Eels, the Irish, and Maria Von Trapp

I have had the overture to the Sound of Music stuck in my head for about five days. Every time I see a well maintained knoll dotted with fluffy white sheep I have the image of Julie Andrews spinning around and singing about the hills. Seeing that that is the beginning of the movie, the rest of the dialogue and musical numbers usually follow suit and about two hours later I am still humming along to Edelweiss.

The ferry from Wellington to Picton went well. Once I reached land I immediately got bad directions and ended up going nearly two days out of my way to get to Havelock and Nelson. The extra pedaling was not for naught. The first campground I came across had an interesting attraction. “Eddie the Eel” and his friends lived in a small creek that flowed around the perimeter of the campground. There were really four eels, several ducks, drakes, and a trout who were well adapted to being fed by people. I have never before had a trout beg for food. Eddie and the other eels were not interested in my offering of bite-sized tortilla shreds, but the ducks and the trout were. One duck followed me all the way back to my tent and decided to help herself to the tortilla sandwich I had made for myself. My lesson of the day was that ducks do not like peanut butter. I thought I would have to do a ducky Heimlich, but she managed to cough up the bite she stole from me. Even after nearly suffocating, she still took a few more snaps at my sandwich. I had to close the door to my tent to keep her from hopping in and helping herself to the rest of my food cache. I imagine the sour gummy worms would have been even less popular than the peanut butter.

About two weeks into any sort of bicycle trip or physical training I get hungry. It is around that time that my body realizes that it has been exercising and needs to refuel. Fortunately, I was in the city of Nelson when hunger hit. Around 5pm I took myself to dinner and beer. By 9pm I had eaten two full dinners, had three drinks, and a very tasty slice of chocolate cake for dessert. Within half and hour I was hungry again. I raided the rest of the snacks in my panniers and drank over a liter of water. By 10pm I was full and finally able to sleep. I will never completely understand metabolism, but I do my best to listen to what mine wants. On the road I crave foods that I would almost never otherwise eat. Gummy worms and peanut butter-cheese tortilla sandwiches being on the ever-growing list. As is my snack stash contains, in addition to the above mentioned, salted peanuts, crumpets, and half a jar of sun-dried tomatoes.

Once on the road again few miles outside of Nelson I met Elizabeth. Elizabeth is a fellow traveling who left her home in Ireland 20 months ago and began an adventure with no goal and no time frame. (See Granny, there are other women who bike solo!) She has since biked through parts of Europe, the Middle Ease, southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. All with an extremely patient boyfriend waiting back home in a stone cottage on the outskirts of Galway, Ireland. We talked quite a bit about the possibility of her cycling the Pacific Coast trail on the west coast of the United States. She is very keen to try and I am sure she will find her way to the States in the near future. We cycled together for two days and came across Andrew, another biker from the UK who has been on the road for two years. I have seen several bikers during my short time in New Zealand, but rarely have the chance to sit down and compare notes with them. Nearly all bikers are going different directions at different speeds and have various schedules to keep. It was relieving to be able to compare notes with a couple of fellow travelers and especially superb to travel with someone even if it was only for a short time.

I am heading for the famous Hanmer Hot Springs over the next few days. I preemptively sat out biking today assuming that it would rain and raining it is. I will hit the road again tomorrow with the prediction of sun and warmth.

Me, Andrew, Elizabeth