Exploring the Banks Peninsula

This weekend it felt like summer. Honest to goodness summer. 

It was the perfect time for bikes and beer, jumps and berms and general trail explorations with friends. Unfortunately though, Scott is currently channeling all of his energy towards healing a few broken ribs. There was a mishap with him and a shrub and a tree. Nature won.

During Scott's first few codeine-haze days on the couch, he researched alternate activities for the next 12 weeks... 6 weeks (who are we kidding, he'll be back at it in no time). He announced to me that he thought driving his trusty (?) Subaru on the beach at Birdling Flats would be a good idea. And as long as we didn't get stuck, the road would become a shingle (gravel) path through the rural southern half of the Banks Peninsula. 

Confused? Here! Maps!

Northern half of the South Island, NZ. Got it? Ok, ZOOM:

So we actually drove across the beach to Bossu Rd (above), but Google Maps doesn't recognize that as a road. So this is sort of our route, but shown backwards and not attached.

The beach at Birdling Flat is made up of round stones, tumbled smooth by the ocean. It's not your normal "beach" really (lounging would be uncomfortable) but it is quite pretty. 

Not sand. Small rocks. And big rocks.

We gathered lots of cool colored rocks (nerds unite!) but this one really really was just sitting there. 

So above, thats the beach in question that we were going to drive across. Sure there was a "path" across it, a narrow strip where wheels had created ruts to guide you. But I was skeptical.

This guy, not nervous at all. Broken ribs? What else are we gonna do? Lets see if we can almost but not quite get the car stuck! Sweet as.

I held my breath the whole time we drove across the beach. We started with lots of speed, but almost immediately it felt like we had driven into a swamp. Just when I thought we were going to be stuck though, the Subie picked up. A little fishtail left, then right, and it carried on through the rocks.

After the beach I foolishly thought we were home free. We had watched a truck go over a small levy which was obviously gravel, but it didn't look too hard. Did we hike over and look at it first? Nahhh...

High on our beach triumph, we drove right over to the levy, which as it turned out was an extremely narrow strip of deep round rocks dividing two bits of water. Basically, a gauntlet.

But since Im writing this with at least a glimpse of humor, I suppose you realize that we made it. I was pretty thrilled it was a one way trip.

The dodgy bit of levy we crossed. 

 From there on out it was backwoods driving at its' best. We saw lakes and ocean, vistas and sheep.

Well, that actually sums up about all of what we saw, but it was beautiful. Now, a photo montage for you:

Scott told me to pose. Im not much of a model. 

Island Bay greeting committee. 

The black sheep hated me and I couldn't get a better photo.

After several hours of hikes and exploration, we realized we were famished. Conveniently, the Hilltop Tavern just on the way to/from Akaroa was open and making fantastic pizzas. The view alone is worth a stop, but the beer and pizza, and resident goat, make it a place I'll be back to again and again.

We may not have pedaled our way into earning these. But we didn't feel too guilty.

I want your pizza.

On our way home we stopped for a little cheeky bird watching. Look mom, I know bird stuff! We saw:

White faced herons
New Zealand scaups
Mallards
Australian shovelers
Pied shags
Spotted shags
Little shags
Swamp harriers
Black swans
Australasian crested grebes
Welcome swallows

...and seagulls of some sort.

Bird watching territory

When we got home I tried to "stitch" together some panoramas from photos I took, which came out pretty cool but a bit small on the blog. You get the idea though. Pretty stuff.

A Day at Mt. Hutt

We've been talking about snowboarding in New Zealand since we visited in 2011. Maybe since before that. I can't keep track of all the things I claim I'm going to do in my lifetime. But this weekend I finally got to tick that box. Get up the hill, to the Southern Alps, and get some runs in on the old snowboard. Sweet!

We always lived close enough to the snow for a day trip, but it's downright convenient from Christchurch. We went to Mt. Hutt, which is by no means the closest ski field we could have chosen. It is, however, the closest one with ski lifts, which we felt were necessary after nearly 18 months off.

Sooo close! Yet half way across the country.

Yeah, about that. All the "club fields" (as opposed to "ski fields", not to be confused with the much larger and fancier "ski resorts"... which are in other countries) have rope tows and if you're lucky, T-bar tows. No unnecessary chair lifts. Don't worry, club fields still cost you a pretty penny to skit at, so your wallet won't know you're missing out on the ritzy experience. But on the flip side, you'll be one of few, instead of one of a few thousand.

The drive to Mt. Hutt is beautiful, mostly through farmland (where I saw the biggest fattest pink pig of my life).

It seems like you're just driving along staring at sheep until BAM, there's a mountain in the paddock (see above picture). Then you cross a river (below picture), then you stop in Methven to buy chains because that didn't occur to you, then you start your ascent up the hill. It's a fairly formidable drive up Mt. Hutt, and apparently that's one of the milder ones. Regardless, beautiful views ensued.

When's the last time you could see the ocean from your ski resort?

