New Zealand (9) – TRAVICARIOUS

A lovely walk through the trees to the Mirror Lake.

Mirror Lake. You must have a calm windless day. We were lucky.

Love a reflection of a mountain! Click.

The water keeps getting more beautifully blue.

Stopped at a bird sanctuary.

Took these photos through a chain link fence. It was a mama bird sticking her head into the feed bin and then feeding it to her little one. So cute.

The people of New Zealand …. or a least the tourists who visit …. like their speed, danger and crazy hobbies.

The scenery was wonderful, but the wind blew off my sunglasses and bent my eyelashes to the point I couldn’t really see. After the ‘ride’ I asked what was the point. The driver, who has done this for 2-1/2 years had the most fun, I think.

Click. Note my eyelashes. I’m directly behind the guy in front center. My other 4 partners in crime seemed to be lovin’ it in the back row.

Click.

Mr. and Mrs. Ferg were locals who created a delicious burger, of course called a Fergburger.

THIS is what was included in our itinerary for the next three days. The entire hotel room turned out to be the size on the right, without the view. And there was no working air conditioning. It was about 100 degrees. And TO TOP IT OFF we were told we needed to take apart the double bed and make it into single beds OURSELVES. I called bullshit and said I didn’t even make my OWN bed at home. Jane, under a much calmer, and nicer, vibe proceeded to change the beds. There was no lobby and nowhere to play canasta.

Oh, and the breakfast we were promised — was all (for all three days) in the mini frige. Bread had been taken from a loaf, counted and put into a different bag. There was one green apple, one red apple, some ‘juice’ that was 100% sugar water, some yogurt and some dry cereal. My head was exploding.

When Constance saw it, she immediately got on the phone to rectify the situation. It was decided we’d be staying in the Rees. The Road Trip Company would pay for some of the extra cost and we wouldn’t be getting refunds for the helicopter ride we didn’t get. WELL WORTH IT!!! Two bedroom, 2 bathroom, with full kitchen, living room, balcony, fireplace, desk and beautiful view. And the breakfast in dining room each morning was wonderful!!

Self-explanatory. LUXURY!!!

This sign is ‘a thing’ since it’s halfway between 0 degrees latitude (the south pole) and 90 degrees latitude (the Equator).

Hoo Boy! We looked so happy and full of joy!! …..I may have had a questionable look, however. We motored an hour to the town of Cromwell where we were planning on getting on e-bikes and leisurely biking on a smooth path next to a beautiful lake while stopping to imbibe at one or two wineries for 24 miles until arriving in the next town over, Clide.

WRONG WRONG WRONG!!! It was a #2 and #3 mountain bike trail (the hardest being a #4, NOT #10!!)

One of us fell off the bike in the flat parking lot. RED FLAG #1!

From the parking lot we needed to drive under a bridge where I almost wiped out in the loose sand. I dodged that bullet. Red Flag #2.

The nice smooth path turned out to be loose gravel and the path was a narrow windy one on the side of a mountain. Yes, there was a beautiful vineyard where I stopped to fill my water thermos. But before we arrived there was a poured cement hairpin turn before getting on the driveway to the winery. Jane didn’t make the turn, her wheel fell off the edge and she fell off the bike. I was getting very nervous. Red Flag #3.

I mentioned that this was not going to be easy, especially with going up and down the side of the mountain. Liz assured me the most altitude change was behind us. I felt better. But when all five of us were getting on the bikes to continue the trek Liz told me she had read the map backwards (or upside down) and the worst altitudes were yet to come. Red Flag #4

Peer pressure SUCKS!! I should have turned around.

Jane and Janice took off and were so far ahead of me I thought maybe I had veered off on another path. I kept going faster and faster, knowing tht any type of crash could severely damage me. I just had broken my kneecap in July and I’ve got osteoporosis. What the hell was a 70-year-old bony woman doing flying up and down a gravel path at speeds of 18 miles an hour.

One thought was: Well Jane seems to be doing it; so can I.

Once I caught up we started running into outcroppings of the path beyond the mountain like this. It seemed OK, but when Jane hit the rock that was sticking out on the right and crashed, I knew we were in for trouble.

She thought she had punctured a lung and couldn’t breathe. Turns out it was cracked ribs.

She ventured on, but the sound of a playing card in a kid’s bicycle was so loud we had to stop. Luckily Janice knew how to use the tools and unscrew the fender that was poking into the tire. Jane moved her stuff to my saddlebag and the fender went into her saddlebag.

