wild wild west

oh yes, new zealand has its wild west as well! as soon as i hit the road cycling towards greymouth and the alps, i came upon all those typical signs of godforsaken places in the middle of nowhere...
...that often left me with a feeling of awe as i was moving slowly down the map through valleys with rumbling rivers, gorges, along the rugged coast, up and down the hills until the mountains enclosed me in an icy embrace .
this hidden and still somewhat underdeveloped part of new zealand has many secrets of which a few were revealed to me - its 19th century gold rush left the whole place literally dug through. as one of the locals told me, it's not an uncommon thing to find a tunnel just under your own lawn!
i resisted the temptation to dig looking for my own gold vein :-) and kept on cycling restlessly... until one day i saw this...
this time i could not say 'no' to the craving for getting the feel of the 'glaciered' alps and went on a day trip up fox glacier. the feeling of the rock hard ice and its chilly welcome made me imagine how it must have been a good few thousand years ago during the last ice age...brrr.
after my swift foxy love affair i jumped on the saddle again and pushed the pedals, this time spinning the wheel all the way to wanaka. the weather had spoiled me for too long and so the last two days nature was trying to talk me out of getting through to the mt aspiring national park by the notorious north-westerly wind and endless buckets of water thrown at me from the sky. but I AM BLOODY TOUGH!, i thought, gritting my teeth as i had to pedal even going on a steep hill...down!
and finally i made it to wanaka. cold and wet but now all happy as i'm sitting in the wanaka bakpaka lounge staring at the darkening grey sky over the mountains.
so, check out the latest pics and envy me! huhuhuh!
by the way, happy easter folks!