After breakfast at "Funky Fish" we rode North on the West Coast. The day started in rolling farm country before climbing into the Waipoua Forest. There were a few challenging hills, ~400m high, but again fine weather and a tailwind made for perfect riding. I had driven this
Wednesday dawned fine and clear. I know this because, unusually for me, I was up. Although not leaving till 8:00 I decided to go into town early to avoid traffic hassles. It was good as just beat the Auckland rush, arriving in town about 7:15. After dumping my
It was a strange start for me. It is my eighth trip with Adventure South but the first time my holiday hadn't started with a pack and dash to the airport. All the South Island trips began with a flight to Christchurch, one to Ho Chi Minh City!
I haven’t done the “Alps to Ocean” route shown here but have ridden many of these roads on various Adventure South tours. It’s only a short clip but brings back memories of awesome trips, road/lakeside lunches (and the bus carrying all your kit!). [youtube=http://www.youtube.
It’s winter and, apart from doggy walks & very occasional bike rides, I tend to hibernate a bit. It’s a chance to catch up with the MySky recording back log (like all the Dr Whos since David Tennant left) and other inside stuff. However our amazingly technological world
Back in 2006 I took a photo of this rather unique road sign on the South Island’s West Coast. This year (in somewhat better weather) I couldn’t resist taking the same photo again. It wasn’t until I got home that I noticed “next 10km” of penguin in
I recently spent ten days in the South Island on a fabulous cycle tour from Christchurch over to the West Coast (Punakaiki to Karamea), Abel Tasman Park, Nelson Lakes, Picton & Kaikoura with Adventure South Cycle Tours. How quickly the daily grind returns, not helped by the end of daylight
A cycle tour from Christchurch, West Coast from Punakaiki to Karamea, Abel Tasman, Nelson Lakes, Picton & Kaikoura.
Away ten days, only six hundred & forty photos... UPDATE 2011-04-02: The 2011 Coast to Coast photoset, now only 609 photos after a bit of culling, is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robinzblog/sets/72157626180813911/
I had a lazy start to the day while some of the others were up before dawn to swim with dolphins. I heard "Team Canada" set out early as they were going to ride more of the last day ride than most of us. I thought about doing
A really nice Cafe Gusto breakfast (fruit muesli and two flat whites for me) filled the fuel tank for the morning ride. Clear blue skies and sun signalled another promising day. We caught a water taxi across a mirror flat sound to begin our ride near Portage. After climbing "
Today was payback for yesterdays ascent. It was mostly gradual but totalled something like 1000m. We left Top House and sped down a valley beside the Buller River. 35km of downhill/flat where it felt slow when your speed dropped below 30km/h, for the most part 40+ was easy