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Cycling Through New Zealand

(By A. G. Lowndes, M.Sc., Sydney, N.S.W.)

Griffith Taylor, our old Professor of Sydney University, used to describe New Zealand as a “vest pocket edition of geology and physiography,” and our years of study had increased the desire to see your New Zealand. And then in a glorious five weeks we did it. Certainly no New Zealander with a good stock of energy can excuse himself for not seeing his country. It amazed us with the variety to be seen by a comparatively small amount of travel. In five weeks actual time in New Zealand, in company with Ted Crago, B.Sc., I cycled 930 miles in both islands, trained 1200 miles, and tramped 110 miles in the Southern Alps with a guide from the Hermitage.

Every minute was used, and not a day wasted. On the day the “Marama” arrived in Auckland we were driven around Auckland by some friends, caught the Rotorua Express at 10.10 a.m., broke the journey at Putaruru, and rode out to spend a couple of hours at Arapuni Dam. Then we rode back and trained to Rotorua, arriving at 11.15 p.m. We had a day and a half at Rotorua, in which we did a week's sightseeing. A following wind took us to Wairakei in quick time. There we enjoyed very much our final big encounter with thermal activity. That country, with its surprises and weirdness, its beautiful falls and gem-like crater lakes, will always hold a great fascination for us.

On for a hard ride to the Chateau Tongariro, and the first time I had ever seen snow. What a thrill!

We trained from National Park station to Wellington, and embarked for Picton. Thence to Blenheim and up the Wairau Gorge, over Tophouse, and a night at Lake Rotoiti. What beauty you have in those sombre beech forests and steep-shored lakes. Then the Buller Gorge whetted our appetite for more ruggedness. We rode down to Greymouth, along the interesting West Coast and over the Otira Gorge, with a final heartbreaking dash to Arthur's Pass as we raced for our train to Christchurch, and on again by train to Timaru.

Those beautifully coloured mountains behind the Canterbury Plains were calling us, and we rode past Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki, with their greenish blue, peculiar to all glacial-fed lakes, through the open spaces of the Mackenzie Plains, and to The Hermitage.

For me the most wonderful of a series of wonderful experiences was our next week's climbing. I had never seen snow or ice, never a scree-slope; and now we crossed over the Copeland Pass to Weheka, tramped up to Waiho, up the Franz Josef, over Graham's Saddle, and down the Tasman and back to the Hermitage—110 miles walking in 6 ½ days, with a 7000 feet and a 9000 feet climb taken in. The beauty of the ice, the purity of the snow, the majesty of those peaks with challenge in their very magnitude—all these things are memories, too wonderful to have hoped for, glorious to recall.

From the Hermitage we had a heavy ride to Queenstown over Lindis Pass and the Crown Range, often over bad roads with head winds, but the scenery was worth every bit of it. Then down Lake Wakatipu by steamer to Kingston, and then trained back to Dunedin and on to Lyttelton, whence we took boat to Wellington.

Our time was drawing to an end now, and we had to watch every day, but we were determined to see Taranaki and Waitomo, and we did. We trained to Stratford, and thence cycled through that lovely country on up to Hangatiki, and out to Waitomo.

Everywhere we met with unfailing courtesy and helpfulness, and found New Zealand folks very like our own country people. It may interest some of your young men to know that we saw a great deal of New Zealand for a total cost (excluding the boat fare from Sydney to Auckland and back) of #24 5s. each. Certainly a remarkably small expense considering what we saw.

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