Bicycling

New Zealand Honeymoon Bikepack

 

Somewhere on Molesworth Pass

Charles and I made an early decision in wedding planning that it would be "fun" to let our guests have a say in our Honeymoon. Since Charles had never been out of the US (!), I narrowed it down to 3 countries for our guests to choose from: Ireland, France, and New Zealand. It was a real nail biter till the end, but a couple of friends made a big push for New Zealand, so I told Charles to buckle up, he's doing the big flight (26 hours total) across the Pacific, and if we're going to go that far, we needed to go for as LONG as we possible could (and still have jobs) (this was exactly 23 days). 

Normally I write these posts as day by day, but since we biked for 20 days, covering over 1000 miles, visiting dozens of memorable towns and stays, and meeting many interesting people, I will write up this post more as a perspective piece of our experience (yes I have the route and yes, I can answer questions if you have any!). 


Before we started, Charles and I had a couple of mutually implied rules for our Honeymoon. One was that we wouldn't like blow money unnecessarily, but we wouldn't begrudge ourselves eating out or getting the fancy granola bar (ok, ok, Charles commented once that my protein bar of choice was "a bit pricey". He got a look.) The next rule was that we wouldn't just bike the entire time. Again, I know, you're all here to read about the epic climbs we did, but I hate to disappoint, we only had one day on the bike I'd consider "respectable" and for the rest, we really enjoyed ourselves. Third, we weren't going to die on our honeymoon -- no stupid stuff!! 

Proof that we enjoyed ourselves - "Gravity" Luging in Queenstown was a Blast

The tentative plan when we arrived was that we had BnB lodging for the first two days, the last day (and would leave our bike bags in Christchurch at that BnB), and we had a car transfer to take us from Christchurch to Dunedin the next day to cut out about 300 miles of flat highway riding. Oh, and we had a train ticket from Picton at the northern tip of the South Island on December 26th. That was all! The rest we'd figure out.

this was ALL we had for 3 weeks

After exploring Christchurch by foot a bit, we ate and then packed up our bags for the trip. It was funny, throughout the journey, people would ask us when we arrived "where our bags are?". Us: "This is it -- no really, this is IT. We have to carry everything". Charles, newer to touring, had TWO sets of off bike shorts and pants (GASP), but I had one pair of wool cycling shorts, one pair of wool tights, one ultra light base layer pants, two wool shirts, 3 wool socks, two wool sports bras, one pair of quick dry shorts, a down puffy, rain jacket (from Nepal, lol), buff, and a last minute quarter zip wool long sleeve shirt (life saver). Notice everything was "wool", that was crucial choice for this trip and the different weather we encountered! 

We had a lovely time with our car transfer drivers who took us and the bikes down to Dunedin the next day. One of them, Sharon, gave us a wrapped present to open on Christmas(!). While incredibly thoughtful, we had to carry this ~1 pound package the entire trip! Charles wanted to unwrap it in Dunedin to make sure it was worth carrying, but I said I would carry it and we'd open it on Christmas... it'll be really special. Charles gave me a look like I had 2 heads, seeing as I had been telling him he didn't need the pants he was bringing, etc etc. 

our bikes, fully loaded in Dunedin! 

Our typical riding day was usually between 50-70 miles unless it was a "rest" day. As we started out along the Southern Coast, in the "Catlins", our riding was challenging -- hilly, remote, windy at times, full unrelenting sun, and heavy rain storms, all in the same afternoon at times. In the peak of summer at 45S+, we had over 15 hours of daylight and could luxuriously opt out of riding in bad weather (sometimes) by lounging in the cafes that exist in almost every small New Zealand town. In these cafes, you'll find a large bakery selection, sometimes meat pies, sausage rolls, a selection of "brekkie" choices, and fish and chips. OH, and of course, coffee!  

Finding only poached eggs at one cafe, Charles said "fine, I'll have fish and chips for breakfast"

The Catlins was a mix of sheep laden green hillsides with things that looked like a second cousin of Joshua Trees and untouched, dense rain forest. We rode through it all - a tough moment included HAIL in 40 km/h winds (with 65+ km/h gusts). It was so bad and came on quickly at the top of a pass, Charles was able to make it to the ditch for cover, but it took me a solid 5 minutes before I could turn and run to the ditch with how hard the hail was hitting my face! On that same day, we had a headwind so bad we couldn't even stand in it at times, let alone pedal forward. When we got into our accomodations for that night, we had zero food and were easily 20 miles from any stores. We literally begged our host for anything out of her personal fridge. She generously gave us a bunch of leftovers which we devoured (and yes we paid her for it too - no as starving bikepackers, we know the price of food!).  


