cause an accident?  Is five seconds of their time – just enough to take their foot off the accelerator and give us a bit of a break – really that critical?

It bothers me to even type this, as our experience up until today had been about 90 to 95 percent good with Kiwi drivers giving us adequate space, but today dropped to at best, 50 – 50.  And the ironic thing is that it wasn’t the tourists in their campervans who were forcing us into the dirt, it was the tour buses and the truck drivers – those locals who know the roads the best.  Not all of them mind you, but a heck of a lot more than we had experienced to date.  Shame on them, I say.  Why would you want to make a grown woman cry?

That is my Rant.  Now on to my Rave.

Today’s scenery from the saddle was the best yet.  As we left the green bowl of Fairlie behind, we slowly climbed into the brown hills and mountains.

After summiting Burke’s Pass, the roadside was awash in mountain lupine.  In the distance lay the Southern Alps, some still snowcapped in these early summer months.

And there were the paparazzi.  “Paparazzi?” you say.  Yes, our own pack of Asian paparazzi.  We had seen them pull over several hundred yards in front of us, jumping out of their rental van, each camera-ready.  At first glance up from the handlebars, we thought they were taking photos of the mountain lupine.  But as we got closer, we could see them all smiling these huge, broad smiles at us and click-click, click-click, click-click the shutters starting whirring and one gentleman started yelling at us “Push! Push! Push!”.  I guess they were excited to see us.  Guaranteed we are in someone’s home movie of New Zealand in a few weeks.  It was very funny and sweet and encouraging.

If the lupine and alpine scenery weren’t enough, then there was our first view of Lake Tekapo.  Wow.  The color is truly stunning.  It’s more turquoise than you can describe or capture in a photo, although we tried.

We made the requisite stop at the Church of the Good Shepherd.  We thanked him for keeping us safe today.

Tonight we are at the Holiday Park in another cozy cabin.  The temperatures are dropping to near freezing tonight so why sleep outdoors?

Our cabin is a bit dated but we have a nice little view of the lake.  Other tourists take note:  camping is taken very seriously here at Lake Tekapo.  There is a “Good Behaviour Bond” that one must pay at the discretion of the camp hosts.  It requires that you (a) play nice and (b) wear a coloured wristband.  With the number of birds we flipped today (see Rant section above), we should be lousy with wristbands.  But we promise to play nice here.