So close yet so far!
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 💬 0
So for the second time in a week, I am holed up in a backpacker because of bad weather! Now I am at lake Tekapo, if I could ride every day from tomorrow on, I would arrive in Queenstown in exactly a week. Somehow I don't think thats going to happen!
Going to Queenstown with an aching heart.
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 💬 0
Well its that time again. As some of you have probably noticed, I haven't been as in touch as much as I would like.
Letter to my mum
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 💬 0
Hey mum!
La vida loca!
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 💬 0
Hey ya'll!
I've been riding my ass off for about a week and I am now finally in Christchurch! Its been a good trip, good riding, good people, good everything. I dont have many words that can describe it. I let the pictures do the talking.
12 hour madness
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 💬 0
Well now that I have control of my fingers enough to type again I figure I'd tell you about this weekend, and the Blues Brews and BBQ festival. This is kiwi drinking culture at its best!
Rest in peace, SS Waverly
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 💬 0
Hey dad this one is for you!
Today, unlike most days in sunny Blenheim, turned out to be an exciting day. Sitting around the backpacker is no fun, so me and 2 of my friends decided to go for a walk in the Wairau lagoons, basically where all the sewage from the town goes to get processed. Little did we know there was a shipwreck waiting for us down by the sea! What they were thinking trying to navigate through the swamp I do not know, but it a sight to see!
I noticed a strange feature. If you look at the 3rd photograph, you’ll notice there is a huge gaping hole in the hull. All the metal around it is also bent inwards, now, I’ve played a few videogames in my life, and I can tell you thats no regular decay! I think this ship was sunk by a human enemy.
The SS waverly is decaying and sad, its only crew is small crabs and spiders, with the occasional backpacker. But I still think shes impressive, take a look for yourself!
The days go by...
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 💬 0
Hey guys just wanted to put more pictures up. I’ve been working really hard and saving a lot of money but its not easy. Just a few more weeks and I should have enough mula to keep going. The people here are really fun and I’ve met some people I will never forget. Can’t wait to tell you about them when I get back, because the story is far from finished.Anyhoo, heres some pictures from work. Subsitute the vines for flowers and it looks just like the fields in HMB!
Smoko break!
Wire lifting in the sun.
Trying to catch some shade during the lunch break.
Finally! The after work beer rush!
Trying to look happy about my severly sunburnt face, and its ridiculous treatment: natural yoghurt. Girls know best.
Wellington
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 💬 0
I’ve been hanging out in the Capitol city of New Zealand, Wellington, for the last 2 days. Its everything a capitol should be, artistic, cultured, awe inspiring and rich. Its also immaculately clean, no garbage, no bums. Except for one, but hes a happy bum with dreds that just lays around on the sidewalk by my hostel in nothing but his man thong.
I visited the Parliment building today, which is shaped like a beehive. I’m not sure if thats supposed to be making a statement because if so it seems fairly negative to me. I aslo spent a few hours in the National Library, which was big, but not New York big, and the Botanical Gardens which was kinda neat. The architecture here is old and impressive, but of course can’t even shake a stick at Washington D.C.
Have fun back in school guys.
but nothing comes to mind.
Still Here
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 💬 0
Wednesday, Dec 6, 2006
Hey just letting everyone know I’m still alive. I’ve been working the tips of my fingers to the bone sanding at the polish shop, but money is money, eh? Besides that nothing more exciting than the awesomeness that is every day of life here has happened. Later guys!
The Misty Mountain Hop
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 💬 1
Hey guys remember the scene from Lord of the Rings where the fellowship pass through the misty mountains? The song Led Zepplin sings? Yea you guessed it, I rode through em. They are not only called the misty mountains in LOTR. One Maori (native new zealanders, think American Indians but waaaay more baddass) I came across was really curious about why a person would be riding his bike on this hilly road. I talked with him for a while and he explained that the Maoris called this place the "Land of the Mist" and the people that live here "Children of the Mist" I AM NOT KIDDING YOU!!! how cool is that. Its hard to tell from the pictures but the place really was misty, it was always floating through the air like smoke, and it was always, always raining.
Unfortuneatly I can't really say that I enjoyed it all too much, until I was finished with it. I started out from Rotorua into this eerie land about a week and half ago, a day after my last journal entry. It was pouring rain, but that didn't deter me. It is summer after all, how long could it last? A very long time, I came to realize. It didnt stop raining for 5 days straight, with the exception of a beautiful 3 hour break on the 4th day. All this time I spent riding on a dirt road, that became more like a mud road, with no people, no accomodation not even stores around me. Just the misty mountains, the birds, animals and the occasional Maori. I packed all my food with me. The menu consisted of noodles and canned beef, bread and luckily some chocolate my mom sent me for Xmas for breakfast. It got old really fast.
The going was tough and by the second day everything that I owned was soaking wet. My tent had a permanent puddle in the middle of it. I wasnt camping in camp sites, oh no, but out in the bush a few hundred meters from the road. My water came from streams (best tasting water I have ever had) and I learned what native plants are best to wipe your ass with (when you use leaves, always go against the grain, it works better that way) Anyway, after 3 days I began to become quite miserable. But what doesnt kill you make you stronger, right? If anything the horrid conditions inspired my legs, because I pedalled like hell to get out of there. The 3rd night I finally made it to lake Waikaremoana, and camped in an actually designated camp site, a sign that I was inching closer to civilization. On the 5th day I finally made it to Wairoa, a small town on the coast, and I was so wrecked that I plopped down the $90 for a hotel room. I've never enjoyed myself so much. I thawed out my hands with the hairdryer (windchill sucks when its raning and cold to begin with) and laughed manically as I discoverd the bed had an electric blanket. It was truely heaven. I bought a six pack and watched tv for 6 hours, perfectly happy in doing so. I had ridden 226km in total.
After that night I rode a small 13km to a farm hostel, where I rested for 2 days, got food poisoning, and ended up staying for another 3. While there I did some pretty cool things, like eat lamb tails and shooting clays with a shotgun. It was good, except for the vomiting and diaharrea. But at least I was warm and dry.
And now Im in Napier, a rather big city, enjoying the crowds and pretty women.
Merry Xmas folks!
