CHAFING

Monday 2nd March 2009

Day 2: Archeron to Cob Cottage

I have chafing - Ouch!
Today started at 7am - neither of us sleep very well last night, Scott because of the strong after dinner coffee he had & myself - I think I was just a little unsettled.
We were woken a lot through out the night by various animals - possums on tin roofs, a wild pig running through the campsite squealing at the top of it lungs & not to mention the birds!!
Who said nature was quiet & peaceful place !
Hit the road 8:30am - today we are biking through the Molesworth Station the next camping spot is 60km away so we have a descent day of riding ahead.
The road through the molesworth was alot rougher than we both were anticipating so the riding was much slower.
They are currently lying broad band cable through the center of the road so the road had been dug up making riding a little harder than it should have been.
Scott got his 1st puncture 36km into the day, while he was fixing it we heard the roar of motorbike & weer visited by 'Top of the south' riders (Andre & Jason) they were kind enough to stop & check we were OK before heading off on there way to Hamner.
50km in& only 10km to go to the campsite & we had to cross a Ward pass - Can't be too hard we said to each other and then we saw it! 1.7km - 200mtr altitude hill climb - brutal!
Scott being the power machine he is managed to ride the entire hill - myself I opted to pushing after only making it half way.
Meet another cycle tourist at the top of Ward Pass he was heading to Ch Ch, Scott befriended him & invited him in to C4 for a coffee when he gets back to town.
We arrived at the Cob Cottage campsite to find we were the only people again at the campsite so we took the opportunity to heat some water & have a sponge bath 'Ah La Natural' in the wild, very invigorating for the body & mind to do things like that, not to mention how nice it felt to remove a layer of dust off the bodies.
Now several other campers have arrived so looks like we will be sharing the campsite tonight!

Tomorrow we have a 100km bike ride to Blenheim, we are not sure we will make the full 100km in a day - I guess time will tell.
Both sets of legs are feeling very weary tonight so will just see how the day goes tomorrow?

Both of us are looking forward to our sleeping bags tonight.

RIDE TIME: 4.19 Hours
DISTANCE: 60.40 Km
AVERAGE SPEED: 13.90 km/hour
TOTAL TIME FROM A TO B: 6 hours
TOTAL ASCENT: 845mtrs

Banana's don't travel well on bumpy gravel road! eek

CRUEL START

Sunday 1st March 2009

Day 1: Hamner Springs to Archeron Accommodation

With our bellies full of pies & chocolate & custard scrolls thanks to the delicious Hamner Bakery we begun our 1st cycle touring week together...
Within 30 seconds & absolutely no practise ride, riding fully loaded bikes we were heading up our 1st hill - Jacks Pass (6km climb) for those who are familiar with Jacks pass you would agree it is a tough climb at the best of times!
1 hour later we arrived at th pleased that part of the trip was over & it was only 20km to the campsite on undulating gravel road.
2.7km into the hill climb we had our 1st technical difficulty - the trailer unhooked itself snapping the saftey cabel - but thanks to
Scott handy work we were back on the road in no time.From the saddle to Archeron the road was undulating & easy riding, we had strong NW wind that helped push us along.
We were the only campers at Archeron so got the pick of the camp spots.
The weather was beautifully mild & the wind had died down making it the perfect evening for our 1st night cycle touring camping.
The sunset tonight was amazing so Scott & I wondered up a hill after dinner to check it out.
The only downside is the SANDFLIES!!
Gourmet dinner tonight of homemade Spag Bol - delicious!
After dinner we had our 1st History lesson for the week - The camp site is next to a historic cottage 'Archeron Accomidation Hut' this hut was built in 1886 using the materials of Dung/ Straw/ Clay & water
The hut is where musterers would stay while moving stock to Canterbury flat for stock sales.
2 1/2 shillings would get them a bed, Hot meal, stable for the horse & hood feed!
Quite Reasonable we thought?

THOUGHTS OF THE DAY:
- Everything we read about wildlife safety is telling us we need to be vocal while riding so not to startle the animals- I need to start practising biking up hills & singing & trying to breathe!! Most of the hill climbs I am struggling to breathe let along sing!!

- The sandflies tonight while cooking dinner gave me a great idea for a pair of pants... might have to develop these when I get back?

RIDE TIME: 2:01.54
DISTANCE: 26:44km
AVERAGE SPEED: 13km/hour
TOTAL TIME FROM A TO B: 2:30 Hours

Survived the 1st day - No worries!

Quick Update Wed 4/3/09

Hi, just a very quick update from the library in Blenheim.
We made it here, to Blenheim not the library, this morning after a nice short ride over Taylors Pass. Didn't quite make it yesterday to Blenheim.
Jo is keeping a journal of our adventure and will add that as posts separately.
The weather is awesome here today and has been really good for the past two days too. I managed to get a bit sunburnt on Monday so am being a bit shy with the sun now. When will I learn?
Will try and get Jo's updates done tonight.
Bye for now, love S and J

First Tour Eve

As we sit here in bed the night before we depart on our first bike tour the wind is blowing furiously and the rain is occasionally lashing the windows!! However the forecast is ok for the next few days, yahoo.
I have spent the last weeks evenings preparing the bikes and gear for our big adventure. We are testing gear and load carrying systems on this trip. I am starting out with the trailer while Jo will be using the panniers. We will swap at different stages to see what we prefer. It has been exciting getting it all ready. We are both "chomping at the bit" to get going.
We will try to update the blog on our travels, again as a trial run for the big one.
Hope it all works.
Cheers, Scott and Jo, x

Progress Report

Well as you can see I have added a countdown timer to our Blog. This is causing me lots of strife as it does not seem to seem to stay updated. Boo. Anyway, in case it is not working, we have 179 days till we leave. That is not long. How exciting.
I am getting my bike all sorted, basically a complete re build which is expensive but a fun project as I am using it to learn some bike maintainance, which could come in handy later.
Jo and I just spent the weekend catching up with my family in Upper Hutt and Featherston. It was my niece Heather's 21st so we put in a very rare apparence at a family do. Managed to sneak a road ride of 95kms very early on Saturday Morning with my Brother Ross and his friend Doug. Great cicuit with plenty of climbing to keep us honest. The party was good and it was great to see Mum and everyone else.
We have also joined a gym. Crazy really as we already seem to have really busy lives but we feel we need to get a bit stronger for our trip. So we will be doing some weights and classes as well as everything else. We just went and checked the new gym out, it looks pretty good. Quite flash, and new. Spoke to one of the instructors. It was so funny when I commented about working in a gym years ago and that he probably wasn't even born when I did. As it turned out he WASN'T!! how old do I feel now?
Right dinner is ready, yes I have not lifted a finger while Jo has down yummy Chicken Burritos.
Till next time, S

Less than 41 weeks till we are supposed to be starting, eeeeck!!!

Another tester post!

We have just checked out our friend David's Blog on his Walking trip across the Pyrenees (See link in Blogs List). It inspired me to add to our Blog.
We are now in training for some upcoming events. I am going to add links the the event websites where available.
Ciao, S and J