A Serene Day Trip on the Bike

Before I describe a day trip Jean and I did on the tandem, let me say that Madeleine is doing great! We feel privileged every moment we get to watch her or hold her.

Now, on to a cycling story.... Last week Jean and I left early, rode five miles to the local train station, and then took the train to a town called Featherston on the other side of the local mountain range. From Featherston station we rode in the surrounding area for about 50 miles. It was probably the most quiet, scenic, pastoral countryside in which I have ever spent a day cycling.

This below is the train station about five miles from Steve and Annemarie's house. We parked the bike while waiting for the train, and put our high visibility vests and my slightly wet jacket on the handlebars to dry. When the train came, the bike rode free in the baggage car, and Jean and I had comfortable seats in a near-empty passenger car. Our trip took us about 45 minutes away from Wellington, so the train was empty first thing in the morning. (It was packed with commuters going the other way.)

When we cycled away from Featherston, we came around one bend in the road and had this view of the farms below us:

As we started riding, we'd look to the left and see scenes like this:

And to the right is looked like this:

The road we were on had this much traffic:

And the biggest group of others outdoors on that day were these. (All these shots are impressive when clicked to be seen enlarged, but that's especially true of this one, I think):

The amount of activity around us when we stopped to take off a jacket was this:

In short, it was a very peaceful and enjoyable day. In this part of New Zealand the hills were much gentler, with none of them coming close to the steep ones we traveled over in the north. All in all, it was a great outing.

Money in New Zealand

Here in New Zealand I've found that a couple of angles related to the currency are unique and different, so I thought I'd mention them. (By the way, for a comparison, the New Zealand dollar has been sliding between Canadian $0.75 and $0.80, and is worth a cent or two more in US dollars.)

One interesting feature is that "rounding" is used here. This means that every transaction is rounded to the closest ten cents. This does not affect the prices posted for items, as you will see prices such as $29.98, etc.

But, the smallest coin is a ten cent coin, and all transactions end with a zero.

Here is a sample receipt from a grocery store, where you can see it has been rounded down to the nearest ten cents:

Another interesting feature of money is that the paper currency is made with clear plastic "windows". Here is a photo of three common bills, and you can see the oval windows. I've placed the coins - two dollars, one dollar, 50 cents, 20 cents and 10 cents on the bills to hold them flat. In this photo, I've placed the bills next to some words "Hi!" which are slid under the bills in the photo that follows after this one:

In this photo, I've slid the bills to the right, and you can see the handwritten "Hi!" in the window of each bill.

A few prices here of typical items include these:

Gasoline: Currently it is NZ$2.04 per litre (which is about Canadian $1.53 per litre, or US $5.80 per gallon). Last week gasoline had spiked to NZ$2.21 per litre.

Milk: We buy it in 3 litre jugs for NZ$5.49. (This is about Canadian $7.32 for four litres, or US $6.90 for a gallon.)

Bread: About NZ$3.59 for a loaf of whole wheat. (That is about Canadian $2.75, or US $2.90.)

Bananas: About NZ$2.98 for a kilo of bananas. (That is just over Canadian $1.00 per pound and a bit more in the US.)

Indoor activity

Life back here in Wellington at Steve and Annemarie's has featured a few daily excursions on the tandem, some gardening around the house, and a few woodworking projects done in the basement. Jean has done some knitting, and we've both puttered in the kitchen and gone on errands to town with Annemarie, while Steve has returned each day to continue his research work at the Kiwistar lab about fifteen minutes away. This has all been in addition to giving Madeleine regular attention, too.

IKEA has not yet opened a store anywhere in New Zealand, or I might have found things like these projects below. Instead, I made the following, and thought of the names that Ingvar might have given them if he did have a store here:

The Frústanda:

In action:

The Shörakka:

All loaded with the shoes Jean and I brought:

And, a set of bedside tables that took a bit more design and construction time, so I might call one the Mârka:

Steve has only a few woodworking tools (sabre saw, router, small collapsible workbench, four small clamps) so these projects were done with the slow-n-steady method.

Catching Up from New Zealand

Jean and I flew from Vancouver to Auckland on April 3. We flew on immediately to Wellington (also on the North Island) and spent three weeks with daughter Annemarie and her husband Steve who live outside Wellington.

Then, we headed out to do some bicycle touring. We began by putting our tandem bike on the train and went back to Auckland in the north in order to find warmer weather than we had been experiencing in Wellington on the south end of the North Island.

We indeed did find warmer weather, and had a wonderful time pedaling about 200 miles over the very hilly countryside of what they call here "The Northland" of the North Island.

Above is the entrance to the small house Annemarie and Steve have rented in the community of Point Howard, located near Wellington. Parked outside is the tandem bike Jean and I brought with us.

