The Amazon Queen in New Zealand Day 1-2

The Queen has finally come to New Zealand! Look out it's not the motherlands Queen but one from the Amazon. The Maori's may have a fight on their hands...
Jen Danker AKA The Amazon Queen came to visit me in Aotearoa for three weeks and I've got a full on road trip planned.

Day 1: Kisses Galore!
The ferry ride to Picton was fantastic clear skies and the sun came out in fashion. We took a picnic dinner and watched the sounds roll by as the sun was setting. The lovely weather didn’t last into the evening. I could barely see with the wipers full on as we drove around looking for our backpacker, the Jugglers Rest.
I finally found it along w/ the ditch next to the drive way. As you can see we’ve picked up our first bit of dirt and grass. I was sure that AQ would out do me but she kept the car on the paved and dirt roads, damn!

Day 2: Bloody hell!
We were off pretty early and that’s when I found out that my pack’s hipbelt had not come w/ me to NZ… Bloody HELL! It’s a good thing Jen didn’t opt for any tramps! We got set up with our rental bikes and jumped the water Taxi to Ship Cove, the start of the Queen Charlotte track. We were fortunate to have some dusky dolphins playing in the area so Jen got her first NZ wildlife sighting. We landed 3000 pictures later…

We hung around and took some more pictures and walked over to a small waterfall for even more …. Yep you guessed it, PICTURES! Just shortly after getting on our way in the saddle we were out and hoofing it up some pretty steep terrain. I’m SURE I would have made it if I had my own bike ;) We took our lunch break and had P&J bagel’s. Mmm P&J! We were constantly being harassed by this Weka and her chick. It was trying to burgle the rest of our sandwiches in a baggy situated between us; the nerve of some birds!

The next section of trail was some nice wide downhill. Hey Jen, what does Ryan tell you when you’re riding down a hill? She really did great and at a pace that allowed me to ride w/ one hand and video with the other. 8) Not long after midday the hail started in; hail, really, come on! Bloody hell! The ride was still enjoyable until we made it to the last 2k. The day’s journey 26.5km was supposed to take around 5 hours. We were getting pretty tired and I was sure we were only 10min away like 10 times. ;)
As most of my friends can attest, I’m always spot on w/ mileage and time estimates. The last 2km was wet slippery clay with loads of puddles that were not rideable. It was getting late, we were hungry, cold and wanted to relax and I knew if we didn’t get food in AQ the bad gunky would be around soon! That 2km took us another hour for a grand total 7 hours. Bloody h311! Some other bikers passed us a couple hard core riding and the rest in a hustle and one put it best, “I was a wonderful up until now.” After a quick rinse of the bikes we rocked up to the restaurant still in our muddy riding gear. After some back and forth deciding to cleanup first or get our grub on we settled on eating. Even though we were seriously under dressed no one gave us more than a double take on our way to the corner table with a view. :D We finally made it to the room and our gear was there waiting, a long hot shower hit the proverbial spot.

I don't think I can express how happy I was to have more time to spend with Jen. When I left the US I figured that I'd not be with my AQ again in a situation where we would "be" together. The wait was well worth it! Enough of the heart felt crap, robel robel out

Day Trip with Marek and my new rig!

So here she is my NZ girl, what shall I name her? I bought this 1996 Subaru Legacy Grand Wagon AKA Outback. I was told she is green, right? ;) She treated us very well today easily cruising up over a few big hills and taking the winding corners w/o a squeal. Not so great on petrol consumption 11L/100Km. Marek said it best, "Dis is not so good." Marek is a partner in crime here in NZ. He has relocated here from Czech and will be staying until his visa is up next Nov. He's a good guy and hard to understand sometimes but we manage pretty good.

So I ask Marek to head out on this road trip with me to the beach. I was having a look see at the map a couple days before and picked out this place. When I told Marek he said he had been there a few times already and loved it. These are his pics.


This here is the scene when we first roll up. I'm already in love. NZ has such character. "Home of lost soles." How suiting, there are so many soles and souls here from all around the world. I have met many people that have come to this country to escape what is the rat race most of us live on the daily... I'm one of them and loving it but home will probably always be the SLC for me.

These next two pictures show where we are heading and coming back down. To the left of us you can see the hill in the background that we are about to climb. The climb looks like more work than it actually was, we made it up and down in about an hour with a sandwich break and watching the waves on the other side.

To the left is my favorite picture of the day. I took some time with this one, I hope it captures you as the scene did me. Click here to see the rest of the album from this trip.


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