Adventures in Retrospect

A new year and another adventure. This time Nick and I took off to Japan for a quick 10 day ski trip to the picturesque Hukaba valley where the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics were held.  Getting There We took a direct flight from Brisbane to Tokyo (Narita Airport). It was a day-time flight, departing at 10am (BNE time) and arriving at 6pm (local time). Uneventful flight but always interesting how many people recline their seats in Economy class for a daylight flight. Poor Nick had an inconsiderate soul sitting in front of him who decided to recline their seat most of the flight. Come on people. When I suggested that Nick should recline his seat he said no and replied "Be the change you want to see in the world." Fair enough.  Tokyo Narita Airport We were mid-plane so we disembarked into the airport with a fair number of passengers in front of us. Now, we didn't run through the airport but we moved very briskly. It pays to get to the immigration line as soon as possible. We h...

Here are some stats and reflections from my TA journey.  Summary Statistics Distance These are distances that I cycled, and don't include the ferry trips (Auckland to Pine Harbour, Wellington to Picton, and Queenstown to Walter Peak Station). Elevation Gain This is the elevation gain that Strava determined for each day. In some cases Strava didn't work (user error) and my Apple Watch was used. Both apps were normally pretty close.  Average Gradient This is a calculation based on Elevation Gain divided by Distance and converted to a percent. It shows that on average the ride is only 1% gradient (a tiny 10 metre rise per kilometre).   It also shows that the North Island was slightly more hilly (1.18%) than the South Island (0.93%). Elapsed Duration This is the duration from starting the day to finishing the day. It includes stops, for breaks, photos, drones, lunch, sightseeing, etc. I think this is a good measure because easy days generally have shorter breaks...

Wednesday 19th November Distance: 33  km Elevation gain:  93 metres From  Invercargill to Bluff About 2 hrs elapsed from 7 am to 9 am. It was another night of tossing and turning.  The excitement of finishing this epic trip had me filled with mixed emotions. The routine of getting up, packing my panniers and cycling is so ingrained that I've felt a little lost without my gear on the bike these past few days.  They had become a security blanket that I needed to feel complete.  Maybe everyone that's been on a long trip, living out of a suitcase, feels the same when you get home? The alarm went off at 6am, just a little sleep-in.  Rob and I had a quick bite to eat - coffee and pizza scroll (left over from yesterday). I missed my regular iced coffee and Rob missed his iced chocolate.  But we survived. We got away at 7 am and started our ride like the last day of the Tour de France around Paris, except we were in Invercargill.  There was a roundabout that we rode around just for kic...

Tuesday 18th November Distance:  112 km Elevation gain:  86 metres From Mossburn to Invercargill About 6 hrs elapsed from 7 am to 1 pm. I'm getting excited about finishing and today was a flat run all the way to Invercargill (leaving a small 35km day on Wednesday to finish at Bluff).  It was a challenge to get going early. The route today was south, through the towns of Winton, Wallacetown, and finally ending in Invercargill.  Without the fully laden panniers our day seemed achievable.  Mel had purchased our breakfast supplies so at least we didn't have to worry about that chore.  The biggest and most concerning issue was the gale force winds that had picked up overnight. The little cabin we were staying in shuddered and shook with the gusts. Would we have a headwind or tailwind for our ride today?   The first leg was 70km to Winton.  This time we were lucky and had a fantastic tailwind.  We absolutely flew whenever the route was southbound, and then struggled when it deviated ...

Monday 17th November Distance:   108 km Elevation gain:  822 metres From Queenstown to Mossburn About 6.5 hrs elapsed from 10 am to 4:30 pm. Recap Sunday Rest Day A lazy start to Sunday.   We got motivated around 9am, Leigh was very generous and even made breakfast. We went down to Queenstown and Leigh showed us around.  We grabbed a good coffee and a pie from the bakery for a morning snack.  Rob went on a jet boat tour while Leigh and I drove out of town and had a small tramp/hike around Bob's Cove Beach and lookout.  It was a beautiful blue-sky day, although Leigh thought it was too much like summer. 😀 In the afternoon I went out to the airport to meet Mel, while Rob went to meet the folks.  We all met up for dinner downtown at Sunfire restaurant.  It was a great evening, and Queenstown was pumping with a party town atmosphere due to the Marathon weekend crowds. Back to Monday We were awake early to catch the 9am TSS Earnslaw steamboat ferry from Queenstown to Walter Peak Statio...

Saturday 15th November Distance:  71 km Elevation gain:  1,132 metres From Wanaka over the Crown Range and into to Queenstown (Arthurs Point) About 7.5 hrs elapsed from 6:30am to 2pm. Recap Friday Rest Day A big sleep-in today.  Rob had to wake me for 7:30am breakfast.  Thank-goodness he did.  Buffet breakfast when you are eating heaps is awesome!!!  Maybe I went too hard?   There was laundry to do and emails to catch-up on.  Very lazy day.  I made it into the sauna and spa which was very relaxing - until another couple came into the sauna and ruined my zen moment of reflection.  I hope the spa and sauna help my legs because they are (understandably) exhausted after nearly 300km and 3,000m of elevation over the last 3 days. We had dinner with some mates from Bris-Vegas, Steve and Nicole, which was awesome.  They completed a 9 month lap of Australia last year in a 4WD and saw some amazing sights.  Steve blogged their trip and I have to give them some credit for inspiring me to do this T...

Thursday 13 November Distance:  77 km Elevation gain:  794 metres From Makarora Wonderland Lodge and Campground to Wanaka About 8 hrs elapsed from 7:30am to 3:30pm. We got away early today by packing up the tents when they were still quite wet, instead of waiting for them to dry.  I'm also more practiced at packing up the tent and camping gear.   It was the coldest start for some time and I even thought about using my winter ski gloves that haven't been used all trip.  But they were at the bottom of my kitchen bag so it was too much effort to bother with. Our first leg was 51 km from Makorora to the township of Lake Hawea.  We expected this to be a relatively flat route along the shorelines of Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea.  How wrong we were! The road doesn't follow the shoreline all the time, and instead goes up and down, over and around in a random fashion.  Add to that a strong headwind and we had very challenging conditions.  It was almost more difficult than yesterday...