Fini la voiture voiture, retour au
vélo! Apres 1 mois à sillonner les deux iles en compagnies de parents de
Friederike, on débarque a nouveau sur l’ile du sud pour une grande boucle de
2-3 mois a travers plages, montagnes, glaciers, fjords et .
A la sortie du Ferry, on
s’éloigne juste quelques peu de Picton pour planter une première fois la tente
sur la Baie d’Aussie, au bord de l’eau. L’endroit étant tellement tranquille,
on y reste un jour supplémentaire au soleil. Pour
durer longtemps, il faut bien démarrer doucement !…
The relaxing days of cruising around in a
car are finally over, the goodbyes to the parents have been said and it was
time to face our bikes again. Not quite easy after a “break” of five months and
a Kiwi diet adding unnecessary weight to the already too heavy panniers,
waiting to be pushed up the countless hills on the South Island!
For the second time in just one week we crossed
the sea dividing the two islands on the ferry. Not quite used to the life of
camping and cooking our own meals, we make the already difficult start (where
the hell have all my muscles gone???) even harder by carrying a ridiculous
amount of food with us. After just a km of cycling we stopped at Aussie Bay, a tranquil DOC (Department of
Conservation) campsite not to far from Picton where we relax a day in the sun and
“eat our bags lighter…”
On se rapproche par la suite de
Nelson, une des plus grandes villes du nord. De grandes forets de conifères
recouvrent les vallées avoisinantes. Le bois est transporté sur de grands
semi-remorques qui font a toute vitesse plusieurs allers-retours par jour. On
sort le gilet fluo, on s’agrippe au guidon et on ferme les yeux a chaque
passage des poids-lourds.
On our ride to Nelson, one of the bigger
cities in the North, we crossed countless of forests and tackled our first
hills. Large trucks transporting wood back and forward made the ride on the
narrow road a little less enjoyable but we put our florescent vests on,
clenched our teeth together and pretended we are happy to be back on our bikes…
Leaving the coast behind us, we were faced
with strong headwinds allowing us to make only slow progress. We spontaneously
decided to go back to St Arnaud to stay one more time in my colleague’s house
where we had the enjoyment of a comfy bed for a night.
De la, on suit la rivière Buller
jusqu'à la cote ouest. Les gorges du même nom sont superbes, avec des passages
creusés à la main dans la roche, a peine de quoi laisser passer un camion.
The next few days along the Buller Gorge were
a nice ride along a turquoise river and through yellow blooming hills. Some of
the narrow passages carved in the rocks were hardly large enough to let the
trucks pass.
We usually sleep in DOC campsites which are
pretty reasonable in price and vary a lot in facilities. Other nights we wild
camp somewhere off the main road and cook our meals on our little stove and
filter water from a stream. Needless to say we can get pretty smelly after a
few days!
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