Well the trip within a trip has been completed. It wasn’t a bad way to see New Zealand. The problem after seeing so much of a country is you realize that there are bits you have missed out on. This is probably more so the case after spending a relatively long time in the same country. Ah well I am still young. It can wait till 2011 when I shall come over to see Jonny own Dan. The last six days of the trip have been uber productive in terms of land covered. Something like 500 or so kilometers. It seems [View Full Entry]

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Managed to cycle from Hokitiki to Franz Josef Glacier in two days. This included an overnight stop off at a place called Harihari. This part of the trip was memorable for one reason, this been that the bike did not give me any gyp. Whilst I am sure that this scenary is spectacular it has become the norm so it kind of loses its effect after a while sadly. As is to be expected of this part of the NZ it rained all the way. Contrary to my initial expectations the tent withstood everything and only let in a few rogue [View Full Entry]

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It started off quite well really, cycling merrily along the Canterbury plains in the blazing sunshine. In the space of about 3 and a half hours i had cycled to Springfield (80km NE of Christchurch) All this talk from people about not cycling Arthur's pass had been dismissed out of my mind. To be honest by the time i got to Springfield all these noncey thoughts had left my mind completely. Then it kicked in! I have never felt winds this strong coming straight at me before. It got to the point where i was literally pushing the bike along the [View Full Entry]

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Cycling between Blenheim and kaikoura was probably the best part of my trip so far, I even had a magpie stalking me for a few hours. I think it was attracted to my lovely shiny silver helmet. It kept on dive bombing sporadically every so often and to tell you the truth this thing was freaking me out. I didn’t fancy becoming a living Hitchcock novel. After a while though it just turned into a bit of playful joisting with the bird, Sneaky little fellow really. Having said that if the chance had a risen I would have killed it in [View Full Entry]

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I spent 4/5 weeks highly enjoyable weeks in Wellington doing nothing in particular. It was good to be able to walk around the harbour aimlessly day after day listening to my MP3 player watching ferries rolling in and out of the Cook Strait. In Wellington i also had to get a few problems on the bike mended so nothing new there, just cracked cassettes and worn down cogs due to vigorous use of the gears. Whilst in Wellington I toyed semi successfully with the idea of getting a job. I signed up with several agencies but failed to pass what I [View Full Entry]

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Since leaving Auckland the weather has generally dipped and the terrain has got a bit better in the sense that it’s not up and down all day, gives the old legs a bit of respite. However maybe I long for a few hills again. From my experience you cycle further without knowing it when you have something to concentrate instead of cycling aimlessly along a long flat straight road. God its such a catch 22, bit of both would be great. The trip seems to have moved up a few notches in terms of outdoor ness since leaving Thames. The weather [View Full Entry]

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First lesson learnt on this little trip would be don't cycle along roads listed as scenic. I presume the roads are very scenic when you are cruising along in a nicely insulated car at 100km, however this does not ring true when you have sweat dripping in your eyes causing semi blindness whilst struggling to maintain a speed of 20km/hr The second lesson learnt would be ......... don't whistle at big lurcher style dogs in backyards that you assume to be faraway, to alleviate boredom on vast never-ending country roads. Never mind the fact that you assume they are 100 upon [View Full Entry]

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It turns out that most of my blogs have been deleted by some travelblog server corruption or something like that. I am not alone though, apparently another 45,000 blogs have also been deleted. Nevermind anyway. Now only my 1st two blogs survive and then anything post travelblog apocolypto. A relatively good start to the cycle ride only curtailed by a few teething problems on the first day namely two flat tyres. It turned out that on the 1st day I ended up walking 20km and cycling only 10km! The 1st stop off was paihia and even though my bike had been [View Full Entry]

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I have just finished reading where is Peter Falconio ? Its a great read for someone setting off on his travels in areas that maybe somewhat isolated. Anyhow it came to the conclusion after 300 pages that he was dead or possibly riding a top Shergar in lush green meadows with Elvis in close pursuit. On a more serious note though the bike should be ready to go on the 1st august. Its a bit of a last minute thing even though I have had the bike for yonks. The initial set off date which has been cancelled about 5 times [View Full Entry]

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Forgive the crap nature of this blog the brain is having real problems putting the jigsaw puzzle of the last few weeks together. It shouldn’t be too hard as it has followed a similar pattern as the previous couple of months. This does not include the 1st part which is still very fresh in my mind. This little bit is about Darcy. Darcy is weird. He is sometimes on the good side of weird but in general the wrong side more so after the little conversation we had. First of all Darcy doesn’t actually live in the actual hostel, he [View Full Entry]

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