CHAPTER 1
As quick as it came, and as long as it felt like it was taking, our time on the ice is now done, seemingly finished in the blink of an eye. What felt like one endless day of white, and cold, and… dishes, is now over.
I am sitting on the grassy lawn of a hillside New Zealand holiday park (think KOA campground) overlooking the milky turquoise waters of a placid bay situated within the exploded remains of a long extinct, ancient volcano. The small village of Akaroa clings to one side of the inlet, and the white wings of tiny sailboats crisscross the tranquil waters like so many sea birds. We have come here to relax. We have come here to regroup our thoughts and energy. We have come here for a brief respite from physical toil before we start off on our next adventure: touring the natural wonder that is New Zealand, by bicycle.
Which brings me to a little housekeeping issue for our website… though I did manage to post 4 or 5 blogs a month, which was a pretty good showing for me, I still fell short of my goal, and I have 8 or 10 more posts I’d like to write about our time in Antarctica. But we are not in Antarctica anymore, and we will soon be racking up more stories and photos from this bike trip than I will probably be able to keep track of. So, my plan is… to write about both- I’ll try to keep up on our current bike tour, and occasionally throw in a story about the South Pole. You might question my reasoning in this attempt (Kacey certainly has)- considering I couldn’t keep up on one blog, how in the world am I going to manage two at the same time? But why not? I enjoy writing them, and I hope you enjoy reading them, so what’s the big deal if I am a little behind at times? This isn’t headline news, but more of a drawn out travel book, or at least that’s how I look at it.
So, just don’t let the chronological inconsistencies confuse you (we won’t be jumping back and forth between continents or anything, in fact, assuredly, we won’t be headed back to Antarctica for a very very long time), and we hope you continue to follow along as we peddle our way around this amazing and beautiful country of New Zealand.
Cheers, Dave and Kacey
More to follow soon…
Next Chapter