Cycling Trip

If you would like to skip the boring writing and just see some pictures, please download this slideshow: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q35UUTB6
It took me 3 minutes on a moderate speed connection.
Otherwise you can read my report, then look at the pictures after. None of the pics are really spectacular artsy shots, due to my method of travel, but they tell the story and give you the general idea.

For my last NZ adventure of 2009, I cycled from Dunedin to Westport, a small town on the west coast. The trip was very enjoyable and reinforced to me what an amazing country NZ is. I started out on the morning of Saturday, December 12, a typical drizzly day. I loaded my panniers with my sleeping bag, warm clothes, a bit of cooking gear, a couple books, sunscreen and other miscellaneous supplies, plus provisions. The evening before I had gone to Pak n Save with just $65 left in my bank account. I picked out bags of cous cous and rice, a few fruits and vegetables, scroggin, bread, peanut butter, honey, oatmeal, and a few other items that came to precisely $65. Well actually I was one dollar over so had to return some peas. Always a good way to start a trip, completely broke with your next stipend payment coming in a week.

I had also deposited most of my belongings in a storage unit down the road so was leaving 7B Jura Street forever when I pushed off Saturday morning. First stop was St. Kilda beach to splash a bit of the Pacific over me and my bike. I hung out there under a small shelter while a little squal of rain came through, then started off over the hill to the Taieri Valley. In my first hour I was joined by a Korean touring cyclist, who had started riding in Christchurch, but I left him behind on a hill. I ate a quick lunch in the valley and then headed over the hills, longer and steeper than I expected, to Middlemarch, where the Otago Central Rail Trail begins. The 53 kms or so to Middlemarch from Taieri was the hardest stretch of the trip, as I was carrying a full load of food and my legs weren't accustomed to the weight. I was a little worried I was getting too old for this kind of thing. Nevertheless I coasted into a sunny Middlemarch late in the afternoon and rode a few kms down the rail trail to find a place to camp. Camping is allowed but discouraged along the trail, since it passes through several towns with accommodation. Of course with no money I had no choice. My MSR Hubba Hubba stood up defiantly to the gusty central Otago breeze and I had a relaxing evening of reading.

In the morning I set off for Ranfurly, another tiny town on the Rail Trail. It was extremely windy, mostly a crosswind for my direction of travel, and with my panniers acting as sails I had a few close calls where I was nearly blown off a bridge. Fortunately the trail has frequent lean-tos where one can take temporary shelter. The countryside was mostly dry farmland (being in the rain shadow of the Alps) surrounded by brown hills. Upon arrival in Ranfurly, another tiny rural outpost, I checked out the Visitor Center where I learned a little about the history of the railroad and gold mining in the area. I retreated a ways out of town to pitch my tent in a random abandonded field. December 14 I reached the Rail Trail's peak altitude of 618 m a bit after Ranfurly, which ironically was the highest I got on this trip despite the easy ascent. Half a dozen k's outside of Omakau I found a spectacular camping site next to a pond surrounded by rocky hills. It rained a fair amount that night, but Hubs kept me warm and dry. December 15 I reached the end of the rail trail at Clyde and started on the road along Lake Dunstan up to Cromwell, the gateway to the South Island's magnificent blue glacier-fed lakes. Besides stopping often to gawk at the color of the water, I enjoyed seeing many vineyards in this region. If only I had the time and money to stop for a tasting. That night I camped beside the Clutha River, where I felt sandflies for the first time...

December 16 I stopped in Wanaka in the morning and chillaxed for a while by the lake, whose brilliant blue is contrasted with the stark white snowy peaks beyond. Once I had fully taken in the view, I escaped the Wanaka tourists and continued along Lake Hawea, then back to the top of Lake Wanaka, and finally to Makarora, an outpost at the gates of Mt. Aspiring National Park. There I chatted briefly with a hitchhiker and another touring cyclist, who informed me of some nasty weather to come in a couple days. In the late afternoon I pedaled into the park and found a pleasant campsite overlooking the Makarora River, where I was promptly eaten alive by sandflies.

The next morning I was very excited because it was payday, which meant I could buy some more food when I reached the west coast. Fortunately I had purchased just the right amount and so would be fine for the day. I rode through dense native forest to Haast Pass, which at 562 m is the lowest crossing of the Southern Alps. I hiked for 30 minutes up to a viewing point, where I had good but not fantastic views. From the pass I coasted down the valley all the way to Haast on the west coast, stopping several times to walk to waterfalls or take pictures of the river and mountains. The vegetation was much greener and denser on this side of the Alps, as I had entered a temperate rainforest. When I arrived in Haast I found a backpackers to sleep so I could shower and clean some of my gear. I also found a small store with ridiculously overpriced food, Haast being one of the more remote villages in New Zealand. In fact, the denizens of Haast seemed rather on edge; it can't be easy living that far from civilization, with one's only contacts to crazy demanding tourists. At the backpackers I met a couple more touring cyclists, including an architect from Sydney who I chatted with for a while.

