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Loving the pics mate.
How's your mental health holding up Jeremy?Other side of the world, on my own, I think I might have some anxiety. Still,judging by the photos there are some real upsides.They are certainly improving my morale.
Heads pretty good now Im actually on tbe road and being in a ( sort of) English speaking country helps.
Brains are weird
AA. Its tough when places have memories like that. These trips i am doing are not the ones I planned with Julie. The countries we planned to go to are off limits for now.
Yeah, you would think time would help, but despite the loss becoming less raw or whatever the barriers we put up just seem to get bigger...I'll smash the ****er down one day.
In the meantime, grab a Waikato Draught and raise a glass to Jon the Pom for me..it tastes like knats piss but he used to like it ?
looking great, love the pictures of Hobbiton 🙂
hiding in some bushes for the night.
Is it Tuesday already?
Wonder what TJ will wake up with... Kiwi Drop bear maybe?
Sitting having my coffee waiting for an stwer to turn up to join me for the days ride.
Well that was tough. 12 miles on the trail took well over 3 hours0. Poor old moonsaballon was very patient with this slow old man. I have camped another 7 miles or so further on as the campsite near the trail end was shite. Need to make some route decisions now. Tuesday is due to piss it down so a couple of days in a hotel sounds good
Great to meet you TJ . Took me just under 2 hours to get back to the car which wasn't too bad . The deforested section was the worst with the sun .
I really enjoyed the day but I can how with a fully loaded bike that section would be hard work . I met another couple of tour riders on Shands and they were looking to bail onto the road so it's pretty tough work .
only the one stop for hair care !
Bet it was nicer going back but i don't feel to bad about my lack of speed if it took you two hours to get back
Nice to meet you and ta for coming along.
Decisions decisions
Connection ride over to the timber trail and the timber trail itself sound great but 3 big days out. Its due to pass it down all day Tuesday.oe 3 days time. Hmm. Taupo and a comfy hotel sound a good bet. I can pick up the trails further down. Two leisurely days to a tourist town and couple of nights in a hotel sounds good.
The river trails have been good but pretty tough. Today's was beautiful and entertaining but hard work. Lots of granny gear action and too much pushing up hills. No dragging bikes thru swamps tho
And I need an effing chair
It’s a long trip, you want to enjoy it, so if you are not feeling it/want to avoid the rain then there is no point being miserable for a few days. Park the bike up, freshen up in a hotel and recharge ready to go again.
Gaddamit. I hate hills. Im in the wrong country aren't I?
Lols
I feel broken. I hadn't ridden much this year at all before setting off.. i guess i am probably at the worst point for fatigue at a week in. Cumulative fatigue high but fitness gains still to be felt and no real weight loss yet. Couple of days rest here and I'll look at routes more for the next bit. Id hoped to be 100+ miles further south but the river trails while beautiful were slow going. Road riding hete is horrible tho with close passes a constant thing. Had a car literally within 20cm today
Sounds tough going, relax amd enjoy where you are for a bit.try not to be tough on yourself-just flex your plan a bit.
And keep the photos coming, said from a frosty dog walk in Newcastle - was meant to be a smiley here, came out as a ?
Bus to the south island. There are only 1.2 million and 0.4 million live in Christchurch. So the roads are quite
Well they were back in the day.
just flex your plan a bit.
Ive got as far as i had planned. Its difficult knowing what the trails are like until you ride them and get a grip on the descriptions. Now i know. Sodding hills lots of them
So its time to plan the next stage. Bus sounds tempting but it feels like cheating. I shall sleep on it and ponder
Its always the same with cycle touring. The best scenery means lots of hills.