By this point I told Liz that I was sure I was going to be next. And I was. I came around a left turn, Liz had slowed and said for me to pass her. Yeah, right. I wasn’t going to be first and I wasn’t going to pass her near the 18 foot drop off to the water. I tried to stop, slid, fell off onto my knees while my hand were in front of me. The angle was about 30 degrees downward and I just didn’t stop. I slid to the side of Liz’s bike until I stopped. Scratches on my knee, shin, forearms but the bike survived.

By this time I was not taking too many pictures. these are the ones I took while shaking in my boots.

There’s the beautiful lake that I never really got to see because I was too petrified watching the gravel 6 feet in front of me.

Jane fell a total of seven times. I paniced when I was first and I had a sharp turn in front of me. I fell hard and my kneecap fell onto two rocks that took a couple gouges from my knee. I had shin scrapes and the bone in my wrist hit the dirt. I had a big purple bruise on it 2 days later.

I thought I had broken the other kneecap, but realized it didn’t matter how hurt I was; I was going to have to bike to the end.

Those narrow bridges were terrifying and we walked most of them. The e-bikes were very heavy and pushing them up a mountain was a lot of work. After about 15 miles in, someone figured out the BIKE-ASSIST button told the bike to help drive itself up the mountain. Was glad to have it!

I was crashing a third time and did what I had learned to do on a beach cruiser. When I saw there was no way out, I just jumped off the damned thing. I landed on my feet and the bike went flying. No bike damage; nor damage to myself.

About this time I told Liz I wasn’t going to make it, and to call them. NO CELL PHONE SERVCE and no service for the entirety of the trip. There was no bathrooms, no place to get water, no food, no electricity to charge an e-battery.

Janice decided to bike ahead to get help. When she biked the second half, seeing it was steeper, narrower, and more difficult she just knew Jane and I would never make it except to walk it, well into the night.

She arranged to have a boat try to find us and pick us up.

In the meantime, Jane was still having chest pains and fell a couple more times. She was dangling over the edge entangled in her bike. The girls pulled her to safety. Jane, the adventurer, asked if anyone had taken the time to get a picture!!

Jane met a man who told her to look straight ahead and JUST KEEP GOING. It turned out to be good advice because that’s what she did for the next 12 miles. She and Lesa ended up at the end of the trail in Clyde before Liz and I did. I refused to bike the hairpin right hand turns an walked them.

I met a man that when he found out I said I couldn’t make it, told me he had special pills that would work. Liz came upon us and asked what was going on. I told Liz he was hunting for his meth that would get me enough energy to get to the end of the trail. It turns out he gave me a bag of jelly beans. He said it was pure sugar. Little did he know I LIVE on pure sugar.

After getting rid of the stitch in my side, quelling my nausea, I too, like Jane, just looked at the fucking gravel in front of me and pedaled.

The kid who showed us how to work the bikes in that original parking lot was VERY GLAD to see us, since it meant he didn’t have to go hunting for us and possibly having to haul us, dead, off the trail.

In the meantime, the bike people sent Janice off on a wild goose chase 5 miles out of the way. So NONE OF US were happy campers. Jane and I were happy to be alive and the other three, I think, were happy the two of us were alive. — What the hell do you do with two dead bodies on a bike trail????

Sadly, when you mention my New Zealand trip, this is all I can think of. I am done with e-bikes and biking, in general. It’s too dangerous for a 70year-old!!

I tried to get shots of our trail. If you zoom in, you can see the trail in the lower right corner. But sometimes we were at the TOP of those peaks.

If you zoom, you can see the trails — it was NEVER a leisurely ride.

Jane parked her bike there and refused to go the extra kilometer to the bike shop in Clyde. I agreed!

The bruises continued to get bluer as the days progressed.

I couldn’t play pickleball for a week after getting home and I STILL have the two big gash scars.

Jane still has cracked rib pain, but we are soldiering through for our trip THIS MONTH to Morocco.

Love this tree!

We got on the only coal-burning steam engine in the country to a working sheep farm.

click.

The girls whipped out our kazoos when we requested “country roads” and freaked out this entertainer.

Had a great buffet the family of the working farm provides. Again, desserts were the best part of the meal.

Got a lesson on sheep shearing and sheep herding by Echo, the dog, who loves controlling the sheep.

Echo was in training, but did very well. They do not give treats like normal dog training, because they don’t want fat dogs. They just give praise and lots of petting for a good job.

Click.

Since this was run by steam, you could look below deck and see the engines moving. These benches were right above the engines and it got VERY hot sitting there.