Christchurch must have been a lovely city before the earthquake knocked it down, it is hard to believe it looks the way it does, there is still so much work ahead to get the city back. From Christchurch we headed inland to Mount Cook. We stopped at Lake Tekapo to look at the old stone church, the wind was just incredible and it had made riding so unpleasant, and scary for Julie. We could see lots of cloud in the direction of Mt Cook and we had been told that if you couldn't see it from Lake Tekapo, then you won't see it when you get there. The weather was looking very threatening, so we decided to find shelter in a campground in Twizel, we were so glad we did, because that night it bucketed down and in the morning there was a fresh coating of snow on all the mountains around us. We decided to head to Mt Cook on the off chance of seeing it, the sky was clear in Twizel. As we got closer to Mt Cook the clouds got thicker and thicker until we were riding in rain. We didn't get to see Mt Cook and could only just see Tasman Glacier. What we could see of the area was very nice, but right now it was cold and wet. We spent another sheltered night in Twizel before following some lovely back roads to Dunedin.
Dunedin lived up to our expectations, we had been told it was hilly and English, and it was both. After a walk around the main city we headed out onto the Otago Peninsula to the Royal Albatross Centre where it was cold, wet and windy. We couldn't afford the tour to see the birds on their nests, but we learnt a lot about the birds in the very good centre. We then braved the conditions outside and did see a couple of the Royal Albatross in flight, which was great. Back in Dunedin we visited Baldwin Street, reputed to be the steepest residential street and the world, and it was crazy steep, way steeper than Lombard Street in San Francisco. While in Dunedin we received a call from home which resulted in us being needed back at home ASAP. So the next morning we started heading north to Auckland, taking the quickest route possible. The day started out horrible with rain and not much wind, then the rain gave way to horrendous winds again, we were so glad we had booked a cabin in Kaikoura, the wind here was so strong it was hard to walk in it.
The next morning we left earlier before the wind started, it turned out to be one of the best days we had in NZ. We followed the coast to Blenheim and then decided we had time to head inland and up a valley to Havelock before heading along Queen Charlotte Sound to Picton, this was a very nice ride and very picturesque. We then caught the ferry to Wellington along with a load of bikies. We spoke to one chap with a tattooed face who was quite nice, he explained they had been on their annual ride to the South Island. The ride from Wellington to Auckland was a long and hard ride, 625K and eight hours of riding. The roads were quite windy at times and as the GPS was taking us in as direct a route as it could we passed through some lovely forests and valleys, we also avoided a lot of the wind and only had to put up with light rain. Back in Auckland we arranged to drop the bike off at the shippers after giving it a good clean. Again Phil at GT Logistics was a great help and dropped us at the airport. Unfortunately with the change in plans we really didn't get to see much of NZ and the weather didn't make touring very nice at all, we guess it just means we will have to come back to finish what we started. Until we get back to Perth we don't know what will happen with regards to our Australian travels, we had wanted to ride the bike from Melbourne back to Perth via Darwin, we will just have to see what happens.