Fencing that looks very likely to slow down an avalanche....

If you ever visit New Zealand's mountainy regions, you're likely to meet a Kea. The first time we met a kea, was in Arthur's Pass 2 years ago. We came up on them after a hike in the rain. There were 3 of them eating the weather stripping off our rental car. We laughed (because the car was a rental) and took tons of touristy pictures of them doing ridiculous things.

This time, they were digging rocks and ice chunks out of the snow... for what purpose, you ask? Solely to chuck the rocks and ice chunks at each other. Awesome. So, again, we laughed and took tons of touristy pictures of them doing ridiculous things.

The snow parrot, the snow, the farms, and the ocean.

Close up Kea and his weapon of choice in beak, ready to be hurled...

The rest is less interesting to read/write about. We snowboarded. We had a really good time. It was sunny and nice out. Not nearly as crowded as Tahoe. Mt. Hutt is one of the largest and highest ski fields in NZ, and yet is about as big and as crowded as Mt. Shasta. Pretty sweet.

Looking off towards the west...

Wish I'd had the 2 wines it looks like I had!

Anyhow, all in all a great day. And it's awesome to ski until closing, be leisurely, stop for pies on the way home, and still roll in at 6pm! And I got to tick one of those vital life boxes. 

Adventures in the Dark

My last post was about the Craigieburn Enduro. It was fun, but the fun didn't actually end with the bike race. The next day we went on a subterranean mission though Cave Stream.

Cave Stream is the least creative name ever as it sounds, a stream that runs through a tunnel like cave. It's right by Craigieburn and Castle Hill, about 90 minutes west of Christchurch. Scott and I ran across this place 2 years ago actually, but we didn't partake at the time due to lack of flashlights and the fact that it was raining outside. 

So 6 of us took off for our little adventure. Half of the crew had done it before and were uber prepared in the warm clothing department. I, on the other hand, packed a bikini and water shoes. Don't go judging me though... Scott packed board shorts and normal every day shoes. You'd think we'd never been outside the city. Jeez. So dressed in bike clothes and borrowed wool jerseys, we set off...

Approaching the cave, you'd never know there was anything special happening in this hill, but one turn to the left, and you have this:

If I'm being honest, my reaction to gaping holes in the earth is usually, "Hey, lets actually go the other way." Deep dark places tend to be home to icky spidery things and slimy sludgy stuff. My adventurous side and my XX chromosomes always battle though, because I really want to see what's in there. Without touching it. Tricky.

Cave Stream is a limestone tunnel, 594 meters in length. And I just found out that its true name is Broken River Cave, thank you wikipedia. I was also just about to rave about the absence of spidery icky things, but the internet just informed me that not only is there an "abundance of invertebrate fauna", but Cave Stream is also home to a rare spider called the Cave Harvestman. It is only found in this cave and one other cave in the whole world. This spider eats the invertebrate and other "small cave creatures". Wait, I thought there were only invertebrates. And the (disgustingly named) Harvestman Spider. Now there's small cave creatures too? 

I'm damn thankful I didn't go googling this adventure before it happened.

Our group easing into the water for the first time...

Navigating the cave... unaware the Cave Harvestman is watching... plotting...

Actually, when traversing through the cave it truly does feel devoid of flora and fauna. The water is so clear and the limestone walls look fake. I told Scott I felt like somebody at Disneyland let me inside a secret tunnel in the Matterhorn. Super glad we didn't run into any abominable snow men though... 

Anyways...

We look stunned because we all turned our headlamps off so that the camera could get a good photo. Complete darkness, then FLASH!

The nature of the limestone lends to fun rock climbing experimentation

Such crystal clear water!... at about 40-something degrees. Brr!

The entire adventure took about an hour, which is probably about the most amount of time one should spend in cold water in a cold cave. It could be done a lot faster too... but we took every opportunity to check out fingers of offshoot tunnels (probably where the 8 legged terrorist lives... gah!) and clamber around on the rocks.

A waterfall at the end requires the adventurer to either scale a large rock wall, or climb these rungs... both sketchy!

Light at the end of the tunnel, as they say...

Hiking back up to the car, beautiful New Zealand, and a water droplet on the lens.

If you're thinking of checking out Cave Stream, and I really do highly recommend it, don't forget the following:

Warm clothes on top, wool is pretty essential

Board shorts or wool tights (jeans are dangerous!)

Headlamp or flashlight, 1 per person

Good solid shoes- definitely no flip flops!

Waterproof camera

Sacrificial offering for the Cave Harvestman

Kodak Moments: Craigieburn

Here's a few photos from a ride last week in Craigieburn. You may recall that last time we came to ride bikes here, I forgot my bike shoes. This time I remembered all my gear, and it earned me about 2,500 feet of climbing, and then one incredible descent. As you can see in the pictures below, the tracks Craigieburn are pretty unique, and the mountains in the area are breathtaking. We're heading to a race in this area again next weekend, so stay tuned!

(I really like this one)