New Zealand is wide

At least that's what I realised, when I started cycling across it!

I picked up my bike in Christchurch last Wednesday, and after tinkering about with it for a day or so and mentally preparing myself, I set off on my trip to Greymouth on the West Coast last Friday.

Cycle touring is something quite different from the cycling that I'm used to, namely lightweight XC (cross-country). For flexibility, I decided to buy a mountain bike (so that I could, when I liked, take off the paniers and go mountain biking), with some modifications. I had the tyres changed so that they'd work well on both roads and off-road, I added panier racks and bags, and I got a stand installed. Then I was off! This is what my complete set up with all my luggage looks like:



The first day I covered 70km, as I had intended. The next day I set off up to Porter's Pass. It's quite high!



The way up to Porter's Pass was incredibly punishing, and several times I had to walk the bike up. I'm just not used to lugging myself plus many kilos of luggage up big hills like this! Then I set off down the other side. That was initially quite fun, but when I realised that the prevailing North Westerly wind was actually causing me to need to pedal down hill to keep up momentum, it all got a bit frustrating! I decided that I wasn't going to make the the further 62km to Arthurs Pass in that one day. The scenery was beautiful but the hills were plentiful and steep, and the wind was strong and blowing precisely the wrong way. When you have fully laden paniers on the back of your bike you don't have all that much ability to slip through wind without it holding you back. I was beginning to understand why my touring guide suggested doing this ride the other way round!



I decided there and then that I would make things easier for myself, and extend my proposed 3 day trip to more like 4 or 5 days. The next morning I set off for Arthurs Pass from Lake Pearson, and being only 35km I arrived at AP quite early. I decided to reward my effort by staying overnight at Arthurs Pass, where I ended up undertaking a two day tramp with an Austrian and a German. I had originally intended to do this tramp when I was last in AP but the weather didn't hold. This seemed like a nice opportunity to do it, and a timely break from cycling too.



I finished the tramp on Tuesday and set off from AP yesterday morning, intending to do the remaining 103km to Greymouth in two days.



I rolled in to Greymouth this morning, a little tired but incredibly happy with myself. I had just cycled across New Zealand! All in, the ride was 257km. At times I had felt incredibly cross and upset that things (specifically the wind) weren't going my way. But now I'm really glad I've done it, and I'm thinking of now cycling down the west coast for a while. However, before I do that I'm going to do some mountain biking! There're some great mountains to bike up round here, and now I'm really glad I went for a mountain bike instead of a road bike. There's something very satisfying about lugging yourself and all your travelling belongings along the way with you, going from tramp to tramp or mountain bike ride to mountain bike ride. I'm going to do some riding in this area, and then head south where I'll be meeting my family in a couple of weeks. Better get going then!