Finita La Comedia
As hard as it is to believe, we’ve actually made it to our final destination today — Queenstown! In light of these wonderful circumstances, I’ve wanted to share some interesting statistics about the trip so far:
Total Distance Covered by Bike: 727km (but maybe I can round it up to a 1,000?)
Most Distance Covered in 1 Day: 110km
Lowest Speed: 4.3km/hour (those hills 😦 …)
Highest Speed: 63.7km/hour (those hills :)!)
Average Weight Carried: 52lbs (plus panniers) composed of 35lbs gear + 3 liters of water + 6 lbs of food a
Total Biking Accidents: 4 (including flats, falling off the bike, etc.)
Total Power Bars Eaten By Me: Between 60–80 (3+/day and I’m still hungry…)
Amount of Water Consumed in a Day: 3–6 liters each
# Of Times We Had to Explain Our Trip to Others: Between 30–40 (at least once a day)
# Of Showers We’ve Had: 4 for me, 2 for Anya (just a rough estimate)
How Often We Complained to Each Other About Other Person’s Smell: Every Day
# Of German Tourists We’ve Met: One too many…
# of Flights It Takes To Get Here & Back to the States: 9 (4 here and 5 back)
# of Sandfly Bites We Got: At least 30 each
# of Sandflies We’ve Killed: At least a 100 each and counting!
I had more, but as I was writing this, my computer decided to restart, effectively deleting everything. So, I’ll add more as I recall them.
Now, that we’re in Queenstown, we will be returning our bikes, as per the rental agreement. We were originally planning to do a 3-day hike in the Fiordland National Park, but unfortunately, most of them require at least 4 days and an advanced booking (unlike most parks, this one is so popular, that you need to reserve it in advance!). Plus, I am recovering from a cold a few days ago and Anya got food poisoning, so we’ll take it easier in our last few days.
So, we thought about it and decided to spend our last few days doing something we tried to avoid throughout the trip. We’ll rent a car and explore the South area of the South Island on it before making our way to Christchurch in order to catch our flight. I guess we’ll become regular tourists now!
I’ll do my last post in a few days before coming home. See everybody soon!
-Borya
Amateur Home Videos — Straight From New Zealand!
I just had a chance to sort through some of the videos that we recorded throughout the trip but haven’t had a chance to upload it because of the slow connections. So here you go:
NOTE: Before you watch our videos, I highly recommend that you watch the 3-minute commentary by Lewis Black on his trip to New Zealand. It’s funny, but completely true.
Our Videos:
New Zealand — Sleeping in the Rain
We wake up to find out that the rain is dumping on our tent; everything is wet and cold; and we have to get out and start biking!
Our Sad Hitchhiking Experience
In the spirit of adventure, we decided to park the bikes and hitchhike for a day. Unfortunately, the experience turned out to be less romantic that expected.
Our First Live Coverage of NZ On a Ferry
We bring you almost-live, top-notch reporting straight from the waters of New Zealand. Ahh, look how happy we are… it was right before we started biking.
Milking a Sheep
So, we milked a couple of sheep. Nothing wrong with that… right?
Shaving a Sheep
… and then we shaved a sheep. If I lived in New Zealand, I’d probably be a professional sheep shaver. ANYA SHAVING
Figuring Out Where To Go …
We just got into a much-anticipated town (store, 3 houses and 5,000 sheep) where everything turned out to be closed. So, now we’re deciding on where to go next and where to crash for the night.
Getting Out of a Cave
I wonder how smart it was to go into a cave after heavy rain… but either way, we came out victorious and quite happy.
Hiking in the Nelson Lakes
Pretty views, but you can’t hear me speak… so it gets a lower rating :)
We Just Got a Car
After we returned the bikes, we rented a car in order to drive 1,000 miles to our airport. I think this was the happiest day of my life :)
We showed those hills!
These are the two videos that I posted in an earlier post:
Originally published at boba.wordpress.com on January 25, 2008.