Im too tired today to make good decisions. 3 hours slogging in granny gear in the heat does that
TJ tell me to shut up if I’m being a pain
My memory is that the west coast of nz wasn’t that hilly. But i was young, thin and fit. Well compared to now. So i put a section into komoot (we road from the ferry but can’t remember the exact route). It came up with this. No idea if you can get to the start on public transport, but you can get to Greymouth further south for sure. I’d say 388 miles with 7000 metres of ascent isn’t mega hilly. 8 days would be just under 50 miles and just under 1000 metres of ascent each day
Views are Alpine one side and coastal the other. But it is the wettest place on Earth. I mean literally the wettest place on Earth
Finally if you are going off road again Strava subscribers like me can have a look and see how much cycle traffic the routes actually get
TJ tell me to shut up if I’m being a pain
Not at all. The more info the better. We'll until I get confused with too many options
Bus sounds tempting but it feels like cheating
Cheating? Pah! Your trip, your rules.
Committing to cycling everywhere will obviously limit the ground you can cover and there's a lot of NZ to explore. If there's places you want to see then skipping some of the less interesting in between bits makes sense. Nobody's going to be any less envious of your trip either way!
1000m climb a day sounds pretty hilly to me!
Good point thepurist though with a name like yours you shouldn't be suggesting a bus
Lolz
Could you ditch your camping kit and airbnb/youth hostel for a bit, do a loop and pick it up on the way back? 8 hrs kip on a proper bed a night would help with fatigue. Or just park the bike up for week and do a bit on foot/ public transport?
The pics are awesome, btw
@tjagain. Go for a lovely dip in Lake Taupo. Warm lake! We went on a nice relaxing boat cruise and went for a few paddles while out there.
I sleep fine in my tent. Thats not an issue. Hotel beds are normally too soft and give me backache.
Im not overburdened with kit at around 10kilos. Seen folk with 25 kg
Yeh,I,d be doing a bit of sea and lake swimming if I was you tj.Soothes the muscles and gets a bit of sun on them.Speaking of which, you seem very overdressed for summer.I pour with sweat in shorts and vest.
To add to the thoughts/confusion…
Not sure where you are headed next but the section of the tour Aotearoa south from pipariki to Whanganui follows the river on smooth quite tar seal and makes a lovely relaxed days ride. Mainly downhill. The section of the TA before that through to the bridge to nowhere can be quite tough though and bypassed riding the road anticlockwise Round Lake Taupo and onto SH 4. Hilly but at least it’s road hills.
them.Speaking of which, you seem very overdressed for summer.I pour with sweat in shorts and vest.
Sun protection and its very light technical fabric. Itscooler than exposed skin given the fericity of the sun
Not sure where you are headed next but
Neither am i. Thats a good idea from you
Does thick long hair and a black helmet also not get rather hot?Sorry to go on about things.
Stupid plastic hat doesn't help for sure
The temperature here is weird. 16 ish air temp this morning but absolutely baking sun. Sunburn in 10 mins unprotected.
I a slowly bilding a bit of tan up on my arms and legsbut even with factor 50 on you are risking sunburn and the loose fitting technical shirt and tousers reducr the heat you feel on your skin by keeping thr sun off.
Not sure how I missed this from the start, hope you have a great time TJ, we went to NZ for the first time last year & loved every second, enjoy & bon voyage
For what it's worth I was pretty impressed with your pace and the climbing you managed on a loaded bike on Saturday.
When I left you the sun took it out of me on the deforested section and I was only out of the trees for 20 minutes.
Is it worth breaking you're days in to two .Start a bit earlier , hide up in the shade for a couple of hours in the middle of the day then see how far you can get in the afternoon.
Kids go back to school next week so there hopefully should be less holiday/ tourist traffic on the roads .
I'm feeling much brighter already. I have extended my stay in Taupo another day as I have found a clinic to do a minor medical procedure that needs doing. Maybe that had been weighing on my mind?
Ta for that moonsaballoon. Makes this slow old man feel better.
Maybe I need to remember I'm a pensioner
Lols
I bought a chair. Local camping shops had never heard of the helinox lighweight chair but one guy was fascinated and ordered me one in overnight delivery 450 grammes for a real chair. Ill curse the weight on the hills but i need it on the campsite
Surely you want to un-tuck the shirt for cooling?
It usually is molgrips. When i remember. I do hate a scruffy untucked shirt ?
