On the commute home last night…

Used some Specialized 1.25 fat boys on mavic 819s recently for a road race on a MTB. Can’t vouch for long term puncture protection but they did fine up a gravelly ski resort climb.

I’ve used HiFx for large transfers (car, house deposits) transferred from UK savings to NZ bank account with no hassles and you get decent rates.

My mam just gets NZD out of the UK post office and sticks in my Christmas/Birthday cards for small amounts.

bassblog.pro
Stress factor podcast[/url]

A friend of mine has recently put this DnB studio mix together:
https://soundcloud.com/tannadyce-project/tannadyce-project-studio-mix

K2k is open but apparently what used to be techie singletrack is now all weather type surface? I’ve only ridden that only W2k.

Just stumbled across nzbybike.com/rides-in-nz/ which looks pretty useful too, tracks.org.nz is the classic resource but this looks a bit more polished.

Wellingtonian here, +1 on the above
– W2K is a great day ride near Taupo
– Queen Charlotte Track is ace. Worth noting the first section (roughly 1 of 3 days riding) is closed to bikers during the Summer months, starting from December. Still worth doing the last 2 sections though. Some great trail riding nearby in Nelson too.
– Trails in and around Welly are great if you’re in the area, bike hire available and friendly locals if you want some shuttles
– Rotorua as above is awesome, good uplift service too if you want to smash out some DH runs but equally epic all day XC missions

Oh and Zippy’s cafe in town is good for brekkie/coffee.

My 2 cents:

– Little red riding huck (aka jumps track) is awesome
– Corners is pretty average in comparison, do it once and then get back onto jumps
– National DH is rideable on a trail bike (slowly), you can go around all the massive huckz and drops if you want. Some decent sized gaps at the bottom.

Push/ride up from the shuttle dropoff:
– Tuhoto Ariki/Hatu Patu are great techy rooty trails
– Billy T is fun, nice steep chute into a small step up towards the end

Good way to finish the day is Billy T, then up the fireroad onto Spilt Endz (awesome flat out fun!), Pondy DH, Pondy New then rollercoaster for easy tables tops back to the car park for a banana smoothie, lolly cake and a beer :)

Getting the ferry to the south island (NZ) in less than 6 hours for a fornight of riding. Yow!

Shuttling a few DH spots around Wellington, NZ

> Can someone explain this turn rule in very simple words,

If you’re driving down the road, going straight it’s your right of way.

Say you want to turn right down a sidesreet.

– You still have give way to traffic coming towards you
– If a car coming towards you want’s to turn down the same side street as you do (ie he’s turning left, you’re turning right) it’s YOUR right of way.

Just be careful where the car wanting to turn left moves over to the left for you to take your turn but cars behind him “overtake” as they’re going straight on.

Hope that helps :)
(I live in Wellington and I’m pretty much used to it now, it’s going to take a while to get used to going back to the old method next month!)

There used to be a nightclub called Cadillacs (aka Shagallacs), it was pretty dodgy even when I there as a student.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you :)

The car park on the west side of the reservoir (opposite side to the merthyr sailing club) is fine and if it’s a weekend there’s usually an ice cream van in there all day and tourists back n fore so you should be alright.

I park in the mountain railyway car park if I’m going over to the quarries opposite and never had any problems, YMMV.

I’m in Wellington, if you want to hook up when you’re here just gimme a shout. There’s loads of XC riding and plenty of DH’s that are easy to shuttle too.

Some places to start for Welly stuff:
http://www.makarapeak.org
http://www.wtp.org.nz/

And I’m surprised no one has mentioned tracks.org.nz yet, it has pretty much every MTB trail listed :)

We moved out to NZ last year and brought our bikes with us but we had a campervan so no hassle carrying them around. Stuff is cheaper back home (I still order stuff from CRC) but it’s not silly expensive especially second hand. Check out the cycling section of http://www.trademe.co.nz for second hand bikes(they dont really use ebay here).

As for:

Oh and remember to get bikes IN to NZ they have to be spotlessly clean, not a hint of mud/dirt, basically showroom condition or you will never get past customs!

It’s not that bad to be honest. I cleaned all 3 bikes I’ve brought over the during the last 6 months and the tyres have still have had faint muddy residues etc on them and they weren’t too bothered. Depends on the customs guy I guess.

+1 for the Dell U2311H listed above.

I’ve had mine around a month and I’m more than happy with it. Really good build quality, viewing angles and colour are grand and I use it for video editing as well as a bit of FPS gaming with no obvious lag. I paid $400 NZD so 200 quid sounds bang on.

The reason for 2 network cards would be for routing purposes – so I could pretend to be from the USA or the UK depending on what I want to watch

2 network cards won’t achieve this, not unless you have 2 separate broadband accounts and one of them is tunnelled permanently to a server in the states.

You can do what you’re aiming for with one internet connection. Just VPN/ssh tunnel/web proxy to your box in the states for HBO. You could also easily add static routes for the IP address ranges of HBO/whoever to point at your VPN address so you don’t have to change the proxy/vpn tunnel settings all the time.

Proxy switch plugin for chrome/firefox (prob IE too) is a great easy alternative, if you’re using a proxy rather than VPN.

I do something similar for watching BBC iplayer from NZ.

