[New Zealand] 南島騎行 (Cycling in the South Island)

2017年十二月，我第三度踏上了紐西蘭南島的土地，與一群好同事來紐西蘭騎腳踏車，某些人已經有了好幾次海外騎行的經驗，而我則是第一次，就在我的第二故鄉─紐西蘭進行這項挑戰。
In December, 2017, it's my 3rd time to arrive New Zealand. This time, I came with my colleagues to ride bicycle in the South Island of New Zealand. And this is my first time to ride bicycle oversea, because I love New Zealand so much.

這次的行程如上圖，從基督城開始，到南島中南部的皇后鎮結束，全程大約800公里，不過，真正有騎乘的距離(上圖的紫色定位點之間)大約在500公里左右，沒有騎全程的主要原因有二，一是各景點距離太遠，中間不容易安排住宿點，二是行前南島才發生過大地震，故我們略過了北部的山區，各天的行程如下：
第一天：從基督城往北，自 Waipara 騎到 Hanmer Springs，大家剛開始習慣新車跟紐西蘭的公路，到得太晚，沒機會去泡溫泉。這天算是欣賞田園風光。
第二天：直接搭車通過山區，從西海岸的 Charleston 開始騎車，到 Greymouth，又是個很晚開騎的一天。這天則是欣賞海岸線，好幾位同事認為很像台灣的東海岸線。
第三天：從住宿地 Greymouth 往南開到 Harihari 出發，騎到冰河村 Fox Glacier，這天早上下大雨，冷得不得了，果然是騎在溫帶雨林區，下午騎到Franz Josef 時，就跑去熱水池泡湯了，哈～這天就是雨林了，全身淋得溼透。
第四天：從住宿地 Fox Glacier 往南開到 Davis Flat 開騎，一路爬山爬到 Wanaka。這天賞湖景+山景。
第五天：終於是從住宿的 Wanaka 旅館直接騎到 Queenstown 旅館了。這天就很像是在台灣練車，爬，下滑髮夾彎。
The is the map for this ride. The blue route is the total distance for this trip, but we only ride bicycles between the purple points.
Day 1 is from Waipara to Hanmer Springs, the two purple points on the right (from south to north).
Day 2 is from Charleston (a little bit south of Westport) to Greymouth. On this day, we drive to Westport first which already spent around two and half hours.
Day 3 is from Harihari to Fox Glacier.
Day 4 is from Haast to Wanaka. Actually is from Davis Flat but I can find the place on Google Maps.
Day 5 is from Wanaka to Queenstown.
You can easy to tell that we skip nearly half of the route and we already spend 5 days. If we want to ride every place, at least need 10 days.

在路上，我們也看到幾位如上圖的環島勇士，全身家當都在車上，我想他應該至少要花十天來跑上面的行程吧！
On the way, we found there is at least one rider is doing so, with all of the stuff on his bike.

我們就是相對比較輕鬆的騎行了，有個導遊在前領騎，還有補給車載運行李與補給，大家都是輕裝上陣，車上只要放水與基本補給就夠，相較之下算是輕鬆許多。
Compare to us, we're kind of easy ride, ha. We have the guide in front of us and have a van to carry all the belongs. We only need to take some water and foods for supply.

這樣的方式，有好有壞，我們在出發的前一天，還都先花了時間調校車子，並且花時間熟悉新車，這樣才能掌握車況，接下來的每一天(除了第五天)，我們都要不斷地裝御我們的車子，平約要花兩到三小時，所以其實每天騎乘的時間並不長，五個小時左右吧，或許也因此，騎乘的距離並沒有預想地遠，不過這倒是帶來另一個好處，大家的屁股都不太會痛，哈～

It's good, but also bad. We had to spend time to be familiar with the bicycle and spent a lot of time to load off and load on the bikes almost everyday, two to three hours. To be honest, we don't have that much time to ride on the bicycles. And this is also not a bad thing, your ass may not get hurt that much.

補給車的司機則負責幫我們準備午餐，基本上就是三明治，各種不同的火腿片加上甜椒，大黃瓜等等，五天基本上都一樣，我因為之前曾在澳洲參加過當地的旅遊團，有了心理準備，也算是習慣了，團員中倒是有人覺得沒有米飯補給，實在沒力氣騎車。
The driver also help to prepare our lunch like above, all 5 days. I'm OK with that since I had been to travel with the travel agent in Australia. Some of my colleagues are not used to that, just can't eat sandwich so many times in a week.

整體來說，這次的行程或許距離不到台灣的環島團那麼遠，但也不會輕鬆到哪裡去，前兩次自己開車遊南島時，覺得南島哪有坡？一路油門踩著，時速一百就玩完了，輪到騎車，有不少的上坡，還都挺陡很不好騎，交通工具一變，果然感受就差很多，呵～最經典的就是第四天的 The Neck，還有同事爬上去之後，就說「怎麼像是在騎武嶺？」根本就沒有心理準備，騎起來更是操；更不用說第三天騎在雨林中了，冷得全身發抖，真是艱困的挑戰呀！
General speaking, this is not an easy tour. Although we can ride with the beautiful landscape in New Zealand. There are still a lot of up hills that really tough. On day 4, when someone just climb up to "The Neck", she just said it's like climbing up the Wuling, the highest road in Taiwan which is also a famous record for every rider to challenge. The day 3 is also a really tough day to ride in the rain.

對我來說，這是個不錯的，有挑戰性的旅程，只是，都已經來到了美麗的紐西蘭，實在有點不想走「挑戰性的旅程」，我希望能夠多利用「腳踏車」這個交通工具，去多看些景點，應該要以遊玩優先，而不是騎著腳踏車，去征服各國「有困難度的腳踏車路線」，應該要多安排一些像下面照片中的景點呀！(下圖攝於《胸罩圍籬》)
For me, it's a challenge route that I can achieve. Maybe I'm still a beginner as a rider, I prefer to use the bicycle as a tool to reach more funny places, rather than to accomplish a challenging road. For example, the Bra Fence is an interesting spot to visit. We should visit more.