Puerto Natales - Punta Arenas

After 3 lazy and scenic days on the ferry we arrived in Puerto Natales and used the strong tailwind to get a lift down the Routa 9. Wind is mainly blowing from sth between north and west, and it can only rarely be called a breeze. There`s not much traffic (until further south around Punta Arenas), the road is good and the landscape is wide... while it`s great to see kilometers ahead with sun + wind in the back, it`s sort of a mental test if conditions change to hail and headwinds... concentrate on your front wheel, forget about the circling vultures and keep breathing!

Most of the land along the road is fenced private property, but it`s no problem to stop at an estancia along the way and ask for permission to pitch up a tent - there usually is a cosy spot on a shared pasture with bulls, sheep and horses.

There`s only 1 spot along the way to shop, Villa Tehuelches. We ran out of proper food (i.e. 2-minute-noodle-soups) and all there was to buy in Villa Tehuelches were expensive sandwiches, cookies, soft drinks and milk. After all it`s not too bad to feed on cookies and porridge... by the way, some estancias may also sell some homemade food if you ask nicely.

Lago Llanquihue

Chile's "Lake Disctrict" is definitely worth a visit:

We took a comfy overnight bus from Santiago to Puerto Varas and cycled around Lago Llanquihue anticlockwise in 3 days. From Puerto Varas to Saltos de Petrohue the road is sealed and in a very good condition. Chilean drivers are really friendly, honking and waving and cheering... there are also long stretches of undulating, dusty gravel roads in the eastern/ northern part of the lake.
Characters of the villages vary enormously depending on the amount of visitors - anything from expensive tourist shops to simple tin shacks. The adjacent national parks offer many opportunities to explore.

This was a great start with a lot of sun, superb views of volcanos, bits of native forest, jumps into chilly waters and plenty opportunities to enjoy "Apfelstrudel" from german settlers. We arrived in Puerto Montt after 230 km to catch a ferry down to Puerto Natales.

Santiago de Chile

Start of the south american odyssey in Santiago de Chile - a fascinating, colourful, lively place with far too much to discover for a 2days-visit...

West Coast

it's not ALWAYS raining at the West Coast...
River crossing, Franz Josef Glacier, White-fronted tern on Pancake Rocks, beach near Westport

Haast Pass

My best day of cycling in New Zealand: Hawea to Haast, passing Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka, crossing bits of Mount Aspiring National Park and Haast Saddle (i.e. the Southern Alps). About 130 km with numerous waterfalls, river-views, steeeeeeeep sections, runaway-vehicle-driveways. A couple of lookout-walks along the road, 3 (?) DOC-campgrounds (didn't check them) and the best: Cafés in Makarora.
Me + the bike happened to be the centre of attraction for a couple of chinese guys (for a few seconds at least). So this is what it feels like if other cultures put the camera in your face without asking.

Caples Track

Southern Alps are the place to be in NZ. Well, NZ is the place to be really, but once you're there, love the outdoors + mountains and don't mind funny weather - then it's the Alps. The Caples track is a great tramping opportunity, though the adjacent Routeburn and Greenstone tracks are more popular (and less steep). Upper Caples Hut is the place for international table tennis matches.

Mavora Lakes

The Mavora Lakes track is a farm road from Walter Peak to Highway 94. It's more or less 100 km one way and can be done in both directions, easily. There's bus transport from Queenstown and Te Anau to the southern end of the track and a steamferry connecting Walter Peak with Queenstown. It's a pleasant ride along a well-maintained gravel road - possible with a normal touring bike. I went from north to south: The track follows Von River, climbs steeply to a plateau with wide views of the surrounding mountains and then gradually leads down to the turnoff to Mavora Lakes. Both Lakes have good basic DOC-campsites - and the sandflies know this.

The southern part is a little less scenic, mostly farmland, with some cows for company. I was lucky to spot one of the rare pancows (panda-cow-crossing), a breed that's still being kept secret but might help in the future to get rid of the introduced eucalypt trees.

