A lady with a bike...

No--I am not trying to pick up the lady with the bike. Joan, ever watchful in that respect, is a few paces away, snapping the shot of the lady with the bike and hoping that I am distracting her from noticing this photographic invasion of her privacy. I am actually eliciting information from her about her cycling. This was back in early January--I think we were down by the harbour for the unicyclists. And you see from our shadows that the sun is shining, and I am wearing a neckerchief to stop me becoming a redneck. It has not been all bad weather.

As we drive around New Zealand we often see cyclists loaded down with gear, grinding their way slowly up the long, long hills. This lady--middle-aged and not a person who would strike you as athletic--came from the United States. She told me she had bought her bike and all her carrying gear in Christchurch on the South Island, and that she had ridden all the way around the South Island--across from Christchurch to the west coast, down the coast, over the Haast Pass and then all the way up to the ferry at Picton for the crossing to Wellington. She was now going to 'do' the North Island. From Wellington to the top of the North Island is more than 600 kilometres, and it is also a long way across from coast to coast--so she would have a lot of cycling ahead of her.

We wished her the best of luck, and when the wind has been whistling around our apartment building, I sometimes wonder where she is, battling her way against the gales.

Posted by David: photo by Joan. January 15