Gallery of Jim Blilie's Photos:

World Bicycle Tour, 1990-1992

The Big Show

Part 4:  New Zealand

All images are copyright © James W. Blilie, 1990 through 2010, All rights reserved

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning

all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas

and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts

of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues

from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance

which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can,

begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now."  (Often attributed to Goethe)

  This page is under construction.  I'm still working on a text for each segment of the

trip and scanning in some negatives and maybe a few more slides hidden here and there.

BACK TO WORLD TOUR BIG SHOW INDEX

Back to Main Photo Page

Back to Basic World Tour Page

These are THE BIG SHOW of my slides from my trip around the world with Jeff Mellor, 1990-1992.

There are many more slides in this set than on the main world tour page:  About 2600 total.  I spent

some time in late 2009 going through all my slides from the world trip and I selected many for scanning.

The results are on this page (slide shows).  Many of these have been seen only by me and many of those

I hadn't seen since 1993.  The trip itself is outlined below.

These are scans of my Kodachrome 64 (and a very small number of Ektachrome 100) slides

From Jim and Jeff Mellor's bicycle tour around the world from Nov-1990 through Oct-1992

All images are copyright © James W. Blilie, 1990 through 2010 All rights reserved

I used a very nice, yet inexpensive scanner, the  Epson V500  I like it very much.

*   *   *   *   *

New Zealand, 10-Dec-1990 to 6-Feb-1991, 1511 miles

These shots are from our two-month tour through New Zealand from Auckland on the North Island

through Wellington and then a big loop around the South Island, from Christchurch, doing a tour

of the mountain passes:  Porter's Pass, Arthur's Pass, Haast Pass, and Lindis Pass, then back to

Christchurch.

New Zealand route map:

PREVIOUS SEGMENT

NEXT SEGMENT

BACK TO WORLD TOUR BIG SHOW INDEX

For the slide show:  

Click HERE.  Then:

Click on the first picture (upper left picture) on the black photo album page and then

Click the "play" button at the upper right of the view panel to start the slide show.

Enjoy.

At the hostel, first day in Auckland	Auckland views	Auckland views	At the hostel	Jeff's arm after he got the cast off! He went to the doctor and the doctor said, "they didn't know what they were talking about in Suva, you're fine!"  And cut the cast off.
Celebration of being cast-free!	We met up with Julie Ellwood (who would marry Jeff eventually in 1995!) she took us to Piha on the west side of Auckland	Piha	Jeff and Julie at Piha	Jeff, Julie, and Julie's friend at Piha
Piha	One Tree Hill from a distance	North Island scenes	By the harbor in Auckland, including Rangitoto Island	At the harbor
Me on One Tree Hill		Sailing in Auckland Harbor	Sailing in Auckland Harbor	Jeff and Julie on a day-ride
Leaving Auckland	Firth of Thames	Firth of Thames	Lots of very steep hills, Coromandel Peninsula
Camp	"Bob" navigating	More hills		More hills
A little foot-ferry:  This is the ferry from Whitianga to "Ferry Landing" across Whitianga Harbor	North Island cycling	Camp at Hotwater Beach	North Island cycling	North Island cycling
North Island cycling	Motel room (we did stop in motels very occasionally to dry out mostly)	Geothermal site near Taupo	Lake Taupo	Hot water and geyser features at Lake Taupo
Heading to Tongariro National Park	Tongariro National Park	Tongariro National Park	Tongariro National Park	Tongariro National Park, the Mount Tongariro hike
Tongariro National Park, me on the summit of Mt. Tongariro	A favorite sign:  Downhill!	Camp	In this store, the lady asked, "have you been up the hill yet?"  "Hill, what hill?"  In the second photo. see the store in the lower right corner.  BIG HILL!	North Island cycling
Free camping	Star trails at free camp	North Island cycling	Beating the heat	Beach just north of Wellington
Pohutukawa trees	Camp	Great kitchen facilities at NZ campgrounds!	Sheep!	Beach just north of Wellington
Sunset on the beach just north of Wellington on the South Island, west coast	Into Wellington	Ferry across the Cook Straight to the South Island	Ferry across the Cook Straight to the South Island	Picton, the landing spot. Train to Christchurch
Views from the Banks Peninsula above Christchurch, an old volcanic cone	Rock climbing area between Porter's Pass and Arthur's Pass.   Our host Justin LeSeuer took us up there.	Rock climbing area between Porter's Pass and Arthur's Pass.   Our host Justin LeSeuer took us up there.	Rock climbing area between Porter's Pass and Arthur's Pass.   Our host Justin LeSeuer took us up there.	The mouth of the cave.  You can take a 1/2-mile hike through the cave to another mouth.
Inside the cave	Justin and Francie's house.  The U in Christchurch	The U in Christchurch	Leaving Justin and Francie's place in Christchurch	Heading to Porters Pass
	Climbing Porters Pass.  The grade exceeds 20% for about 1/2-mile, which follows about 4 miles at 10+% and before that about 10 miles at around 6% (if memory serves)	Porters Pass	Between Porters Pass and Arthur's Pass	Free camping at Lake Lyndon between the passes
Star trails, Lake Lyndon	Between Porters Pass and Arthur's Pass	Between Porters Pass and Arthur's Pass	Arthur's Pass, Daisy Flat campground	Keas (parrots) on the Avalanche Peak hike in Arthur's Pass National Park
Avalanche Peak hike in Arthur's Pass National Park	Avalanche Peak hike in Arthur's Pass National Park, Jeff and me on the summit of the Peak	Avalanche Peak hike in Arthur's Pass National Park	Avalanche Peak hike in Arthur's Pass National Park	Arthur's Pass, Daisy Flat campground
The Otira Gorge; into We(s)tland	"Wetland"	Beer!	Sheep!	Beer!
"Wetland"	A clear day at Franz Josef!	A clear day at Franz Josef!	Me and Jeff at Franz Josef Glacier	Franz Josef Glacier
Motel room at Franz Josef Glacier	Further along in Westland	Further along in Westland	Haast Pass	On the dry side again, on the east side of Haast Pass
Approaching the big lakes near Queenstown	Camped near the road to Mt Aspiring	Lake Wanaka or Lake Hawea	Jeff dubbed my bike Blobbo after it had numerous failures.  Approaching Lindis Pass	Lindis Pass, the last of our Tour of the Passes on the South Island
Near Lindis Pass	Camp under Lindis Pass	Plains east of the Southern Alps; sheep hazard	Camping near Twizel	Approaching Mount Cook National Park along Lake Pukaki.  We had a headwind so bad, we had to use first gear and go 4 mph into it for about 20 miles.
Mount Cook National Park	Camping in the deluging rain, Mount Cook	Mount Cook		Leaving Mount Cook
Tough traffic east of the mountains	In Canterbury		The Chain Gang in Christchurch, where the modified by Raleigh Portage to fit 26-inch standard wheels.  Great shop. The Chain Gang 130 Opawa Rd, Christchurch Ph/fax (03) 332 6100 Email keithmc@caverock.net.nz Justin and Francie's place	Christchurch airport, leaving

