february 26 - march 6

febuary 26 sunday

it had rained during the night but the morning was bright and clear again. we started after a good breakfast and mastered the first hills with ease. in ward we had coffee and ice cream - what else? - at a so called tea room (they sell everything in those small villages from gas to butter).
one last hill had to be climbed afterwards and we reached the pacific ocean. the color of the water was amazing, a caribic light blue but of course the water temperature was much lower.

the road then undulated along the ocean. we had lunch in the dunes and finally reached waipapa bay where we were the only guests on a small roadside campground. it also had no kitchen so i cooked couscous on our little camping stove. and we had to have a cold shower... well, the day was warm enough.
(74.77km 3h59)




febuary 27 monday

i felt worn and tired even after a good night´s sleep. had to get used to cycling again i guess. we started slowly and met a german cyclist going the opposite direction after 12 kms. talked to him for a while and it started gettin´ really warm. stopped to watch seals!

(find the seal !!!)

they were lying lazily in the sun. how nice it must be to be a seal i thought. and afterwards we just pedalled on to kaikoura, supplied in the big "new world" supermarket and pitched our tent at the nearest campground, quite expensive but really new and well equipped. i rested and erk went for a walk along the cliff. talked to a nice french couple after dinner. later a couple from erlangen arrived, also on bikes though they had decided not to be slaves of their bikes and were taking a lot of buses if they felt like.
a big thunderstrom arrived during the night a the temperature dropped significantely. (32.38km 1h55)

febuary 28 tuesday


i talked erk into staying in kaikoura. i felt so tired of moving on and on and on and as a strong southerly wind had developed he agreed quickly. we went for the cliff walk together, checked mails and returned tired in the afternoon. did a lot of talking and reading and had pumpkin and potatoes for dinner, yummy!

march 1 wednesday


decided to stay another day. did laundry, some repairwork that needed to be done for a long time and relaxed in the sun.

march 2 thursday

finally we were ready to move on. although some passes were waiting i felt calm and enjoyed cycling again. the ride out of kaikoura along the coast was beautiful. the first pass was hard and suddenly the weather changed and i got really cold. we were told later that this happens often in new zealand because it is not protected by surrounding continents...
there was one hostel with camp in the "pedaler´s paradise" that should have turned up after 40 km but it didn´t so we thought we had to go on over the next pass into cheviot but after 50 km it was there and luckily i suggested to stay! hawkswood farm!


a nice small non comercial camp and a very friendly lady were waiting for us. i was so tired. some trampers just said good bye and were really excited about the walk they had just done. we pitched the tent and went to the house in order to pay. gypsy (how she calls herself) suggested we should also do the walk and i don´t know why but we decided spontanously to do it (though it was 150$ per person for three days). the walk included accomodations, so we could stay in a nice cabin through the night. in the evening was briefing at j.d´s, the 86 year old owner of hawkswood farm, where we met the other 8 people, who would do the track.

march 3 friday

only packed with a daypack, we started the first part of the kaikoura coast track at 9:00. it led us through native bushland uphill to magnificent views of the coastline, the farmland and the kaikoura mountains. after 2,5 hours of hiking we had lunch at "skull peak shelter" were coffee and tea were provided. it offered a panoramic view all along the pacific coastline. afterwards we were heading to ngaroma loft, our accomodation for the night. we had a nap and spent the rest of the day with reading.

march 4 saturday

the track continued with a quite hard walk along the shore cos the sand was very soft. some were complaining about that, but a beach is a beach and usually not paved. we liked the walk, although the weather was changing into storm and rain. we could see some sleeping seals but no whales or dolphins cos the sea was to rough. after lunch in a little shelter, we walked over farmland to bushland again, so we had a good protection for the increasing rain. at 14:00 we arrived almost dry at "the whare", our next accomodation.

march 5 sunday


the last part of the track began with a steep 640m ascend to mount wilson were we had an amazing 360 degree panoramic view. the southern alps got white peaks ovenight cos it was pretty cold and there were lots of snow in the mountains. in the afternoon we were back at hawkswood and gipsy offered her car for supplying in cheviot, cos we were running out of food. eva drove well, the first time sitting on the righthand side in a car and driving on the left side of the road. we had steak for dinner, which was not as good as the meat in argentina. gipsy said, we could stay in the cabin and had not to go to the campground. so we had our cosy mud-brick cabin again and felt really happy.

march 6 monday

we had a very lazy day on hawkswood farm with a lot of reading. at noon we met cees from holland, who was the only guest on the campground, and were talking for some hours. afterwards we made a little stroll, called the fantail track and invited cees for dinner. we picked delicious prunes in gipsy´s garden for desert and had our favorite baked potatoes and pumpkins and a little bit of wine with a nice conversation in the kitchen of ash house.