Days 44-45: Palmerston North to Apiti, Apiti to Ohakune

Juliet, Sheree, and Lance

It was another Sunday morning, and it was time to hit the road again, but we were happy to be riding with the company of the incredible Lance and Juliet.  It's great when we stay with cyclists, because they not only know the best ways to treat us, but they also join us when we go!  Lance came with us for about an hour or so, but then went back for the car so he and Juliet could drive back.  So it was just the three of us ladies for a while.  We marvelled at the beautiful colors and the leaves starting to fall off the trees, and enjoyed the beautiful views while sharing great company.  It was one of the most beautiful and pleasant rides for the most part, but we all faced a few challenges.  Each of us at some point had a bit of an asthma attack, which was weird because none of us have ever had asthma!  It may have been the altitude or the weather, which was doing weird things by changing from rainy to sunny to cloudy to hot to cold... And Sheree and I had the challenge of keeping up with Super Juliet, who was quite a bit faster than us! 

When we got close to our destination, the paved road turned into a gravel road (or metal road, as they call it here) and we slowed right down but kept on going.  About halfway through the gravel road, Sheree noticed that she had a puncture!  We don't mind punctures so much, now that we know how to fix them, and we feel pretty good about ourselves when we do fix them!  But...we had unloaded our bags into Lance's car, and we had absolutely nothing on us to fix it!  As we started walking the bikes, we feared that rolling to tire over the gravel might not be good for the tire frame, so we hoisted the back of Sheree's bike onto my handlebars, and walked the bikes together the rest of the way.  (Its sounds more complicated than it actually was!)  When we got to the house, it was just about when Lance was about to get in his car and look for us, as it took much longer than they expected for us to arrive there. 

In the Limestone Caves

We stayed there with friends of Lance and Juliet, a lovely couple named Mary and Steve, and their son Pete was there also.  They took extremely good care of us with everything we could possibly imagine...a nice hot shower, tea and muffins, an delicious dinner, and Pete even took us out to explore the beauty of the area.  He was so passionate about the nature and wonder of the area, and is even planning to open a backpackers in the future so he can share it some more.  He took us to the Limestone Caves, where we saw glowworms up in the tops of the caves as the water dripped down the green walls and throughout the cave.  It was amazing!  And then we went on a short hike out to a hut where people can stay the night or go hunting and just enjoy the amazing views over the mountains.  We watched the sunset over the hills and talked about love and just had a wonderful evening! 

With the broken tube...

Beautiful Views along the way...

The next day ended up being probably one of my best and and worst days of this trip!   It started off by Sheree wanting to pump up her tire a bit more before we left, but it somehow broke the tube and we couldn't fix it, so we used our spare, only to find that we ere given the wrong size tubes, so we eventually stretched out the smaller tubes, hoping it would work enough to get us to the next bike shop. We were a couple hours behind schedule but we were moving...then we heard a hissing noise and and realized that the stretched tire had been stretched too much, there was a kink in it, which caused another puncture. That's when I realized that I left the puncture repair kit on the counter at the house! We did have another one but it was packed so far into my bag that I had to remove everything from my bike to get to it! So after a bit of yelling and cursing and crying and hugging, we eventually got it all fixed up and were "on the road again"...still having that song in our heads from watching a DVD that Mary had made, convincing the council to pave the road to their house, which featured that song.  Some of Steve and Mary's neighbors had stopped while we were fixing the tire and they said they'd call them when they got home. When we got back to biking, Peter came up to us in his car to check up on us. I guess he tried to call but we didn't have service so he came, brought us the puncture repair kit, and made sure we were ok. What a great guy! :) After that, it was pretty much uphill all the way to Waiarua, and when we got there we weren't sure if we'd make it to Ohakune because the sun was going down and we were exhausted. By when we stopped to ask about the road, we were happy to hear it was only another 27kms and flat! So we went for it, and we were never so happy to reach our destination as we were that night!! What a day!!

Days 40-43: Palmerston North to New Plymouth to Palmerston North

Leadership Day #2

We spent half of Wednesday in Palmy (Palmerston North) with meetings and internet and organizational time, and then we headed West to New Plymouth for the second of the two Leadership days with Ruth and Chris.  We set up for the next day, and Thursday was basically a repeat of Tuesday, just in another place.