Well thats one of the weirdest places I have ever seen. Hot water beach. Multiple hot streams running onto the beach. Did a hole and it fills with hot water. Floating rocks as well
Bought a chair. Not sure ita allowed in bikepacking circles but this old man needs it
Looks like you have a full mattress and pillows in your tent as well! 😉
Not sure ita allowed in bikepacking circles but this old man needs it
This younger man would have brought the tie dye Helinox sunset model with him - not sure I could get up out of that one after a day on the hills.
Should i buy a new camping mattress? I have a cheap thermarest copy that weighs a kilo. Found one in a shop here that weighs 350grammes. £150. More than makes up for the chair in weight. Its thicker but less rvalue
Spotted in the pub
For £150 can you not get one that is warm and light?
Not here. That's the best i could find. R value 2.8. It does have some insulation
Should i buy a new camping mattress? I have a cheap thermarest copy that weighs a kilo. Found one in a shop here that weighs 350grammes. £150. More than makes up for the chair in weight. Its thicker but less rvalue
Just make sure you have a suitable patch kit and that the lighter mattress isn't too noisy... some of the lighter ones are like sleeping on a crisp packet!
Heading off again in the morning. Unfortunately really means roads for much of the next couple of days to get back to the trails.
Done a bit of rejigging of kit and am well rested. Also had a small cancerous skin lesion removed from my back. 90% chance that's all that will be needed. Histology report will be 3 weeks or so.
I'm at high risk of getting these due to sun damage from when I was a kid and unpigmented patches. Check you skin folks!
I feel well rested and ready for the next section. I should get to the south end of Lake Taupo tomorrow and maybe a bit further. Campsites look in short supply tho. Then I will head south east to pick up the Wanganui River trail
That chair looks ideal. It's one thing we missed bike packing in September, although we fell very lucky with the three camp sites in that two had benches at out camp plot, and one had some in the corner of the field. My mate said he was getting one next time as he'd been earlier in the year and had no-where to sit.
Always enjoy your travel thread, especially as it looks like I'm going to be off the bikes for some time after a silly fall on ice two weeks ago (even with ice tyres). Currently on crutches.
I have hot puddle envy, especially after today's commute.
Headwinds and hills todsy thru dull farmland. Ho hum. Still it sunny and warm. Looks like a roadside camp tonight
I've effed it up a bit by listening to an old boy who told me there was good camping at this spot. Its shit. Too tired to go further and anyway its miles to an actual campsite. Rowlocks.
Oh well. I have food and a tent. I'll survive
Lovely river tho
Found a wee corner to hide it wth an ok pitch. Bit to visible as its nor allowed to camp here.
Are you heading to Whanganui, TJ? But not doing the Timber Trail to the northwest of Taupo, which would pop you out at Ongarue? There's camping along the way.
Basically yes corroded.
Im halfway down the western side of lake Taupo heading for the whanganui river trail
You are around here somewhere are you?
Sadly not! Am in UK but rode around the North Island in 2023 (and grew up in NZ). I did some of Mountains to the Sea to Whanganui and then Remutaka Loop from Wellington, which I loved but wouldn’t recommend to you on account of a couple of big hills! Just interested in your route.
Didn’t get to the South Island but have heard good things about the Molesworth Muster through some sheep stations. And Alps 2 Ocean is largely downhill. Have you considered taking the train to skip some of the roads?
Another day of too many hills. 40 miles and nearly 3000ft of climbs. I may have bitten off more than i can chew.
Fabulous scenery again today and at least i got a good descent.
Struggling to pick a route for tomorrow as the main road i am on looks very busy but the bikepacking route is much longer and plenty of climbing.
This is tough.
Pics courtesy of my blood swear and tears
This is tough.
The pictures (which are superb, by the way) look like it's properly undulating; huge respect for doing the ride.
Fair play TJ. Pics are great, you will be getting fitter and stronger, it will get easier, you just need to give it another couple of weeks...
Anorher couple of weeks? Ffs ill be totally broken
You may be broken but the views are amazing..... keep going