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Baldwin St in Dunedin is the worlds steepest street (38%) and Rene is on the way to the top of it! Burning lungs and an almost coming-off-the-road-front wheel is bringing the maximum out of his power. With cheer and lots of watching people he makes it to the top! Back again to normal level grounds he gets a new sticker for the bike and his achievements.
Soon we find ourselves on the way along the coast - heading north. With a last climb we leave the steep slopes of Dunedin behind and spending the days of the cold, wet weather on places like Moeraki Boulders. This are big round stones, av. one metre in diameter, which lay scattered like cannon balls on the beach. Interesting, what nature can create...
When we head inland to Mt Cook and along the big dammed lakes, sun and bright blue sky are our company. Tail winds give us a big boost on the ride to NZ highest peaks. Mt Cook looms from far away. The scenery is very much like back in Switzerland, where we lived the last years before starting this trip. We know how unlikely it is to have weather like that over days in this mountainous terrain. The steep track to Mueller hut takes all hiking skills we have to the edge. The vistas are spectacular - overlooking the glaciers of Mt Sefton and the high peak of Mt Cook. Next day our muscles are that sore that we can barely walk...
Along the ralatively flat road to Geraldine, towards the East Coast, we finish our cycle trip around NZ on 22nd of February. We cycled 3600km and more than 30.000 altitude metres within this 11 weeks. We never thought that we can do that. That we would be able to cover such a huge distance. And that this day will become one of the darkest in NZ history...
The earthquake hits short before 1pm with the epicentre in Chirstchurchs Lyttleton. We do still wait for the bus from Geraldine (150km south of Christchurch) to the main city and spending time in the library when the earth starts to shake and everything’s shivering. The locals are used to that earth movements here but everybody’s getting concerned - it was very heavy this time (4.5 in Geraldine). Phone lines to Christchurch are dead. Thanks to internet we hear soon the shocking news of the collapsed Cathedral and big main buildings. The township of Geraldine’s dead calm when we leave with the bus - heading to the chaos.
We spend the night, accompanied by around 30 aftershocks since the main one, in the tent on Waynes backyard. We meet Wayne on the road in one of Christchurchs suburbs. He’s one of the lucky ones: only a broken vase and some cracks in the walls of his house, still water and electricity. He’s happy that he doesn’t have to deal with all this bad news on television on his own... The earth’s rocking us into a restless sleep.
Next morning we cycle into the centre - or as far as we are allowed to go. Through the whole wet, cold night Search and Rescue teams were trying to get through to all the trapped people. Reports of the first deaths are confirmed and our concerns are regarding Katja and Richi - out two cycle friends from Switzerland. It’s very likely that they have been today in the CBD... The first collapsed buildings coming in sight. It is shocking to see how easy heavy duty material is to bend and to destroy. Cars are covered in bricks and we just hope that nobody was in there anymore. We reach the emergency camp on the edge of the CBD and try to find our friends. Everybody’s looking for somebody. Relief on the faces if they find each other. But not, so far, on ours.
We find out that our bus to Picton’s leaving in time the next morning. We hope that they are able to take the bikes - we just want to leave this sad chaos. Back at the emergency camp the military offers free flights for everybody to Wellington. A builder tells us his story: when the police discovered that he had a clue about buildings he dug tunnels to get dead and alive bodies out. An aftershock brought the storey above him down and he thought he will die. But he didn’t. For some reason the crash stopped - like a miracle. He’s sitting there - shaking hands, coffee, cigarettes. He was here to rebuild the houses from the Septembers earthquake. It should have started by next week. Now he’s here watching people losing their legs to save their lives...
For the second night we are invited by a German student. Her house has cracks and is very close to the epicentre. That’s why the aftershocks are a lot heavier here. She and her flat mates have been through a lot this days and we appreciate their help so much! We even get an email from our Swiss friends, saying they’ve been in a CBD’s bakery by the time everything happened. But they are both all right.
 24. Feb. We manage to hop on the bus to Picton and with the straight-to-Wellington-ferry afterwards. Back to security. Back to running water, petrol and food... This earthquake experience was like war. It changed everything a lot within a couple of seconds. Even for us, who haven’t been exactly in the wrong time at the wrong place. We admire the work of all this restless helping hands a lot. You only know what it this is like, when you experienced all that. But it’s not recommended!
We are preparing now for leaving NZ beginning of March. Heading to Ecuador. From there we’ll send you the newest stories. Hopefully not as dramatic as these ones here...
Monique
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journey / reports 