Thursday night we had to say goodbye to Chris and Ruth, when they dropped us off back in Palmy and headed back to Wellington.  Our hosts in Palmy were a wonderful couple, Lance and Juliet, that we came in contact with through Warm Showers, which is a site just like Couch Surfing, but specifically for cyclists.  They immediately got on board with what we were trying to do, and Lance helped us to organize a fundraiser there in Palmy.  We hadn't planned on doing one there, but with his help, we knew we couldn't pass up this opportunity!  He did all of the organizing for us, and we just had to be there!  Thanks so much Lance!

Our World Vision Lantern

And us in the Parade!

On Friday we were to be in a lantern parade, where the people in the city made their own lanterns, moving around the town square to put them on display in a parade.  We made our lantern a globe and an eye, to symbolize World Vision, and with the words "WORLD VISION" hanging in between the two.  It was a lot of fun to make, and it turned out quite well.  We fixed them to our bikes and walked through the parade with the mayor of Palmerston North, all 3 of us wearing our World Vision t-shirts :)  It was quite a sight!  The participation in the parade was quite impressive, and the energy of the locals both participating and watching was great!  Even the bit of rain spitting down didn't put a damper on their spirits.

Some of the participants in our game!

The next morning, the festival continued.  There were rows of stalls set up all around the square, with people from different cultures, selling food and drinks and treats of every kind, as well as constant performances up on the stage to keep us all entertained for the day!  Thanks to Lance, we were able to get a stall and raise some money for World Vision.  We had the idea of playing "Count the Jellybeans" but then Lance embellished the idea, coming up with "Count the Fish" instead!  We borrowed 43 neon fish from Wet Pets, and Lance bought the tank, and for a gold coin donation, anyone could come along and guess the number of fish in the tank!  It was a great hit with the kids.  They were really attracted by the fish, and loved trying to count the fish as they moved all around the tank.  Some people said it was impossible, some sat there for what seemed like hours trying to count them, and some just threw down a random guess.  In the end, there were 3 winners who guessed 43 fish.  We put the three names in a hat and drew out the name Neeve.  Congratulations to Neeve, as the winner of the fish tank, and she can go to Wet Pets and choose 2 of her own Comet Fish!  Thank you to Wet Pets for donating the 2 fish as a prize!  We also sold some World Vision postcards that I made up from some of my photos from Kenya, along with the World Vision logos, and Lance had them printed off at Destination Manawatu (THANK YOU!!!).  It was a great opportunity to share about some of my experiences in Kenya with the people that were interested in the photos! 

The day ended at 4:00, just as it started to rain, but we were happy to have had a really pleasant 2 days in Palmy, and got a chance to be in the cultural festival, in a parade with the mayor, and to meet the wonderful local people of Palmerston North.  We went back home and shared a lovely dinner with Lance and Juliet (made by Lance, the celebrity chef I might add...) and went to bed, after our bikes had had a long break, ready to be ridden again the next morning...

We managed to raise $190 in Palmerston North.  Thank you to everyone who participated in the parade and the cultural festival, who helped raise money for the famine in Africa, and for making our stay a lovely experience!

Days 37-39: Porirua to Levin to Palmerston North to Hastings to Palmerston North...

Riding with our First Cycling Buddies!

 

Sunday morning, it was time to hit the road again.  Gabrielle and Martin decided to join us on their bikes for a part of the way.  We didn't expect a couple in their 50's to be difficult to keep up with, but these two were impressively fit and fast, and we were huffing and puffing to keep up with them!  They even helped us along by teaching us about streaming (at least I think that's what it's called!) where they ride right in front and block the wind, making it easier for us!  So, after about an hour or two, we stopped at the dairy, had an ice cream, and then had to say goodbye as they went home and we continued on...  



We continued on towards Levin, where we stayed with a lovely retired British couple named Gill and Johnathon, a little bit outside of Levin.  They let us use their hot tub, which was heaven for us after a day of riding the bikes, and they made a nice roast for dinner!  Dinner was so nice, but the best part was just hearing and sharing stories and laughs...another incredible couch surfing experience!  We also learned about the Time Bank, which you should all join, and I will hopefully join when I have a real home.  You can do work in your community for time instead of money, and then someone can come and do something for you for that time.  What a great concept!  Love it!

