Tandems East New Zealand Cycling Adventure 2004
by Bob Smith

In 2002 we met Mel and Barbara Blumbluh at the Midwest Tandem Rally. They are the owners of Tandems East and they invited us to join them in late December of 2003 for a three week north and south island tandem tour of New Zealand. We had cycled the South Island in February 1991 and we were not sure that we were ready for another trip to New Zealand. When we got back to the Springs we told our good friends Vic & Diane Villhard about the Tandems East Tour. It wasn't long before both couples were signed on for the 2004 tour. As plans firmed we learned that Pedaltours would guiding the tour. We had toured with Pedaltours in 1991. We were very pleased with that tour and felt that we had made a good decision to join the Tandems East Tour. As departure time drew close both couples watched the first two Rings movies and Whale Rider together. To finish priming the pump Anne and I gave Vic and Diane a slide show of our '91 tour.

On departure day our neighbor Jim Colvin took us to the airport in Colorado Springs at 9:00am MST, where we met Vic and Diane. Check-in went smoothly considering we were both traveling with tandem bikes. Diane was pleasantly surprised that they were not charged for oversize luggage. Our first segment was to DFW and then to LAX where we met up with the remainder of the Tandems East group. We had dinner during our 3 1/2 hour lay over. Then it was off to Auckland where we arrived around 6:00am on 12/29 after nearly 12 hours in the air. We did manage some less than restfull sleep. The flight was routine, just way too long. We were a bit disappointed with the service on Qantas. After clearing customs and picking up our luggage for the bios-security check, we had to recheck it with Qantas for our final two segments to Queenstown through Christchurch. It was raining when we landed in Auckland but the weather was clearing as we flew to Christchurch and was near perfect in Queenstown.  Most folks traveling from the US were all on the same flight from LA. Tim DeJong, our Pedaltours guide, met us at the Queenstown Airport and shuttled us to the hotel. At the hotel St. Moritz we met up with Murray & Margaret from Canada and Trish and Neville from England. After an introductory briefing and bit of lunch it was bike assembly time. This also gave us an opportunity to get acquainted with others on the tour. After a quick shower, it was off to our first group dinner at the Boardwalk Cafe. Tim provided us with numerous options for our rest day in Queenstown. Several teams decided on a 50K out and backride to Glenorky. Diane, Vic, Judy, Dennis, Anne and I decided to fly over the Southern Alps to Milford Sound. The round trip flight included a boat trip in the fiord to the Tasman Sea. Tim arranged the flight for us through Air Milford. Back at hotel we finished unpacking and finally a good sleep.

The day began with breakfast in the hotel and van ride to the airport for our Air Milford flights to Milford Sound for boat trip of the fiord and out to the Tasman Sea. The flight was in a Cessna 206 single engine plane over the Southern Alps. The flight was spectacular with great mountain, valley and snowfield views. We flew in Hank’s plane with Vic & Diane. The Knudsen’s and Tim flew in the other plane with Chris. The flight was about 35 minutes to Milford, the boat trip was 1½ hours and the return flight took us farther south near Lake Teneau and back in over Lake Wakatipu. Hank let me fly the plane a bit over Lake Wakatipu. The weather was perfect and we had a great time. Between Vic and I, we took nearly 300 pictures. Back in Queenstown we had lunch and booked the steam ship TSS Earnslaw across Lake Wakatipu to Walter Peak Farm Station. After the boat trip Vic and I tried to do a Tandem Paraglide off the mountain above Queenstown’s Skylift. We had to abandon the wait in order to make the group dinner at the Fat Katz Italian Restaurant. This restaurant wasn’t nearly as good as the Boardwalk. We got back to the hotel around 9:30 pm in time to pack and upload the days pictures and the GPS track to the computer. The first two days were very hectic.

The weather was near perfect cycling conditions. It was a bit cool in the morning at the start of the ride from Queenstown to Arrowtown (an old mining town). About 4-5 miles into the ride we shed our jackets at Shotover River Bridge. The Shotover River is one of the three rivers that feed Lake Wakatipu. I wanted to take a photo from the bridge of the Shotover River Jet Boats but I had forgotten to put the battery back into the camera after recharging it overnight. The Pedaltour vans were parked in Arrowtown and I was able to retrieve the camera battery. Otherwise, I would not have had any pictures from our first day of riding. After Arrowtown, we encountered the first major mountain climb over the Crown Range of about 14K and over 700 meters of climbing. The last 4K were very steep. Anne and I walked about 300-400 meters. Many of the teams took a van shuttle up part of the climb. Vic & Diane and Neville & Trish rode the entire climb. Nearly the entire way up the climb you could look back and see Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. The valleys on both sides of the climb had wild flowers lining segments of the road. After the descent of the Crown Range, we had lunch at the Cardrona Café. It was a welcomed stop.  Just north of Cardrona we encountered the famous Bra Fence. The road was slightly downhill from lunch so the headwind wasn’t much of a factor on a tandem. The Mt. Aspiring Hotel was the same one we stayed in during our ‘91 tour of the South Island. back then I believe it was called the Wanaka Lodge. After dinner, several of the group came to our room to view the pictures Vic and I had taken on our trip into Milford Sound. After the photo session several couples including our guides (Tim & Brian) went into the town center of Wanaka for the New Year’s Eve Street Party. The party was similar to First Night Out Parties in the US. On New Years Eve in an Irish Pub I learned that Barbara Kornbluh and I share the same birthplace of McKeesport, PA. All of us except for Tim went back to the hotel prior to midnight.

Tim had plenty of things planned to entertain us. There was a short hike in the morning, a trip to Puzzling World and a longer hike in the afternoon. We visited Puzzling World and the Maze that was great fun. Anne and I hung out in Wanaka, had lunch and visited the Bits and Bytes Internet Café to send our first NZ email report with a few photos. Others went on various hikes and Lori and Rod rented mountain bikes. After dinner downtown at Relishes, several couples (Vic & Diane, Margie & Mickey and Anne & I) went to a small traveling circus in town. It was great fun. The weather again was very good with very warm temperatures and a lot wind out of the north. Even though we had a leisurely day the time seemed to just slip away.