For those who don’t know, my real name in Chinese means “coming by the wind”, and I actually quite enjoy the company of winds.

Today I woke up at 7, saying farewell to my hosts, started to packed up my luggage but found it was too heavy to be carried on the bike. Eventually after 2 hours of struggling, I gave up all my backpacks and just went with the pannier bags. Honestly I have to think why did I still bring so many useless stuff during my travels. Everytime the struggle is: it is no longer useful, but it reminds me some good memory…I think I would send it back to Hong Kong then.

I kicked off at 11:30, the first 20km is awesome, however, when it gets to mid-afternoon, the wind starts blowing, and mostly are coming from the 2 sides or head to head, never come from the back to push me forward…I pedaled really hard, normally I can go at 13-15km/hr with all the heavy weight, but once the wind come, it drops down to 6-8 km/hr, sometimes I even have to stop because it almost blew me down.

I almost made it to Rakaia (57 km from Christchurch), just outside Rakaia, one guy stopped and asked if I want a lift or not, I said it is not that far (just 2km I think) so I can make it. And then after a while, another car stopped 500m ahead waiting for me. The 3 ladies were so kind to offer me a lift to Ashburton, they even spent 10 mins figuring out how to fix my bike firmly on top of the car. My first day of the trip and I already experience the friendliness of Kiwi people, awesome!

With the advice of the 3 ladies, they suggested me to camp beside the river in Ashburton. So here I am, typing my diary in my tent! Oh just before that, I checked the tire and saw a prickle, I picked it out and air started coming out, and the tire is becoming flat…omg…I have to deal with that tomorrow. But now, let me have a nice warm sleep in the wild!

Hopefully tomorrow it is not as windy as today…I don’t want to lose another battle against my friend~~~

Christchurch to Rakaia 61.8km

Rakaia to Ashburton 30km (pick up by lovely kiwi)