 

We got to Palmerston North the next day, just as the rain started pouring down.  Luckily we didn't get that wet, as we arrived in almost perfect timing.  This house that we arrived at was one that we got connected with through Warm Showers, which is basically a Couch Surfing website, but especially for cycists!  So we dropped off our bags and bikes with them, but unfortunately we couldn't stay long, because our new World Vision friends from Wellington came to pick us up and take us to Hastings!



  

Playing the Simulation Game



We were asked to join Chris and Ruth for their leadership days, where they would be encouraging and empowering student leaders from the high schools in the area, to do the 40hour famine in their schools.  They wanted to use us to show the students some examples of leadership in different ways, and also just to help out with whatever we could.  It was a perfect idea for us, because not only did it give us a few days of a break from our bikes, but we could also have a chance to learn more about World Vision, the Global Food Crisis, and to get us more excited about what WV is doing about the GFC!  It was lots of fun, and did exactly what it was meant to do, and we got a chance to get to know two really incredible people, who are totally passionate about what they do, and are making a huge difference in the world!  I have so much respect for what Chris and Ruth are doing.  It's not easy to get kids to be motivated and excited about something that's completly selfless, but they are doing an amazing job! 

Days 33-36: Wellington to Porirua

On Wednesday morning, we got started on our planning for the Wellington fundraiser.  We started out by going to the information center to get all the names and numbers and locations of anyone and everyone that might be able to help us with our fundraiser.  We were hoping to do a repeat of one of our better fundraisers, perhaps a car wash or a sausage sizzle.  They were easy and simple and we knew that they worked.  Unfortunately, in the big cities, there seems to be a lot more rules and a lot fewer people who are interested in helping out.  None of our prospective fundraisers seemed to be going anywhere, with a lot of people just telling us that they couldn't help us.

However, we did have a voucher from the lovely Fox Glacier, which we were going to raffle off, so we decided that here in Wellington would be a great place to do it, with plenty of people around and that they wouldn't mind buying raffle tickets.  So we got the permit from the council and set up to sell tickets in two locations, outside of Westpac bank, and outside of the Warehouse.  We thought we would do better if we were separate, to get to more people.  But we didn't have much luck separately, and besides being discouraged with the amount of people not buying raffle tickets, we were also bored, not being able to talk to each other.  So we scrapped that idea and Sheree came over to where I was at Westpac, and we tried it together.  We didn't have much luck together either, but at least we could hang out together!  Unfortunately, we had another mishap... Z had been amazing to donate to us a $50 petrol voucher which we added to the prize of the Fox Glacier tour, but in Windy Wellington, there were a couple of times that the wind blew everything off of the table, and at some point we realized that the petrol voucher was missing! We searched everywhere, and we still don't know if it was taken or if the wind blew it off the table... We had also the day before, decided to do the 40hour famine, in an effort to encourage the kids to do the famine, and also to hopefully get some sponsorships.  So, with our lack of raffle ticket sales, the petrol voucher disappearing, a random lady yelling at me for "working" (which I didn't and still don't understand), and being cold and hungry on top of all that, we were not having a very good day!  We decided to postpone the famine, and do it again when there was someone who would sponsor us, because all it was doing at that point was putting us in a worse mood than we already were.  So we went and ate Indian food!  Yay!  Food had never tasted so good!

Gabrielle and her amazing Cheesecake!

Later that night we went back home (oh by the way, home had moved to Porirua, where Sheree's cousin was living, in order to have some family time!) and we had a lovely meal, and decided to sell a few more raffle tickets around the neighborhood.  We did a little bit better, although not much, and brought our tickets sales about up to $100.  When we went back home, Gabrielle (Sheree's cousin) made everything better with her amazing dessert!  It doesn't matter how bad your day is, when it ends with a nice piece of strawberry cheesecake, nothing can be bad!

On Friday, we went to the World Vision Wellington office, to help them out with a few things.  This was great for us, because we got a chance to learn a bit more about World Vision, to meet some more of the staff, and to see how they run things and just to get more involved with them.  We just made a few calls to the schools around the area, inviting them to participate in the 40hour famine, and in the meantime, got a chance to talk about ideas and fundraisers, to share and hear stories, and just basically to get excited about what World Vision is doing around the world!  It was a huge turn around from the day before.

