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To the Southern Alps

Maria Leijerstam / 23.02.2010

Maria Leijerstam and Tori James who are biking the length of North and South Island New Zealand and recently ditched their cycling shorts and got dressed up for the first time in weeks after being invited to meet New Zealand’s Governor General. Here is the latest extract from Maria's journal.

<i>“His Excellency Sir Anand Satyanand and Lady Satyanand were hosting a reception at Mona Vale, a beautiful hotel and restaurant in the centre of Christchurch. The reception welcomed trustees and patrons from a number of different voluntary organisations and charities and we were really honoured to have been invited.

After this brief respite it was back on the bikes and we were ready for our biggest day on South Island so far.

The road remained flat and the scenery was vast. The snow-capped Southern Alps began to rise in the distance which reminded me a little of the Sahara, looking at the dunes at the end of the massive salt plains, which never seemed to get closer to.

Before we knew it, it was 6.00pm. We had already covered 90km and all that stood ahead of us now was the Lindis Pass rising almost from sea level to 950m. Should we go for it with the hope of getting over the top and down the other side before dark? From somewhere, our decision was, “yes let's do it”. The wind had picked up and the drizzle had turned to rain, but for some reason when things get worse we thrive on it!

The climb was very gradual for over 15km. As we were winding our way along the road and through into the unknown a chap pulled over in his car and gave us a banana saying, “girls, where you’re going, you’ll need this”! Oh god, what had we let ourselves in for? (Thanks a million, bananas were amazing!)

The wind was now gusting and our speed was down to walking pace but still we plodded on, one behind the other. To add to the discomfort we both had very, very sore bottoms! I broke the journey down into phases so that we had targets and at each phase, we stopped for a breather and to check all was okay.

On the summit, all we could think was “I’m a nutter, get me out of here”! as the wind was gusting and the light was falling. A tourist bus passed us and we found it very amusing to chase it all the way into the valley at a million miles an hour.

That night we found a beautiful wild camp where we were quick to cook up a feast and dive into our sleeping bags.