Cycle Touring on the South Island of New Zealand

by Susan Otcenas

Monday, January 10th, 2005 - Greymouth to Christchurch

In the morning, we took the brewery tour at Monteith's Brewery. Monteith's is a famous South Island beer, and this brewery is the place where Simon's brother began his career as a brewmaster. It was interesting to learn the process, taste the various barleys, and see all of the equipment.

All about brewing

That's a lot of beer.

At the end of the tour, we sampled all 6 of their current brews. Their summer beer was very gingery. They also had a Radler, which was strong on the lemon and lime flavors. The Celtic red and Black Stout were tasty as well. At 11am, all that beer went right to my head!

Bartender in training

Don't drink & ride.

At 1pm we boarded the TranzAlpine Train for our return journey to Christchurch. It wound its way up through the valleys with beautiful views to the mountain.

Heading up the mountain

Shadows on the hillsides

Lupines at Arthur's Pass

Susan in the open-air view car at Arthur's Pass.

After topping out at Arthurs Pass, we began our descent down the east side of the Alps. We curved our way though a steep gorge high above the river, which was a milky blue-green. We crossed numerous viaducts and passed through around 8 tunnels in a very short period.

entering one of the many tunnels

crossing a bridge

Simon met us at the train station for the 7km ride back to his house. We had dinner with his family and gabbed until 10pm. It was 11:30pm by the time we had our bikes packed away in their suitcases, and after midnight before we had our gear organized for the next day's flight.

Robert was quite fond of playing "Knights" with Jeff

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