The Girls making Bracelets

Making a WV Banner!

And then on Saturday, it was an even better day!  We went to civic square, where the Wellington Girls College (that means high school for you Canadians) was doing a 40-hour sweat shop, instead of a famine.  They were making bracelets, selling sausages and baked sweets, and singing and dancing in the streets!  It was amazing to see the level of enthusiasm of these girls!  Not only had a lot of them been awake all night working, but they were totally excited and full of energy.  But what really impressed Sheree and I, was the way that these girls were working together, and how there really didn't seem to be a dividing line between the different social groups within the school.  Each girl seemed to interact with each other girl, and there seemed to be no segregation between the different social groups!  I'm not sure what it was, but I really think it was the very fact that they were commonly working towards a goal, which was to help out a cause that it outside of themselves!  The singing, the dancing, the joy... it was all so encouraging!

Days 31 & 32: Nelson to Rai Valley, Rai Valley to Piction, Picton to Wellington



The Ride from Nelson!

Sadly, it was time to say goodbye to Nelson on Monday.  We didn't have very far to go, so we took our time in the morning, and headed off just after lunch.  Ellie, our wonderful Nelson host had very kindly told us about the monstoruous hill that we would have to climb on our way to Rai Valley, and she said that when we see the spray-painted white star, we would know that we were at the top...of the first hill at least!  After a long, but absolutely stunning climb up that hill, we were happy that it wasn't as bad as it seemed, and we cruised down the other side of the hill, then did the next one, also not as bad as the first. 

Made it to Picton!

We got to Rai Valley and stayed with Sheree's Auntie, so we got to have some nice family time.  We chatted with Mom (Sheree's mom that is!) and looked at photos, and enjoyed a wonderful meal together.  It's great to have some family time!

On the Ferry

The next morning we headed out to Picton to catch the ferry.  We had to be there at 6, we got there a bit early and got our last fish 'n chips of the South Island, then got on the ferry.  We owe a huge thank you to the INTERISLANDER FERRY!   They gave us a free crossing to help us out.  We were so greatful to them.  The ferry was so nice, but with us not being in any vehicles besides our bikes for the last month, we seem to get a bit of motionsickness in cars and ferries.  But we managed to keep everything down, and were happy to land in Wellington.

We went to stay with Klara, who is the sister of a girl that we met in Bruce Bay, and a friend of Marik, the one who helped us wash cars in Hokitika!  So it was great to meet up with her, had a nice chat and see how much she looked and sounded like her sister!  We were quite tired from the day, so we went to bed early and passed right out, getting some good sleep for our Wellington adventures...

Days 28-30: Nelson and Golden Bay

On Friday, we got straight to work on organizing our Nelson fundraiser. Our original plan was to sit outside of a fruit and veg shop and sell some fruit juices, but we couldn't get a hold of any of the managers. Then we found out about the weekend market, so we thought we could set up a stall there instead! But we were quite disappointed with the organizers of that, who basically accused us of using World Vision's name and taking the money ourselves, and wouldn't even look at the blog or our contacts or allow us any way to show that we're actually legit. So, we were basically on our own for this fundraiser. Thankfully, BNZ was nice enough to allow us to sit outside their bank, and the city council granted us the permit, so we got to work doing what we could.

Fundraising in Nelson

Our next idea was "Bigger and Better". We started out with a pack of cookies and crackers from the city council (THANK YOU NELSON CITY COUNCIL!) and went around door to door to trade it for bigger and better things! We had a lot of people who just wanted to give, but didn't want to trade, so we ended up with quite a lot of things at the end! We were going to have an auction or raffle with what we got, but in the end we decided to play a little game on the street. For the people who wanted to play, they would make a donation, roll a dice, call a number, and if they rolled their number they could choose a prize! It worked out perfectly, because we had just run out of prizes by the time the traffic had started to die down. We didn't make nearly as much as we had hoped, but we put the $70 into the account, and headed home, a little disappointed but happy to have made a little, which was better than nothing!