This was a respectable waterfall 

The best of the Catlins were riding on these beautiful empty gravel roads and getting to truly experience the country side and the ruggedness of the South coast. We stopped at beaches (gem stone beach was a highlight - I buried Charles in little rocks while he took a nap), listened to birds in the evening, and were never far from the ocean. 

We're gunna take the ring to Mordor! 


From the Catlins, we moved into Manapouri, Te Anu, and Queenstown in the Southwest part of New Zealand. There was too much to do here - epic mountain vistas were now in our daily view, Charles had a life-altering lamb and mint pie in Te Anu (how can one eat baby sheep, I have no idea!!!), and we biked through a trail that had a lot of recognizable filming from Lord of the Rings - Fellowship. 

"Around the Mountains" was a must-do bikepacking loop from Queenstown


From Te Anu to Walter Station, we took the "Around the Mountains" bike trail. New Zealand has an incredible network of bike paths and trails and Around the Mountains was a mostly gravel road that we took from outside Te Anu to Walter Peak Station where we'd catch a ferry to Queenstown. We had planned to do this in 2 days but fueled by a 2kg ginger slice (which I affectionately called "Ginger Brick". And I carried it.) and pies to go, we made great time in a stunning landscape. In our direction, we climbed slowly for hours and had a big FUN descent at the end. Charles hadn't really seen me descend in the mountains before and was surprised at his wife's rip down the mountain and yelling "FULL SEND" as she rode across a stream at the bottom. 

Bike Accomodation on our Yacht 


Unfortunately (fortunately?) the last ferry out of Walter Station was full (what?!). Walter Station is like a quaint farm experience for people from Queenstown (city folk) to enjoy. Well, fortunately we had been carrying full camp gear this entire time, so we camped nearby and met other bikepackers going north to south. When we woke up early the next morning, we were the only ones on the return ferry to Qtown, so we got a "private yacht" experience and to hang out with the captain. 

Queenstown was a sweet break for us. We went white water rafting, hiked, gravity luged, biked around the area, and enjoyed pies from Ferd's Bakery. At this point in the trip, Charles had become quite the foodie after really embracing British foods (mince pie, fish and chips, even tea!), and was now referring to Indian food as a "safe option" and open to trying Japanese, Thai, etc. 

Our rec if you only have a week in NZ - just fly into Queenstown directly and enjoy it fully.

We made the decision call to get a car transfer from Queenstown to Franz Josef Glacier to skip the (very) wet West Coast and the narrow, winding roads with many tourists on them. There wasn't a reasonable way to bike around them, so we looked into one way tours to Franz Josef (which was a thing) and found someone who was willing to drive us and the bikes for a reasonable price. After two days in Queenstown, we loaded up the bikes and made our way North with our fun and eccentric driver. 

Wanaka Tree, actually the fun part here was the crowd of people on shore taking a picture of this tree. 

At Franz Josef, Charles saw his first glacier (eh, not the most impressive glacier). We then were "cafe trapped" for several hours as it rained before finally escaping in lighter rain. From Franz Josef, we made our way to Greymouth and Charleston. After finding a glow worm/cave rafting tour in Charleston and reading the reviews, I told Charles this was a must-do for me, so we trekked our way North in big climbs and even bigger beaches. 

one of numerous glacial rivers

We had many adventures in this stretch, from fording a river when a bridge was out (more marriage-bonding opportunities), to "exploring" tramping trail (do not recommend!!!), to cruising down cyclepath (like single track+) trail on the West Coast Wilderness trail. Overall, these were fun and goofy days, where we didn't work too hard and spent a lot of time looking at rocks on beaches and eating great good. 

the bridge was down so... 

more rain forest track


 After several days and big climbs, we made it Charleston, which was a sleepy town of 62 people that promised glow worm cave tours, one hotel, one cafe, and blue penguin watching (we only saw one dead penguin. I don't want to talk about it....). 

dead penguin beach in Charleston

cave rafting - see we did more than just bike! 


