Nadia Bertrand and Sébastien Dubois Artists Painters Muralists Musician: May 2016

Friday, May 27, 2016

Japan

Last April we flew to Tokyo from Auckland, NZ to see the cherry blossom and discover a new culture! The Japanese are always ready to help us whenever we need directions, they take you by the hand and bring you where you need to go! Sebastien was trying to find a pipe organ to practice on, but it was very difficult because not many people speak english and no instrument was accessible. So let's go to France!

Sitting in our room (I mean, it's a closet!), everything was so expensive in Japan, we decided to stay to this guesthouse

Very nice park next in Yokohama

New-Zealand

Right after Australia, we flew to Auckland, NZ where we have succeeded to barter a tandem rental for 1 month with Bruce O'Hallaran from Adventure Cycling!! yeap! we have painted a car by hand with a brush...a little strange but the result was...great!!

Beautiful sunset

Some people that allowed us to camp on their backyard

We have cycled about 1200 km around the North Island and here we are on the East Cape; we had lots of punctures because of the tires...they were in bad condition, I should have asked to put brand new tires on the tandem...

After a big climb we are on the top of the hill!
What a view!!!

We met a guy who told us we could cycle on the hiking trail that links the two dead ends on the East Cape; there is a 9 km section not accessible by car..Well, by bicycle, especially with a tandem with a trailer, it's really though!!! We stripped the low cog, loosed the wheel bearings. Hopefully we are in very good shape. So, we had to cycle in the big hills without this low gear before we could reach the next bike shop.. And just to make things worst, we had an accident on a gravel road as Sebastien was trying to save the brakes we went too fast in a curve and we slipped. Just a couple of scratches, but the bike was in really bad shape!! The front wheel is dead and we are in the middle of nowhere; finally somebody pick us up and we stayed overnight to her place and her husband gave us a ride to the next bike shop...what an adventure!

Beautiful landscapes in NZ, Amazing!

Sebastien is painting on a rock for paying the campground; another barter story!

Some new friends who invited us to stay overnight

Another puncture!! wow...we're trying to fix it in a bath (where the cattle goes for drinking)

Trying to fix the tire by sowing a piece of fabric inside, Nadia is so polyvalent!

We pitched our tent in that bush, but we got caught by the heavy rain, so we stayed 36 hours non stop in the tent. After that much rain, we are hitting the road again

During the second night, I say to Nadia, do you hear that? Yeah, the rain is so heavy that there is a stream next to the tent about 3 meters and its getting bigger and bigger! But lucky we were, the "river" stayed away from us...