The next day, we took a proper day off to take our minds off of fundraising for a bit! Since we were so close, we decided to go to the Abel Tasman National Park, but by hitchhiking! The ladies of Nelson were good to us that morning! Our first ride was a mom and her two little girls, who kept us entertained until they turned off and we tried for a second ride. Then 2 more lovely ladies picked us up and took us the rest of the way, and also stopped along the way so we could take photos and get some delicious fruit! They also told us about International Biking Naked Day! This is a day to promote cycling around the world, for health and planet reasons, and the nakedness I guess is just to attract attention! Well, of course Sheree and I were totally excited about this idea, but a little disappointed that the one day we didn't have our bikes, was the day that we come across this! But we figured we'd go anyways, and see how we could get involved...

The Maori Spring

International Biking Naked Day!

We had a few hours to kill, so first we went out of town a bit to see a spring that is sacred to the Maoris and it was absolutely gorgeous! It was the clearest water we had ever seen! It was a beautiful sunny day and about an hour before the festival, we started heading back to hitch a ride there. We didn't think it would be so hard to get a ride a few kilometers, but as we were walking and waiting and hoping for a ride, it hit 3:00 and we were sure we would miss it! But luckily, a guy in a very crowded little ute stopped because of the desperation in our faces, and took us straight to the festival, just in time to see them start off down the street, bodies painted, completely naked on bicycles of all kinds, from kids to old people, excited to promote their great cause! At this point, the only thing we could do was smile and take photos... We had no bikes to join, and just stripping down and running after them didn't seem appropriate. But then...! We noticed a poor naked guy, struggling to stay on a unicycle! The definitely looked like he needed some support, so being the super helpful girls that we are, we got on either side of him, and gave him our shoulders to support him all the way to the end! We were pretty pleased with ourselves, that we had figured out a way to make it somehow into the festival! And we made a new friend too :) After a very successful and fun day, we hitched a ride back to our Nelson home.

Sunday was another rest day, and since we were in the company of such a wonderful host, we wanted to spend the afternoon hanging out with her! She's just the type of person I love! Relaxed, friendly, and likes to play games!! So we spent a few hours first going to a multicultural festival, which was awesome by the way, and I finally got to see the Haka! And then we came back home, did some baking, and brought a few of our new friends over (including some ransoms we met while fundraising, and the naked unicyclist) and had a games day! It was such a fun day, and after that weekend, we weren't bothered at all that the fundraiser didn't go so well... We love Nelson!!!

Days 26 & 27: Murchison to Belgrove, Belgrove to Nelson

After a nice day relaxing in Murchison, we hit the road again headed towards Belgrove.  It was a 90km ride to get there.  It started off a nice day again, and the road wasn't so hilly, and my bike was holding up well enough... When we got about half way, we stopped for lunch at a "bike-packers" which is just what it sounds like... a backpackers for bikers!  But we were only halfway so we got back on the bikes after lunch. 

Fixing the Puncture!

About 30 seconds later, we had our second bike mishap of the trip...a puncture!  Sheree's back wheel had gotten a hole in it, so we got out or tools and tried to attempt a puncture repair, the first one for both of us!  Well, it took us about a half hour to do, but we did it!  And we were pretty pleased with ourselves too :)  We don't need men!  At least for this job ;)  Then we got back at it, had a few huge hills to climb, and with my bike still not able to get into the smaller gears, we had to walk quite a few of them. 

Family Dinner Time :)

Eventually we made it to Belgrove, where we were greeted by an amazing Couch Surfing family, who welcomed us into their home, fed us until our bellies were bursting, and the kids even entertained us by playing twister and cards with us!  It was really great to have some family time with them.  In the morning, it was back on the road for us...

We headed off to Nelson, but stopped off in Richmond to get my bike fixed.  That's where I found out that not only my derailleur hanger was broken, but also my derailleur, and so that meant it was a $150 fix, not just a $30 one...not the greatest news, but I just pulled out the visa card and forgot about it :)  Then we only had about 10 more kilometers to go to get to Nelson. 


We're staying in Nelson with a friend of the Volunteer Coordinator for World Vision here in Nelson, and she is absolutely wonderful!  We felt at home right away, had a coffee, then got straight to work planning the Nelson fundraiser.  We finished off the night with a Quiz night at one of the local bars... Got last place again, but had a lot of fun!