Our touring came to a stop (for now) on May 7 after just over one week when Annemarie went into labour and gave birth to a healthy 8 lb 1 oz daughter. We took an overnight bus back to Wellington and arrived in time to visit our first grandchild, Madeleine Ngaio Gibson, in the hospital. She and Annemarie were released less than 24 hrs later.

Above is a photo of Madeleine, still less than a day old, staying warm in some of Jean's knitting projects done over the last few months. Jean and I heard the news of Madeleine's impending arrival when we were in a motel in Whangarei in northern NZ, and we quickly arranged our day to include bus rides south. It was nice to meet her as a newborn, and pretty amazing to see how perky and fit Annemarie was, too. Here below is Madeleine getting her first shampoo...

and getting some family attention during the process...

Jean and I find it pretty easy to give Madeleine all the attention she wants.

As for what Jean and I were up to in the days before Madeleine arrived, the photos and comments below will show that we spent some very good days riding our tandem around a portion of northern NZ. We began the touring by taking a 12 hour daytime train ride from Wellington (south end of the North Island) to Auckland further north. We did this to find some warmer autumn weather.

We spent one night in Auckland, a busy city of about 1.4 million. Leaving on the following morning on busy city streets felt safe, and dedicated bike lanes like this one below helped us easily get out into the countryside.

 

We felt no shame in wearing high visibility yellow reflective vests the entire time. The bike was loaded heavily with full camping gear, and we had a plastic box up front for readily available food. Snack stops were usually in more secluded spots than this one below at the side of a highway just outside Auckland.

Our tandem is very fast downhill and on flat bits, but uphill is another story. Our daily mileages were less than expected because we found hills everywhere, and climbed them slowly. On one day the sidewind was very strong, the hill steep, and a bit of pushing was in order.

Accommodations varied. One night was at a "motor camp" where we paid for a comfortable grassy tent site.

 
These camps feature a separate building seen below in the background. It has a kitchen, laundry, washrooms and hot showers.

On another occasion, in a different motor camp, we opted for a cabin with a small ensuite. We had sleeping bags, so did not need to rent a duvet. (We guessed correctly, as it poured that night.)

(Note regarding the following photos of scenery: Clicking on them once, or even a second time after they enlarge once, will often yield an even clearer view of what we saw.)

New Zealand's roads go up and down, and snake in and out of coastal valleys. Incredible views are the norm, it seemed to us. Sometimes the coast seemed to be one huge beach...

and other times it was rocky, with small islands offshore.

Jean suggested that I am posting too many photos of beaches, but I must say, they were captivating to me. We are here after the busy summer season, so there are few people around in what would be tourist spots in the summer. Here is one example below. Look as far as you can to the right...

and as far as you can to the left...

and here in the middle is where we had lunch:

 Looking out to the ocean, (we're facing northeast)...

OK, last one (I really didn't want to leave)...

Some beaches were interesting for what was under foot when the tide was out. Just one example here...

Some beaches featured a variety of dramatic rock outcroppings, sand dunes, lazy lagoons, narrow passages to the ocean for boaters, and reminders in the sky of changeable weather...

Some beaches were small, like this one on a tiny isthmus that ran between the mainland and a small island with a lighthouse on top. (That's me on the beach.)

As well as beachcombing, we had to eat, and we stopped when and where we felt like it.

Believe it or not, some stops were not near beaches.

In small towns, cafes were not hard to find. We'd park the bike within view and get something.

That's "within view" of interesting vegetation, if possible. And, that was not hard to find, either.

Our tour was no exception from the stories we've heard or read again and again: people are incredibly friendly towards cycle tourers. One example: Jean went into a yarn and fabric store in a very small town and bonded quickly with Liz, who works there one day per week. Liz invited us to spend a night with her and her husband, Jon. She said, "We are not retired beef and sheep farmers, we are tired farmers, now doing other things."

After selling their farm, they built a gorgeous hilltop home with a view that extends all the way to the ocean two miles away where Jon regularly goes out in his boat to catch snapper or dive for scallops the size of his fist. Liz often stays home, spending time in a sewing room beyond most, with four top-of-the-line specialized Pfaff machines, and a view like none other. We had a terrific visit with them, and they were very generous to us.

Liz's sewing room:

As mentioned above, our tour ended for now with a long bus ride back to the suburb of Wellington known as Point Howard where Annemarie and Steve live, now with Madeleine, too! We think we will get out again on the tandem while we are here, maybe to do a few shorter overnighters here in the south of the North Island, Fall weather permitting.

This has been long enough, and though there are many more stories to be told, and observations of New Zealand to be made, I have an important project here now.

So, I'll sign off, and get back to work.