Ducky's NZ Trip - Getting to Fiordland

Dec 15

We flew into Auckland and spent one night there. Hala went off to an aquarium, while I went off to the airport to air freight our bikes to Christchurch. I had taken one of the tarps from one of my art parties along for a tent tarp, but it was WAY bigger than we needed. I was quite happy about that, as the bike boxes got mostly destroyed on the trip. I wrapped the chains in plastic, then spun cocoons for the paniers and tent out of more plastic. At this point I was also very happy that Dave Evans had brought a magic marker and strapping tape to SFO.

Dec 16

The next day we shipped our bodies to Queenstown, in the center of the south half of the South Island. Unbeknownst to us, the routes had changed, and we were routed through Christchurch. We perhaps could have taken our bikes on the plane with us... oh well. They made me take Mom's camp stove out of my backpack and carry it in the cabin section. They also made us both take our matches in the cabin section. !!! When we got to Queenstown, we had enough time to buy some food for camping before catching a bus to Te Anau.

In Te Anau, despite having reserved a twin (two beds, one room), we had a suite with a kitchen, dining room, and bathroom. The only catch was that we shared it with three other women. I was mildly annoyed at the intrusion, but I was very very very very happy after the fact.

The women who we shared the suite with had just finished the Milford Track, and had lots of advice on what to take and what to leave behind. Sheila made Hala dump her blow dryer, king-sized flashlight, two of her three towels, two of her three hairbrushes, and lots of excess clothes. [Hala went to Australia last year, and packed for a similar trip. In Australia, however, she had a car, was only there for two weeks, and never did laundry!] I left the camp stove and my sleeping roll.

Go on to the next page: The Milford Track
Go back to the main page

Skip to other pages: Queenstown, Christchurch, The Bike Tour, Nelson, Christchurch (again), and The North Island.

Ducky

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