Days 24 & 25: Reefton to Murchison

When we woke up in Reefton, our main objective was to get the bike fixed and keep moving.  But we had to wait until 9:00 for the shop to open, so there wasn't much point in getting up early.  We had a nice little sleep in, and then headed downtown for some breakfast and then went to the bike shop, and found out that the guy who could fix it wouldn't be in until noon!  This was alright, because we had no choice but to relax and enjoy the cute little town of Reefton.  We had a nice chat with the people at the pub where we ate, and also with Murray and Helen at the Old Nurses' Home, where they were kind enough to put us up for the night.  A huge THANK YOU to them! 

The Awesome Bike Shop Guy!!!

When we got to the bike shop in the afternoon, we found out that they didn't have the hanger, which was the part that was broken, and after them calling just about every bike shop in the vicinity, our chances of getting it fixed seemed pretty slim.  Just when I thought I was going to have to ride for another 2 days with only one gear, the guy at the shop (shoot, I don't think I got his name!) went hunting in the back of his shop and found a piece from an old bike that he could jimmy up and make a new hanger for me...at least a temp one that could get me to Nelson!  So he took the saw and the grinder to it, and eventually came up with a piece that was good enough to get me 3 out of 7 gears on one side, and all 3 gears on the other!  I was more than happy with that!  I wish I could give the name of this shop to recommend to people, but I don't know what it's called!  But if you're ever going through Reefton, you have to go to the Fishing/biking shop, because the people there are amazing!  So I told them how great they were and we headed off to get to Murchison at 3:00. 

We made it to 1000kms!

We had to go about 80kms before the sun went down, so we didn't stop much the entire way...just for a few minutes for some chocolate, and then got back on the bikes.  We made it just about 10 minutes after it turned pitch black.  Let's hope we don't have to bike in the dark anymore! 

Couch Surfing with Lian and Dave!

When we got to Murchison, we were greeted by our wonderful Couch Surfing hosts, Lian and Dave from Scotland.  They were so good to us, gave us a nice hot soup and delicious dessert, and even wanted to go to bed early which is exactly what we wanted to do as well!  The next day we just had a lazy day.  We had planned to go white water rafting, but the company wouldn't do it for just 2 people, so we waited for some more, and no one came, so we didn't get to go.  It was nice to just have a day to relax and recharge our batteries though, especially after the last 2 days, we definitely needed it!  When Lian came home that evening, we had a nice meal and chat, and even found another cyclist to come for dinner, where we all exchanged stories and laughs and a couple of bottles of wine :)

Days 22 & 23: Hokitika to Reefton

Our last day in Hokitika was our first actual "rest" day since the start of this trip.  We have had other days where we didn't have anything scheduled, but we just ended up spending the entirety of those days on the computer, planning, or preparing for fundraisers, or looking for accommodation.  But Saturday was heaven...just relaxing, baking, chatting with family, and Jason took us out on an excursion to see the pancake rocks at sunset.  It was such a nice day!  After a nice dinner, we went to bed early, for our early rise the next day, about to do our longest ride yet...

Sunday morning we got up early, said goodbye to Jason, and headed off towards Reefton, all set to ride 120kms.  The sun was shining, the waves were crashing to our left, the view of the mountains to our right, and the road ahead looked "flat as", as they say here in NZ.  We got to Greymouth 40kms later, still full of energy, and decided to wait until halfway for our lunch break.  Then we got to 59kms and started looking for a nice place to stop for lunch...

I saw a hill up ahead and as I got up, I realized it was a steep one, and I had to either get off and walk or get up on the bike standing.  Not wanting to get off, I stood and pedaled hard and fast... After about 10 seconds, everything seized up and I had to stop.  I looked behind me and saw that my reflective vest that I had taken off and tied onto my bag had fallen down and tangled itself in my derailleur (new word for me...aka the thing that the chain goes through on the back wheel!)  So I got off and somehow got it out, but when I got back on the bike, the derailleur had turned upside down and tangled itself in the wheel... That's when I knew we had a big problem!  After about 15 minutes of getting all greasy and trying to fix it myself, but having no clue what I was doing, we flagged down a car, asked for his help, and he then snapped the entire thing off of the bike!  I guess it would've happened anyways, but it just confirmed that we really did have a BIG problem!  So he went away after promising to come back with a new derailleur, so we just sat down and had our lunch on the side of the road and waited for him to come back.

