13th, hmmm, figures, got knocked off the bike this morning by a hare, yes – a HARE! It came around a blind corner at full speed towards me and ran head first into my front wheel. Down I went in a cloud of fluff. Austen 1 – 0 Hare.

Am now sporting some nice big patches of road rash down my right side.

The spares thing swings it for me, you see a fair number of posts on here of people trying to find replacement rims and spokes for their factory built wheels, I know that my LBS stocks everything I would need to rebuild a knackered wheel this afternoon.

After killing a rear rim in the lakes I’ve even had a friend rebuild me a rear wheel half way around a ride. We just pottered down into town and bought a rim and spokes and rebuilt it whilst eating a pasty. Don’t think you could do that with a CrossMax SLR.

I went heli-biking whilst in Wanaka, just something I couldn’t pass up once I know about it.

Whilst the trails weren’t the most technical or challenging the scenery, both riding and in the heli, was amazing and we had a good old blast down 3000m of decent. We ended up in a small group, two of us experienced riders, an intermediate girl and the guide, he was happy to let us hoon off into the distance and wait at the next gate. This is worth checking as it could be very frustrating if you were forced to ride at the pace of the slowest.

Overall I loved the experience but am not sure I would pay to do it again unless it was on some particularly fantastic trails.

For riding I’d definitely get the Kennet Bros book and then ask around at local shops etc, everyone is very helpful and I had a lot of people offer to take me out around the local trails. There is a load of stuff in the south island I missed and am planning my return! You MUST ride the Queen Charlotte track over a couple of days, the combination of scenery, trail and an overnight stop at one of the lodges makes it the best trail I’ve ever ridden (think there was an article in ST last year).