Countries visited: New Zealand, Australia
Cycled mileage in December: 945.0km
Cycled mileage per country: 172.6km New Zealand, 772.4km Australia
Total cycled mileage incl. December: 29,685.6km
December mileage not cycled 11.1km (walking) - Flight not included!
Days per country: 12d - New Zealand, 19d - Australia
Days cycling: 11d
Technical failures: 5 punctures
Link to this month's route
Back in November we reached Christchurch. We spent quite some time there changing and updating our gear. After nearly 2 years travelling there was a fair bit of wear to some of it. Other parts of our gear just no longer suited our needs. Check out our recently published pack list for details.
Our flight to Australia would be on 13th so there was still some time left once we were done with our chores. Instead of faffing about we decided to ride to nearby Akaroa for a few days.
Akaroa is located at a bay and it is surrounded by the remnants of an extinct volcano. We slightly underestimated how much uphill would be involved in getting across those volcanic remnants! The ride along the Little River Rail Trail was great fun, though.
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| Little River Rail Trail |
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| Hilly ride to Akaroa |
We spent 5 days at a holiday park in Akaroa and made friends with some of the staff there. It was a truly interesting time with some great conversations. One day Marina offered to teach us how to cook Spaetzle, a speciality from her home town in Germany. One can hardly get further away from Germany than in New Zealand so we figured that a German cooking lesson would be just the right thing to do. No need to mention it was great fun!
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| Akaroa Bay |
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| Simon snuck into the painting of this unknown artist |
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| Sunset... |
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| ...and Supermoon |
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| Preparing Spaetzle with Marina |
Eventually it was time to return to Christchurch. We used the days there to clean our bikes for the Australian biosecurity and to prepare everything for the flight.
After 2 ½ month it was time to leave New Zealand. During take-off there was a fair bit of rain, once airborne the plane was covered in clouds but just before the main land got out of sight the clouds lifted and we got a last glimpse of New Zealand.
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| On the way back to Christchurch |
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| Hostel in Christchurch |
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| Last glimpse of New Zealand |
Uneventful 4 hours later we arrived to Sydney. Immigration, customs and biosecurity were hassle-free and soon we started re assembling our bikes. Once we were done we cycled to our hostel near Sydney central station and arrived there in the early afternoon. We treated ourselves to a pizza and then went to bed. We had hardly had any sleep last night due to the early flight and we felt completely shattered.
The next day we met once more with Ida and Robin, the Swedish touring cyclists we had met in Kyrgyzstan and Laos and that now live in Sydney. After a fun night out with them we left Sydney the next morning.
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| Re assembling the bikes in Sydney |
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| Christmas decoration in Sydney CBD |
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| Sydney Opear House revisited |
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| Breakfast in Sydney |
It was a pain to get out of Sydney. There are hardly any cycle paths in the suburbs and the 30 kilometres to the start of the motorway to Canberra took us more than 3 stressful hours. We had been dreading to cycle the motorway but actually it turned out to be so much nicer than the way out of Sydney! Even though the Hume Motorway (M31) is a 2 – 4 lane motorway with a speed limit of 100+ kph it is officially part of New South Wales' cycleway network. In fact there is a generous shoulder and crossing ramps for cyclists.
We made good progress and by late afternoon we were halfway between Sydney and Goulburn. There was a caravan park in the next city and so we decided to call it a day. On the way to the caravan park Dominik's rear tyre was slowly deflating but somehow he managed to get there before it was completely flat. Later we discovered a stunning triple puncture. The shoulder of the motorway was covered in broken glass and other debris so we prepared for more punctures during the next days.
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| The not so easy way out of Sydney |
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| Finally on highway M31 |
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| Sunset between Sydney and Goulburn |
After overcast skies the day before and rain showers during the night the next morning started with sunshine. Unfortunately we had to dry out the tent before we could leave and by the time we were on our way it was oppressively hot already. We wanted to get to Goulburn and the way there was a slog. The heat was unbearable, there was no shade along the motorway and there were a lot of ascents. We expected it to happen but fixing two punctures over the course of the day didn't help, either. Eventually we reached Goulburn.
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| Big Merino in Goulburn |
We managed to leave early the next morning and we also managed to visit another of Australia's Big Things – The Big Merino. The rest of the day went by uneventfully. We had a light tailwind once we had changed from the Hume Motorway onto the smaller Federal Highway. Halfway to Australia's capital Canberra we crossed the Great Dividing Range and thus the highest point on our way from Sydney to Melbourne. Eventually we also crossed the state border from New South Wales to the Australian Capital Territory and shortly after we reached our hostel in a suburb of Canberra.
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| Made it over the Great Dividing Range |
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| Kangaroo at a rest area |
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| Finally - the Australian Capital Territory |
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| Hostel in Canberra |
There isn't too much to say about the next 10 days. We knew there wouldn't be a lot to do in Canberra particularly during the holiday season. Essentially we had just planned to have a well-deserved break. There had been a number of zero-days in New Zealand but with chores to do they never really felt like a break. Long story short – we enjoyed good food, did a wee bit of sightseeing and that was it for most of our time in Canberra.
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| Cycling around in Canberra |
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| Australian War Memorial |
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| Royal Australian Mint |
On 27th we got back on the bikes. It wasn't particularly hot or particularly hilly but after 10 days it was a serious struggle to ride the 90+ kilometres! Finally we had left the stressful motorway and continued the way towards Melbourne on secondary roads. We found a free camp-site in a small village along the way and were grateful to call it a day.
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| Back in NSW |
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| Lunch break |
The next day our legs were sore to begin with and the ride was seriously hilly this time. We rode through one of Australia's prime wheat growing regions so that determined our views for most of the time. We had planned to pitch our tent on a rest area along the way. Disappointingly the rest area just wasn't suitable for camping. The only patches of grass were full of trash and located right between a public toilet and some railway tracks. Reluctantly we turned to the run-down motel on the other side of the road. The room was cheap but that was the only thing it had going for it. Even in India we didn't ever have a hotel that was as badly mosquito-infested!
We left with the first light the next morning. The weather forecast suggested strong wind and rain in the afternoon and we wanted to get as far as possible before that. No need to mention that wind and rain set in much earlier than forecasted! We re assessed our plan of camping and took a cabin instead. The sound of rain on the metal roof of the cabin all night convinced us that we made the right decision.
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| Chapel along Olympic Highway |
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| We just liked that place name ;-) |
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| Last day of riding in 2016 |
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| Albury |
The next morning we woke up to overcast skies but the clouds soon disappeared. The wind remained pretty strong, though, and we were pleased when we had bashed out the 110 kilometres to Albury by 2pm.
There wasn't anything special about Albury. It was just conveniently located for us to spend New Year's Eve there.
Happy New Year!