Not Molesworth

Yes, I had very big plans to cycle the Molesworth track with a friend, crossing NZ's biggest farm (180,476 ha!!!) and heaps of other great tracks in mind.
But - due to a lack of reliability of my left knee I had to forget about these plans. Anyways, this is about travelling with a bike - and about meeting other countries' people. So I decided to hitch with my bike.

First try: out of Blenheim. After a long hours' wait and an unbearable amount of pitiful looks an artist picked me up with his >>300,000km-magic-machine. So I ended up in Kaikoura, wandered around the peninsula to spot some seals and found out that walking isn't any better with that knee.

So - more hitching, further south to Christchurch. The moment I popped out my thumb a woman (!) stopped. I wasn't exactly hiding my bike but maybe not showing it as offensively this time; however, I had a wonderful day in the South Island's biggest town! And a very awkward knee-debate in a chemistry.

Then - a perfect day. Sun, clear skies over Mt Cook, Kea Lookout, cycling the Plains of Rohan, most beautiful tent site at a river. Mmmmmh.

Cycling NZ

trails and wayz I

....there are numerous fabulous cycling trails throughout NZ, many of them listed in the Kennett Bros' bible "Classic NZ Mountain Bike Rides" and in DOC-brochures. Singletrails, 4WD tracks, gravel roads, varying difficulties, sth for everyone. Rural Maps will help find your way. The tricky part is to connect these rides:

Either you've got a car (buy a >300.000 km-magic-machine from a backpacker or rent one) - easy. Or rely on public transport, i.e. rely on the bus driver's good will. The bus driver decides if he'll take the bike or not in the minute the bus leaves, depending on available space, the bike's mud cover and the bus driver's morning coffee - a little less flexible. Or you try hitching with your bike, why, in other parts of the world there are people hitching around with fridges!

Or you simply cycle wherever you wanna go - time consuming.

Roads might pass through beautiful, hilly landscapes. But beware of local drivers! Kiwis are wonderful people, as long as they aren't sitting behind a steering wheel (hm okay, there might be exceptions). Teens start driving at the age of 15, with someone sitting beside them who should give them instructions. Only after 6 months of papa's driving lessons they'll have to do a test and eventually get their driving license. After 6 months of chasing oversea cyclists!! And then there are logging trucks that don't care too much about any weaker road users. And then there are sheep. Many. With unpredictable reactions.

By the way, it's far from being common to have a shoulder along the road. And you'll see your tires fading away from day to day due to a rough road cover.

A cycling path along the whole length of NZ is planned, from North to South. Realisation might take a couple of years but - great! :-)

Auckland

Janet and Michael gave me a great escort from Auckland Airport to TeAtatu... it was 2 shining Avanti road bikes versus the fully loaded tractor. Anyways, they played a fair game and let me fuel up at a cafe and made sure I stayed on the LEFT side of the road most of the time... without them me and the tractor would look very 2-dimensional by now...

By the way, there is no such thing as straight flat roads in/around Auckland. Expect to be switching between adrenaline-rushing downhills and muscle-tearing uphills about every second minute. Just great!

To all the touring cyclists: check www.warmshowers.org to meet the local cyclists while travelling!

Flying Bike

Nowadays it's just too easy to fly your bike. I was just about to disassemble my tractor as a Lufthansa-lady turned up to tell me i shouldn't worry and just give it to the luggage as it was. I still removed the pedals and wrapped it, to allow for a relaxed flight...
Luckily no one of the aiport crew knew how much they had to charge me to take the bike as extra-luggage. Since I didn't tell them, they eventually let me check it in for free :-D

Ausrüstung/ equipment /equipo

guter Rad:

Rahmen: On One "456 Summer Season" - schöner Stahl (als Reiserahmen eher sportlich als klassisch)
Lenker: On One "Fleegle Bar" mit Ergon-Griffen
Gabel: Kinesis Maxlight 450 (Alu)
Räder, Naben: DT Swiss ...es geht tubeless los, mal sehen wie lange das gut geht...
Bremsen: Avid BB7 Discs, Shimano Deore Hebel
Schaltung, Kurbel: Shimano XT/XTR
Sattel: SQLab
Gepäckträger: Tubus Ergo & Topeak Explorer Disc
...