He did come back, with his friend who knew more about bikes than he did, and together the two of them temporarily fixed my bike, at least enough to get us to Reefton, but I wasn't able to change gears.  Basically I put it on one gear, and it would shift itself whenever it felt like it, and usually in the opposite direction that I would've changed it!  And I had to get off and put the whole chain back on after if falling off about 5 or 6 times, but eventually it seemed to be used to it's new way of working, and we got to Reefton, just before the sun set, 11 hours after we had started biking that morning!  ...Sigh!...

We stayed at the Old Nurses Home in Reefton, where they were so kind to us, and we went and got some dinner, and came back and got into our extremely welcoming beds after a nice long shower!  It was definitely the most challenging day of the trip so far!!!

Days 19-21: Hari Hari to Hokitika

After a much needed sleep in the Hari Hari Motor Inn, we were given a nice little job in exchange for the amazing food and sleep... cleaning cobwebs from around the building.  Now, compared to the spiders and webs in my house in Australia, this job was a piece of cake!  The spiders were so small if we did even see any, and I knew that none of them had the power to kill me, so I didn't mind at all!  And we both always appreciate the chance to work on our upper body rather than our exhausted legs! 

When the spiderwebs were all gone, we got back on the bikes, although not very enthusiastically, since we were enjoying our time in Hari Hari so much with our new friends, and also because it was raining, and we weren't looking forward to another cold and wet day on the bikes.  But we kept going anyways, hoping that it would clear up later on.  40kms later we got to Ross, and the rain still hadn't let up.  We found a nice little cafe with a fire and got some hot sandwiches and decided to take a little rest.  After a couple of card games and dart games and 2 or 3 hours later, we figured it was time to get back at it, even though we really weren't in the mood for it!  But thankfully, the rain was way less than it was before!

When we finally came into Hokitika, we were greeted by our next Couch Surfing host, Jason!  Jason is an absolute angel for a weary traveler.  He promptly made us all comfortable with a shower, hot tea, and a nice chat, and even let us wash our desperately dirty clothes!  We immediately fell in love with his home, filled with creativity and openness, and his friendly dog and cat!   After looking at the weather forecast and seeing that torrential rain was coming on the day we were to ride out, it was obviously a very painful decision that we had to stay an extra day ;) 

The next morning, we set out to plan our next fundraiser...the Car Wash!  After checking 3 places, we finally found the perfect location...the New World (grocery store) parking lot, where they agreed to let us use their space, their hose, and even to provide the buckets and cloths and everything we would need for the event!  Gary and Robin, the managers of New World, were amazing and were more than helpful to us!  We are so happy to have met such wonderful people here in Hokitika. 

Friday morning, it was pretty cloudy and cold, and we were a bit worried that it might rain, which would be a disaster for a car wash!  But we put on Jason's bright orange rain jackets and hoped for the best as we set out to do the car wash anyways, and see what happens!  After about 2 cars, we had worked hard enough that we were warm enough to take off the jackets, and then the only thing that was cold were our hands...well, mine at least!  We had the music pumping, and cars were lined up to get washed, and the donations were piling up!  We had a great start to the day, however by about 3:00, the clouds were getting thicker, and then the rain started up.  We had a couple cars trickle in after that, but then we just decided to call it a day.  We made about $230 by the end of it, which we were happy with, but we think it would've been much better if the sun had been out.  Thanks to everyone who came out to get your car washed, and also for those who made a donation without even a car wash.  And especially a big thanks to Gary and Robin, for your help and support.  We couldn't have done it without you!  Also, we want to thank Marik, who we met in Bruce Bay, who was randomly in Hokitika and decided to come out and help us wash cars!  It got way easier when he came!


After the car wash, we spent the evening playing pool at Jason's house!  Jason and Andrea beat the pants off of Marik and Sheree!  (I'm the one who gets to write the blog though, so keep that in mind :) hehe) but we all had a great time!  Hope you made it back safe last night Marik!