The glow worm cave rafting experience in Charleston was the highlight of the trip for me (besides biking with Charles). At one point, you're floating in the cave in a small river in pitch darkness, looking up at tens of thousands of glow worms flaring from blue to teal to bright green. It looked like the aurora overhead or like the cave was trying to talk to us (well, the worms were trying to attract bugs so they could eat them). 

at least the mountains are sure pretty to look at! 


After Charleston demarcated the next "real climbing" leg of the trip to Hamner Springs. We had to cross the Southern Alps of New Zealand, which was no small feat -- we were always going up or down and had limited access to resources in between. The riding was beautiful - mountainous rainforest. We dropped into Reefton, which you'd expect to be a nothing town, but it had the best pastries of the trip. We had some incredible muffins and desserts in Reefton! 


the pastries of Reefton... I could have stayed and just eaten them for days

After hearing about "amazing hot springs" the entire trip, we decided to stay at a mountain relaxation spa retreat called Maruia Springs before Hamner Springs for a "rest day". Again, I was reminded and Charles learned for the first time that we are both not resort people. Not enough food, too much spa and weird viking music in a sauna. But it was nice to get a quick soak! 

We did have a sweet glamping pod at the resort though! 


Moody mountain pass biking

We dropped into Hamner Springs, ate as much in 2 hours as we could stuff into our bodies, and then we started the big climb out of Jack's Pass (~2000 feet). It went surprisingly well considering I thought if I put another particle of food into my body I would certainly vomit. We camped about 10 miles outside Hamner on the pass (yay! Tent got a second day of action). The following day, I strongly suggested to Charles that we push for Blenheim -- I used all my temptress words "we could have a hot shower... a real meal... not sleep on the ground..." and the real homewrecker "and wash our clothes". We'd have to do a 105 mile day with almost 8000 ft of climbing to get to Blenheim, but "I really think we can do it Charles" (he had low confidence in us). 





Wild Hedgehog!


But, Charles got a taste of bikepack racing life -- you just bike. The climbs sometimes suck (we had a few 15%+ grade climbs), you eat all the gummy worms and granola bars, you filter water, and you ... bike. No breaks. We had gorgeous weather and beautiful views to keep us motivated, and after some nasty gravel into Blenheim, we made it in plenty of time to get "safe" Indian food in town (which was pretty spectacular). 

And with that heroic push, we were basically done. We cruised the easy 25 miles to Picton on Christmas Eve, stocked up on groceries and food (we weren't sure anything would be open on Christmas), and then settled into our Airbnb in Waikawa. On Christmas Day, we opened our "mystery" gift -- a tea towel! Which actually was a perfect gift, but I kind of wished I had opened sooner to use as a towel. Then we hung out with our hosts for a while (a delightful family) before doing a 50 mile "joy" loop around Queen Charlotte track with unloaded bikes. Euphoria!!! 





the Christmas present! 

Enjoying Christmas Day



Christmas certainly has a different holiday vibe in New Zealand - while there are Santas and presents are exchanged, it's much more of an outdoor family / grilling holiday, much like our Independence Day in the States. We saw tons of people on the water and with their families at the beach, enjoying a summer day. 

Merry Christmas 

The morning after Christmas, we took a boat tour in the morning to see wildlife and visit a small ecological reserve island. I saw a non-dead penguin! Charles and I made friends with some of the small birds on the island too. Then, we took the "Coastal Scenic Train" back to Christchurch (incredible, 100% worth it, great views and food and 7 hours flew by) with our bikes before we left for the States the following day. 

wow we made it to the train! 


Overall thoughts? From a honeymoon view, this adventure definitely sealed the marriage in a great way. I learned many new things about my husband on this trip, and by the end, we were working together as a team effortlessly. It wasn't always sunshine and roses -- we certainly had our trials and frustrations with each other. But we came out stronger afterward, and I feel like this honeymoon will always be an anchoring and happy memory for us throughout our marriage, an experience (well, collection of experiences) shared that we can look back on and smile. 

For New Zealand South Island, oh gosh, everyone should come here and bike. Really. I could wax on, and this post really skates the surface on the things we did and saw. It's an experience worth doing and worth making happen. I could see us going back for a 20th anniversary or something -- we'll see where life takes us. 


and yet, so much left undone! 


Net, we did over 1000 miles of biking and 60,000ft+ with some decent weight on our bikes. We wore the same clothes (!) for 3 weeks, with only two loads of laundry and many sink washes. I ate a crazy number of bumper bars (NZ granola bar) and learned my favorite NZ breakfast foods. Our routes are here.

Lo

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