TA Retrospective

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 and harder days have more breaks.  

Average Speed This is a calculation based on the Distance divided by the Elapsed Duration. It is not a flattering average speed but reflects the situation of bike-packing with lots of gear, cycling up and down NZ mountains, a place with such beautiful scenery. It certainly wasn't a race! 

Days This is the number of days that I cycled and excludes rest days. I was one of the slower riders. Nearly everyone that I came across was completing the TA faster than me. 

Average km per day This is a calculation based on the Distance divided by Days. It gives an indication of the distance I cycled each day. 80km per day seems about right for me.

Average Duration per day This is a calculation based on the Elapsed Duration divided by Days. So when I started around 7 am and travelled for 6 hours, it indicates that I was getting off the bike around 1pm or 2pm on average. Again some days were shorter and some were longer. But I certainly liked getting off the bike by 2pm.

Day by day chart of distance and elevation

My biggest distance per day was Day 33 - Fox Township to Haast, with 122 km travelled.  This was nearly all on Highway 6 along the West Coast of the South Island.  There was some rain in the morning but it was a mostly fine day, although head winds in the afternoon made for a gruelling finish.  It included 840 metres elevation gain and was nearly 9 hrs elapsed. 

My biggest elevation gain per day was Day 6 - Kaiwaka to Helensvillle, with 1,529 metres gained.  This was a long day, with a lot of gravel roads, in the rain, 97 km distance and 8½ hrs elapsed. 

My biggest day by duration was Day 25 - Pelorus Bridge to Wakefield, over the Maungatapu Saddle.  This was 10 hrs elapsed and included a lot of bike-hiking.  Distance was only 81 km and elevation gain was 1,344 metres.  

My shortest day was the last, Day 39 - Invercargill to Bluff with only 33 km travelled and 2 hours duration.  Maybe we should have kept going in Invercargill on day 38 and finished earlier?  Day 39 certainly had much better weather - it was a blue sky and calm - and so it was a great way to finish.  

My flattest day was Day 38 - Mossburn to Invercargill, where I cycled 112 km but only gained 86 metres in elevation.  It is certainly flat in the Southlands.  I had another easy ride on day 23 - Upper Hutt to Wellington, where I only gained 64 metres in elevation but on that day I only rode 46 km.  

Bicycle performance

My Surly Karate Monkey was excellent. Would not change a thing.

Maybe because of the 29" tyres, I didn't get any punctures. (but did carry 2 spare tubes as insurance).  The gearing was great for hills throughout the trip, and only on the last 3 days when it was very flat with a tail wind did I sometimes wish for another gear to go faster.  But that was very rare and nearly every day I used the big gears for grinding up the climbs.  

I had the bike serviced in Auckland and Wellington and both times it was just a minor clean or tweak.  I was very happy not to have any major complications.   

Most days I would give the chain a clean and lube, but not every day.  

Remarks on Gear

The rear mounted Ortlieb waterproof panniers were excellent and held onto my rear carrier through all the rough gravel roads and tracks.  Totally recommended.  I was impressed with their durability because the tracks and gravel roads were punishing. 

I had racks on the front forks to hold my tent (left side) and sleeping bag (right side).  These all held up well.  But it was a pain to strap the water proof bags to the racks each morning.  Especially when compared with the Ortlieb panniers that just clipped on and off very easily.  

I had 2 feed bags on my handlebars, and another zipper bag on top of my top tube.  These were excellent ways to have easy access to food, snacks, gels, sunscreen, insect repellant, and my Garmin InReach GPS device.

My frame bag held my tent poles, bike lock, duck tape and anything that didn't fit into my feed bags.  I also put my waterproof jacket in the frame bag for easy access - if it rained or was cold. 

My Jetboil gas stove didn't survive in one piece which was disappointing.  The piezo igniter stopped working and consequently I needed to carry a lighter to use the stove.  Could be that the rough tracks were too much for the delicate mechanism?  I expected better.

One of my cheaper alloy bottle cages failed early on a rough gravel road.  Not surprising and easily fixed in the next major town.

I brought a leatherman type of multi-tool and it was heavy.  It had pliers and all sorts of knives and things.  But I didn't need it and I could have saved weight by leaving it behind.  It's one of those insurance items.  

Gear I regret bringing:

• JetBoil gas stove and gas bottle.  There were only 2 campsites where there was no camp kitchen. Even DOC campsites sometimes had a camp kitchen with stoves/kettles. In hindsight it would have been smarter to leave the stove and gas behind and just have cold meals on those rare occasions.  This would have saved about 1kg of weight and space. 
• Summer short sleeve riding shirt.  I used a long sleeve riding shirt every day and wore a short sleeve or long sleeve undershirt depending on the weather.
• Poncho.  I left this in Wellington and shouldn't have brought it.
• Extra Dry Sacks.  I brought spare dry sacks (Sea to Summit brand) and didn't need them.  The panniers were waterproof enough.

Other Measures

• Best meal - Dinner with Orla and Jonathan in Raetihi.  Roast venison and vegies.  Jonathan's secret sauce was sensational. 
• Worst meal - My instant porridge for breakfast.  It's put me off porridge for a while.  
• Free dinners - More than I expected.  People were so generous. 
• Swims in the ocean or lakes - zero.  I'm disappointed that I wasn't brave enough for a swim here and there.
• Injuries - Lots of scratches and scrapes.  Sunburn once or twice.  
• Saddle sores, yep...but keep up the chamois cream.  I started out using chamois cream like sunscreen.  A little bit rubbed in thoroughly at the start of the day.  I finished up using chamois cream like I was icing a chocolate gateau.  Layer it thick, and add some more just in case.  And keep applying it during the day to be extra sure.
• Long-term trauma - Sand flies when you stop moving.