Adventures in Retrospect

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...

Wednesday 12 November Distance:  79 km Elevation gain:  1,020 metres From the town of Haast to Makarora Wonderland Lodge and Campground About 7 hrs elapsed from 8:30am to 3:30pm. Camping - it's a young person's game.  Especially when I have to get up in the middle of the night to pee.  I spent about 15 minutes when I got back inside my tent killing all the sandflies and mosquitoes that slipped in when the zip was opened (only briefly mind you).  In the morning, when packing up, the killing fields were obvious with so many dead bugs in the bottom of my tent.   We can't afford to let just one of those bugs in!!  There was a very heavy dew overnight and the tents were saturated.  We tried our best to dry them out, but they were packed up damp.  Something to sort out later today in Makarora. We left the campground around 8am and headed back into Haast township to the grocery store for some final supplies for the day.  I bought a 800ml Powerade and some ham & salad sandwiche...

Tuesday 11th November Distance:  122 km Elevation gain:  843 metres From the town of Fox Glacier to Haast About 9 hrs elapsed from 7am to 4pm. Recap - Monday rest day We were always going to have a rest day along the West Coast and when the forecast was rain and lots of it on Monday, it made perfect sense to have a break in Fox Glacier.  Rob and I enjoyed a huge cooked breakfast at the cafe downtown with bacon, eggs, sausage, mushrooms, hashbrowns… the works. The rain eventually arrived at 10 am and continued off and on all day and all night. I spent most of the day just relaxing but I did find a pair of shorts in the 'free clothing' suitcase at the backpackers that I could squeeze into and decided to go for another spa. This saved me having to pack my own wet shorts for the ride on Tuesday.  I also found a book in their library that took my interest, Master of the Five Magics that I read all afternoon.  Very relaxing day indeed. Rob spent his morning rearranging his gear, tryi...

Sunday 9th November Distance:  97 km Elevation gain:  1,229 metres From Harihari to the town of Fox Glacier About 8 hrs elapsed from 7am to 3pm. I know the routine - alarm 5.30am, get dressed, force down a bowl of porridge,  gulp down an iced coffee, pack the bike, apply lube and be ready to roll at 7am.  Lock up, leave the room key in the lock box by reception.  Start pedaling for a day in the saddle.  I'm starting to resent the morning routine - and shouldn't be feeling this way.  I should be grateful that I'm on a fantastic trip.  Thank goodness we have a rest day scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday).   Today's cycling was all on Highway 6, heading south.  The mountains were truly breathtaking all day.  The first hill climb was up and over Mount Hercules.  What a stupid name for such a small hill when the Southern Alps are right next to us.  Our first stop was a little town called Whataroa.  We were there before 9am and being Sunday the shops weren't even open yet.  ...

Saturday 8th November Distance:  76 km Elevation gain:  549 metres From Hokitika to Harihari About 6.5 hrs elapsed from 7:00am to 1:30pm. We are getting faster at packing up and were both ready before 7am.  Today we continued our journey south, down the West Coast.  Our first leg was 14km along the West Coast Wilderness Trail.  This was a great single-track rail trail through the forest and was fantastic riding with the trees forming a canopy, it was like we were riding through a tunnel.   Rob was enjoying it and was videoing the twists and turns when he turned instead of twisting.  He ended up off the track, and worse still he sideswiped a tree and knocked off one of his panniers.  The hanger was broken but zip ties made a robust replacement, and his pannier has never been more firmly attached to his bike. You can read more about it on his blog . Sadly, the rail trail didn't last and we were back on Highway 6 sharing the road with cars and trucks.  It was still early, and a Saturd...