Here are some pictures from my 11 day cycling tour of New Zealand's south island -- a guided trip arranged by REI. There were 8 participants on the trip, and two guides (both named Fiona!), and everyone was a lot of fun. We cycled a huge number of kilometers with lots of hills, and saw some amazing (and varied) scenery.
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| A map of the trip. Straight lines mean we traveled in the support bus; dotted means we cycled. |
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In Christchurch, we stayed across the street from Hagley Park which had some beautiful gardens.
I especially liked this sculpture. |
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A typical view on the early ride on the Banks Peninsula near Christchurch.
Farmers plant a line trees as a wind block. |
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Lake Tekapo. The water of the lakes was a stunning blue-green.
Our accommodations had gorgeous views of the lake (and even more exciting: free laundry!!) |
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| Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. That's lake Pukaki in the foreground. |
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Lake Ohau. It was EXTREMELY windy for a couple of days -- so much so that I was actually blown off the road once!
Here the wind is making waves on the lake like it's the ocean. |
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More lake Ohau -- the wind was whipping mist up from the surface of the lake,
and the sun was making rainbows in the mist. |
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| And a full rainbow over Lake Ohau (with a picturesque wrecked boat in the foreground) |
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| Cycling along the lake. |
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We didn't cycle the entire "Alps to Ocean" trail, but we cycled a lot of it.
Much nicer than the reverse "Ocean to Alps" trail. ;-) |
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Things were very Christmassy (which was strange for me, it being summer and all).
Here's a decorated tree in Oamaru (the end of the Alps to Ocean trail). I like the clouds in this pic. |
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| Lots of pastures and big sky on these rides. Too bad about the power lines in this pic... |
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| The western Pacific Ocean! |
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| The Moeraki Boulders -- otherworldly spherical rocks with insides like giant geodes. |
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| Me in a gnome hat at the Moeraki Boulders gift shop |
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| Baldwin Street in Dunedin (pronounced duh-NEED-in), the steepest street in the world |
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| A bucolic scene cycling along the Otago Peninsula, up to Larnach Castle. |
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| Looking down on Otago Harbor |
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| Unsurprisingly, it was pretty common to see sheep along the rides. |
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We took a scenic train ride from Dunedin via the Taieri Gorge Railway.
You could stand at the back of the train and watch the track unspool behind you. |
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We stayed in a town called Clyde.
As a lifelong Bonnie, I felt obligated to pose with this sticker. ;-) |
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View of Queenstown from the Crown Range. To get to this point was a 40km climb,
the last 4km of which were extremely steep. I took the bus for the steep part! |
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| I did not, however, take the bus for the fun ride down along these switchbacks |
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Peaceful view across Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown on the day after Christmas, the last day of the trip.
It was much less peaceful the night before, with a huge crowd of scantily clad college students partying on the beach. |