December 18 I began the journey up the west coast. I started out very early that day since it was forecast to rain heavily in the afternoon. I passed Lake Moeraki and Lake Paringa, two mystical lakes surrounded by fog and mountains. About midday it started raining, fortunately not super hard yet. I carried on in the wet, making faster progress than a pair of hitchhikers I passed multiple times, until I reached Fox Glacier. There I also went for a backpackers due to the wet weather. I arrived in the village in time to make a reservation for a full day walk on the glacier the following day, which cost something like $145 but was well worth it. So the 19th I donned rain pants and jacket and a warm hat and gloves and joined a dozen other folks on the 10 minute bus ride to the car park near the terminal face of the glacier. We had three guides with us who led us through the bush for an hour and a half. Then we slapped on crampons and walked onto the ice. The guides worked hard with picks to cut steps for us to walk on. This made the going very slow, but that wasn't really a problem as we had plenty of time to marvel at our surroundings. I saw many deep blue crevasses and fascinating arches and spikes of ice. We stopped for a speed lunch in the heavy rain then continued up to a high point on the glacier with a good view of the valley below. It was a very enjoyable day and much better than my only other glacier walking experience, in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, where we were able to walk in a 100 m square marked off by orange cones. That evening at the backpackers I met three more touring cyclists and taught them Gin Rummy and Spoons.

The 20th I rode from Fox Glacier over some steep hills to Franz Josef Glacier, where I rode the easy 4 km up to the car park and did a short walk to get a peek. Franz Josef Glacier was steeper than Fox and lacked an elbow halfway up. After snapping some photos I pedaled on over rolling terrain and through native bush to Lake Ianthe, where I soaked my legs in the chilly water and my body in the sun rays after the rainy weekend. The next morning it was on to Hokitika, a cute town with a clocktower that reminded me of the towns in Tanzania. I stopped there for lunch and to use the Internet, then in the afternoon pushed on to Greymouth, where I stayed in a backpackers run by an Israeli and enjoyed chatting with the various Israeli travelers staying there. Greymouth is the largest town on the west coast and is home mostly to coal miners.

The last day of my voyage, from Greymouth to Westport, was probably the best day of all. The road hugged the rugged coastline for about 50 km, taking me up and over several bluffs. I saw some neat rock formations and cliffs. Around midday I arrived at Punakaiki where the famous pancake rocks are located. These limestone rocks have been shaped by various geological forces over the years such that they have ribbed sides and look like stacks of pancakes. No one understands completely how they got this way. From the visitor center it was an easy 10 minute walk to the rocks; there were also some powerful blowholes. In addition I saw some interesting tropical-looking vegatation surrounding the rocks--lots of flax and palm tree-like things. From Punakaiki I continued over a few big hills down to Charleston and Westport, where I purchased some packing supplies and carefully fit my bike into a box designed for a children's bicycle, the only bike box available in town. I spent the night in a backpackers and the next morning took a shuttle bus back to Hokitika, retracing my route along the ocean road.

I asked the bus driver to drop me off at the Hokitika airport about 3 hours before my flight, but the airport was locked--only one flight leaves per day. So I got dropped off in town and had to take a cab to the airport later. The flight to Christchurch over the Alps was really cool, and there was no door to the cockpit so I could look in and see out the front window, what the pilots were doing and all the instruments. It was then Christchurch to Auckland to LA, where I had a long layover so took a bus to UCLA to see if I could find my uncle, but he wasn't in his office. I experienced a bit of culture shock just seeing more cars and people in five minutes than I see in a week in Dunedin. I was also a little taken aback by the huge highways and zillions of stores and restaurants open late. The excesses and consumerism of America were obvious to me now. Finally it was back to LAX and a red-eye to Baltimore.

I'm really glad I was able to do this bike trip, despite feeling a little guilty at the start for skipping out on a couple weeks in the lab. I feel like I'm getting to know New Zealand well enough to call it a home of sorts. I've now visited places throughout the lower South Island and hoping I'll get a chance to see some of the regions around Nelson and Blenheim when I return, maybe even on my bike. The North Island remains unexplored territory I'm excited to see at some point in the near or distant future.

COMBIO 2010

Yesterday evening I returned from COMBIO 2010 in Christchurch. There were several hundred participants, mostly from New Zealand and Australia but some from the U.S., Europe, and Asia. There were talks on protein structure and function, microbiology, genetics, signal transduction, plant biology, agriculture, and medical science. The keynote speaker on Sunday evening was Sir John Walker, who solved the structure of ATP synthetase. Monday through Thursday were jam packed with talks and poster sessions. One topic that I learned a particularly large amount about and became very interested in is drug design. There were some very neat ideas presented, such as designing compounds that mimick the transition state of the substrate-->product reaction and high-throughput crystallography to screen for small compounds that bind the active site of an enzyme. I also went to some talks on biofilms and plant-microbe interactions, the carbon and nitrogen cycles, protein kinases, mammalian development, and more. Most evenings there were drinks and social functions, and on Wednesday there was a gala dinner at an old air force base turned into museum. It was neat to see a bunch or scientists on the dance floor, including Sir John Walker.

On Tuesday evening after the talks I took a walk up into the Port Hills to the west of Christchurch. There were many hiking and mountain biking tracks to explore and good views of the city and Canterbury plain. I'm glad I discovered this playground of Christchurch because in previous visits to Christchurch I hadn't been particularly impressed by the city.

My talk on Wednesday afternoon, as part of the New Zealand Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology student speaker competition, went well. I got several questions at the end including one from Sir John Walker! There were five speakers total from the various regions and they all gave good talks. So far my masters project has been entirely in developing a method, so the other students all had more biologically relevant results than I did. The winner of the competition found a link between ascorbate and cancer.

Today has been very busy as I cleaned up my flat for inspection by the landlord, organized my cycling supplies, moved all my things to a storage unit down the road, and got things sorted in lab. Tomorrow I depart on my bicycle for the West Coast and on up to Hokitika, where I'm flying home from. It will be an 11-day trip, between 700-800 kms. No day is super long as I've planned it, so I'll have plenty of time to enjoy the scenery. Sigurd may join me for a day on the Otago Rail Trail!