Well, I finished my biking part of the trip 3 weeks ago after biking from Picton to Christchurch... this part was ver
y beautiful and also insanely windy for 2 days (enough that I couldn't ride my bike for a while because the wind gusts kept throwing me off!). But that night I met a very friendly french couple who were also braving the winds on their bikes and it made my next 3 evenings much more fun! We talked in french and shared dinner and wine! There are much more cyclists on the south island then the north, it's great to see and also made me sad that this part was coming to an end! This photo was taken just before Kaikoura on the windiest day of my trip!
After arriving in Christchurch, I found a nice little hostel and setteld for a few days rest while waiting for Marko to arrive... Christchurch is a very pretty town but a bit boring after a while! There is a real "English" feel to the city with the "punting on the Avon" (photo) and the manicured lawns and victorian architecture.Marko finally made it on the 24th and we headed of North towards the Abel Tasman National Park where we had booked a sea kayaking/hiking trip for 5 days... Everything went well except for a missed drybag that we forgot at the beach and had to go back for (oops!) and the sandflies bitting at our ankles! The Abel Tasman is quite busy in the summer but it is still worth checking out! We could still manage to get away from the crowds and explore on our own! Here's a few photos!
After the Abel, we headed down to the West Coast where we found New Zealand's best hostel! The name was not overly inspiring (The Old Slaughter House) but the place was incredible! We had to hike for 10 minutes up a mountain to get to it and then... the sunset!!
The owners were super friendly and had some interesting stories to share about how the house came to be how it is today! After staying one night (not nearly enough!), we hit the road again for the West Coast. We drove for a few days all the way down to Queenstown, where it was pouring rain and there was nothing to do! So we made the executive decision to drive back to Christchurch and explore the Banks Peninsula for the last few days of Marko's trip. The Bank's Peninsula is about an hour drive from Christchurch and has a very interesting history of french settlements! A lot of the street's names in Akaroa (main town) were in french but we never found anyone who actually spoke it! I think they used that part of the history for tourism purposes!! Anyways, we still had fun there, ate good food and went on a sailing trip around Akaroa harbour. We enjoyed Christchurch for a last night and Marko flew out the next days, nicely agreeing to take my bike along with him!