Can’t say it makes a big difference to MPG for me but then my car is pretty thirsty anyway (280bhp Subaru Legacy). There’s a noticeable (but small) loss of power when you press/de-press the aircon button though…

“Why would be want to come here – its just like Wales!”

+1 from a Welshman living in Wellington. The weather, in general, is a bit better though!

Some interesting replies above. I’ve been contracting in the UK for about 5 years with a similar kind of attitude of “work hard now and then enjoy a couple of months off” but is it really worth it for all the time spent holed up in a small flat, miles away from friends and family during the week, racking up masses of commuting miles on Fridays/Mondays and being too knackered to enjoy the weekends.

I moved out to New Zealand in November and have been working full time since February. Looking to “downsize” further as I’ve just been offered a part time role working 3 to 4 days a week. Looks to add up on paper but still gives me the fear as I think I’m accustomed to the idea of working 5 days a week and anything less is going to leave me skint. Hopefully the trade off of less money but more time to enjoy myself will be worth it.

What a c0ck.

+1 (And I’m Welsh).

I was born in Merthyr and lived there till I was about 20 and often come back to visit my folks and mates. I live in New Zealand now but still miss lovely Merthyr, it’s seriously underrated! I was visiting home last month and couldn’t get over how friendly and warm everyone is. Oh and valley girls :)

There are some dodgy parts (you want to avoid the gurnos for starters!) but also some nice areas and like you say you don’t have to live in Merthyr itself, plenty of the adjacent valleys are nice too and very cheap housing compared to the rest of the country. You could also look at living on the edge of the national park and commuting in.

There’s awesome riding all over the valleys without needing to drive anywhere. The trail centres are all close (CwmCarn/Afan, Brechfa, Nant y Arian/Cwm Rhaeder are driveable), some great DH tracks (gethin/taff buggy/mountain ash/rheola and loads of shonky secret local stuff) and if BikePark Wales takes off I’m sure everyone will be changing their tune :) There’s miles of XC stuff in the beacons and the colliery spoils in the valleys make for epic tip surfing on your bike.

The mountain goats are based in Nelson and ride all over the valleys. Usually longer than a few hours but it’s all really chilled out with plenty of stops. They do short rides over to cwmcarn/pontypool/llanbradach/sirhowy quite often too:
http://www.mountaingoats.nildram.co.uk/%5B/url%5D

The Pig can take monster forks but I’ve got my Lyriks in my Mmmbop just now and even wound down to 140mm IMO it doesn’t suit it, the balance of the thing feels totally off. Personal taste of course but it makes it feel cumbersome and rooted to the ground, combination of the weight out front and slack angles I guess? Or maybe just me

Really? So you’re saying you’d prefer less than 140mm forks on your mmmbop? I’m running lyriks on mine and never wind them down.

It was nothing of the sort, but at least the sign was gnar..

Decent (15min) acess to the M4 to get away

Maybe during the day, no chance on a weekday rush hour!

I woke up in Twerton once. That was pretty rough.

Bath city centre is lovely though, pretty busy mind especially in the summer.

St Albans

I’ve been out here 4 months, have a job and live in Wellington. It’s certainly different to the UK and there’s some epic riding minutes from the city centre (and further afield) but it’s not all fjords and lakes n stuff. You still have to have a day job, go shopping, pay bills and put up with the same everday stuff you would back home.

Also a lot of the amazing scenery is miles away from the centres of population where you’ll likely to find work. Don’t get me wrong though Wellington is a shed load better than my home town of Merthyr Tydfil. Just come out here eyes open. Culturally things are a bit ‘behind’ (not as many bands visit, that kinda thing) and the work ethic is a bit challenging, certainly working in IT it’s not exactly cutting edge stuff.

I don’t mean to come across as negative, I’m loving it here and will be visiting the UK next week for a wedding so it’ll be interesting to see whether my feelings are confirmed or if I miss greggs pasties too much and want to stay.

I’m up but it’s 7:30pm here, just got back from a ride and about to cook myself some tea.

Saturday building some jumps on the local super d track

Sunday marshalling at a womens mtb race :wink:

In New Zealand car insurance isn’t technically compulsory as they have the ACC pot to cover you in the event of an accident. (Funded by payment from your earnings, fuel and car tax). Stops a lot of this where there’s a blame there’s a claim nonsense too.

I’m making the most of it…. fully comp on a 280bhp Subaru for $550 (around £260). I doubt I’d even get it insurance on it back home.

A wallaby came bounding out in front of me at a mountain bike park in Rotorua, New Zealand. Had to double check with the missus I wasn’t seeing things!

alex: Try royal brunei if you haven’t already. They were a load cheaper than flight centre when I was looking at flights from london back to auckland last week (I already have the return leg, just visiting the uk for a few weeks and was in the same boat)

6 miles each way for me, ~750ft of descent down some cracking double track on the way in and a slog back on the road home.

Nutt stop being a fanny, it’s a golf GTI don’t worry about the mpg just razz it around Swindon like you stole it :)

I’m in New Zealand, been here since December and no plans to rush back either!

Quite a way from home though:

Nevermind Krag….should have done it last weekend then…sorry

I’m actually in new zealand at the moment but was looking forward to a blast around there when visiting home soon :(

Ah well, plenty of other good stuff though to ride in the area :)

This is what it used to look like:

Or covered in ice like this: