COUNTING SHEEP BY BICYCLE
Sunday, March 11th, 2007Well, I’ve only got a few minutes to post here in Queenstown, New Zealand and there is so much to talk about. Our last week in Vietnam was fascinating. We then flew from Ho Chi Minh City to Hong Kong and had four very surprising days exploring one off the densest cities in the world. We managed to ride 6 transit systems there including MTR (Subway), Airport Train, double decker buses, double decker trams (wild), the historic peak tram, and ferries to Lamma island, an extremely peaceful car-free island just 30 minutes from the intensity of Hong Kong and Kowloon.
A VERY WISE OLD MAN ON LAMMA ISLAND, HONG KONG
It’s pretty amazing that so many people can live so close together successfully and the city is a wonder of engineering and planning; some of it brilliant and some of it really bad. As you all know my love for transit systems, I could post about HK for days.
We’ve been in New Zealand for almost two weeks now and spent 6 days in the Christchurch area getting our bikes in order and exploring the Banks peninsula a bit to get warmed up; however, the highlight of our stay was another pair of incredible Servas hosts. Alan and Robyn live near Hagley Park in a beautiful part of the very green city, and they were kind enough to host us for 5 days, while giving us a broad picture of life, politics, weather, food, and culture on the South Island. What a difference it makes when you get the local perspective on a place. We then met our good friends, Mike and Nancy at the Christchurch Airport on our bikes last Sunday and we all cycled away back to Robyn and Alan’s where we all spent an enjoyable night before setting off to Oamaru the next Day. We’ve had a great week of cycling so far with very little rain and favorable winds (incredible) for most of the trip.
Cheryl crossing the cattle (sheep?) guard on the Banks Peninsula
There is lots to tell in between these big bits, but I’ll have to get back to y’all when we’ve got some more time off the bikes! (Yes, my butt is sore!)
The kiwis are all incredibly friendly, and will really go out of their way to help you with anything you may need, so no worries and wish us luck as we head up the often windy, wet, and wild west coast of the South Island. Good on Yer!
-R
rich.coffin