PREVIOUS SEGMENT

NEXT SEGMENT

BACK TO WORLD TOUR BIG SHOW INDEX

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

Outline of our trip:

From Nov. 15, 1990 to Oct. 6, 1992, with a five-month break for the winter of '91-'92, Jeff Mellor

and I traveled around the world through 26 countries, mostly by bicycle.  While in the "developed"

world, we bicycled 1000 miles per month, camping each night.  In Asia and Africa, we traveled by

train and bus and used guest-houses.  We encountered 16 different foreign languages, of which we

needed to learn at least the rudiments.  We rode a total of almost 11,000 miles on our bikes, camped out

at least 350 times, and climbed several mountains including Pt. Lenana (16,350 ft.) on Mt. Kenya in

Africa.  We took a three-week, 220-mile hike around the Annapurna Range in Nepal, which included

a 17,700 ft. high pass.  I took 13,000 photographs and wrote 1000 pages of journals.  No experience

in my life, except my university education, can compare with these travels for the depth and breadth

of learning or for the perspective gained.  It was one of the peak life experiences, up there with

marriage, children, university education.

Our trip was through these countries:

[Hawaii:  The Big Island, a 2-week shake-down within the US, started Nov 1990]

Fiji, about 10 days riding around Viti Levu from Nadi to Suva

New Zealand:  Auckland to Wellington via Coromandel Penn. and a loop around the Southern

Alps from Christchurch and back

Australia, from Sydney to Melbourne via Canberra and Mt. Kosciusko, around Tasmania, bits and

pieces inland mostly bus to Darwin

Singapore

Malaysia, from Singapore to the Thai border

Thailand (no bikes; we sent our bikes to Denmark from Bangkok, not wanting to ride in Thailand,

Nepal, India, Kenya, or Egypt)

Nepal (no bikes)

India (no bikes; just passed through Delhi and Bombay since we were running way behind)

and then on to a long tour of Europe:

Denmark

Germany

Netherlands

Belgium

France

United Kingdom

Then a winter's break at home in the USA from Oct 1991 through March 1992, then we flew

back to Lisbon Portugal in March 1992:

Portugal

Spain

France

UK, we rode from Plymouth to Land's End then from Land's End to John O'Groats at the tip of

Scotland and via ferries to the Orkneys, Shetlands, and on to Norway over the North Sea (with a

detour from Holyhead in Wales over to Ireland and back)

Ireland

Norway

Sweden

Germany (former East Germany)

Poland

Czech Republic

Austria

Germany (Bavaria) and home in Oct 1992 from Frankfurt am Main

All images are copyright © James W. Blilie, 1990 through 2010, All rights reserved

BACK TO WORLD TOUR BIG SHOW INDEX

Time and mileage table:

BACK TO WORLD TOUR BIG SHOW INDEX

Back to Main Photo Page

Back to Basic World Tour Page

Background image is a view in Arthur's Pass National Park, Feb-1991

Last updated:  5-Jun-2010