Journey to down under and our first step…

Jenny and I made it to Christchurch, New Zealand as planned with our equipment and tandem in tow even though on some flight connections we questioned ourselves whether we would see the tandem coming out from the oversize luggage area.

2017.10.24 – Ottawa (CA) – We were very thankful to our good neighbor for driving us to the airport. Our meticulous equipment and tandem packing paid off as we did not incur any extra luggage charges at our airport check-in. Although we had secured three bicycle boxes to store our tandem, we ended up using a single one. Needless to say, we were concerned a bit as to whether we could reassemble the tandem once at our destination. Clearly, we were not ready to tackle this task at the airport after some 29 hours of traveling of which more than 22 were in the confine of airplanes.

2017.10.26 – Ottawa (CA) – Christchurch (NZ) – We traveled from Ottawa to Toronto, to Los Angeles, to Brisbane (Aus) and finally to Christchurch. On our longest segment from LA to Brisbane, Jenny and I were assigned middle seats in two different rows. Not the most enjoyable seating arrangement to which we periodically regretted not taking Quantas auction proposal last week which offered the possibility to upgrade to a business class seating!

At the airport in Christchurch, we were surprised and relieved to find all our belongings. The custom processing was a bit lengthy as we needed to have our tent reviewed for any potential contaminants (bugs, seeds,?). We took a convenient airport shuttle equipped with a trailer to our AirBnB accommodation.

We quickly settled into our nice studio and met our friendly hosts. Although fairly jet lagged, we managed a 20 minutes walk to buy some groceries before a shower and some quality sleep.

The reassembly of the tandem was tackled the next day. It took about three and half hours of unhurried work to get the tandem and trailer back in order.

2017.10.27/28 – [NZ] Christchurch ==> Christchurch (23 kms | Total: 23 kms) – One of our first road challenge was getting use to riding on the left side. Our mirrors were re-installed to accommodate this driving practice. We rode the tandem to a shopping mall, a few kilometers away, to secure some new sim cards for our mobile phones, purchase more groceries and a warm merino beanie for Jenny.

Over the next two days, we rode our tandem to the city center (20 mins) to view the still visible damages of the Sept. 2010 and Feb. 2011 earthquakes and the many reconstruction sites throughout the downtown. We toured the unique compartment shopping mall made up exclusively of transport containers. We visited the botanical gardens and rode around the city’s large central Hagley park.

2017.10.29 – [NZ] Christchurch ==> Christchurch (36 kms | Total: 59 kms) – We visited the Quake City museum dedicated to the earthquake activities in New Zealand with a focus on the 2010/2011 quakes. Later we rode a further 10 km to take gondola up to Mt Cavendish which offered some great views of the surrounding city, Lyttelton port and even the Southern Alps.

2017.10.30 – [NZ] Christchurch ==> Glentunnel (69 kms | Total: 128 kms) – After four nights in our cosy and comfortable AirBnB, we set out for the first day of our fully loaded touring adventure. We learned a few things along the way. Firstly, don’t trust your GPS as many routes suggested are made up of loose gravel. Secondly, bring along plenty of food and water as the towns are few and far apart. Our initial planned route was expected to be 50kms. We cycled over 65kms to get to our destination campground, Glentunnel Holiday Park. The nice thing about traveling in the early spring season was that the campground was almost empty.