Week Four - Queenstown to Bluff - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Day Twenty-Four : Dec 24 Queenstown - Skydive...
Ahhh...no riding today...what to do. I know! Let's jump out of a plane. We awoke to the sound of fear running through our brains. We were about to do something very, well, high I suppose. We rocked up at the NZone skydive at 10.30 then took a fairly nerve racking 40min drive out to the drop-zone. It was scary more because of the guy's driving than anything else, as we were still in denial about what we were about to do. We arrived to see the previous lot come cruising in to land, all smiles and high fives. After a safety briefing consisting of the instructor telling us how to 'be a banana, not a pineapple', we were ready (apparently). They said that Simon was going to fall very quickly becuase of his 'Superman' physique. Nice.

Next thing we knew 9 of us are crammed into the back of a plane with a see-through automatic door, a padded floor and some hand holds (no seatbelts). We had to sit in the lap of our tandem instructors so it was quite a cosy ride up to 12,000 feet where we dropped off the first lot of three (instructor, terrified tourist and cameraman for the DVD). All of a sudden there were three less people in the plane which was quite surreal and the fear and excitement really started to kick in as we climbed to 15,000 feet. Simon was next up. Within what seemed like 5 seconds, I went from sitting comfortably with the door closed to sitting on the ledge with nothing but icy cold air between my feet and lake Wakatipu below. The cameraman was somehow hanging outside the door ready to get the first shots from his helmet cams. After rocking back and forth with a 3-2-1 countdown - I vacated a perfectly good aeroplane with some guy I'd only just met strapped to my back.

The next minute was something I'll never forget - freefalling is amazing! You reach 200km/hr within about 12 seconds then just relax and take in the view. We couldn't have asked for better weather and the views were absolutely amazing! The wind made it a little hard to exhale (or it could have been my brain freaking out) and the air was also making the eyes water a bit. The cameraman was falling closeby, moving above and below taking pics and a video. Before the chute opened (at 5000 feet) the cameraman drifted over and shook my hand.

After a crotch-bruising deceleration everything went quiet and we cruised down doing some fairly gut-wrenching spins and dips before cruising in for a (nearly) perfect landing back at base. The experience of freefall is something I would love to have again and I'll definitely be skydiving again someday (when I can afford it again).

The adrenaline rush really took it out of us and for the rest of the day we were very tired and lethargic. That night we headed out on a pub-crawl of 6 of Queenstown's best bars to celebrate. We stayed out dancing at WorldBar until about 3am then headed back to the backpackers where we drank and played cards with some other backpackers until about 7am. This would explain the confusion and croakiness when parents etc, called to wish us Happy Christmas during the morning.

Day Twenty-Five : Dec 25 Queenstown - Christmas day
Turns out Queenstown completely shuts down on Christmas day so it took us a while to find somewhere to eat (once we got up). We found a little Thai place, sat around watching TV for the rest of the afternoon then wandered into town for a Pizza that evening. We saw a pretty amazing street performer show culminating in juggling burning clubs while lying stomach-down on a bed of nails on top of a 3m high pole. Impressive. Went back to the ranch and packed up Tanya to continue our ride the next day.

Day Twenty-Six : Dec 26 Queenstown - Winton 159km
We left the haven of fun that is Queenstown and rode south along Lake Wakatipu beside the Remarkables mountain range. Once we reached the end of the lake the scenery quickly returned to boring farmland. We pushed on through essentially flat terrain, rolling into Winton at about 7.30 (with some serious ass pain). Turned out the only place that offered camping was the golf course, so after a bite to eat we headed out there and set up camp one last time. There was no-one else there.

Day Twenty-Seven : Dec 27 Winton - Bluff 62km
With only a cool 60k to go, we got on the road early and made short work of the 30km to Invercargill. We weren't going to stop with the end so close, so we pushed on the final 30km of our N-S conquering of NZ. We pulled into Bluff at about 1pm, took in the serenity at Stirling Point (the starting point of State Highway 1) then had some local seafood and a few beers. We decided to head back to Invercargill that afternoon (there's a bit more going on here) so we re-traced our steps back into 'town' and found our final accommodation in Kiwiland. Treated ourselves to a great meal at the Speight's AleHouse next door to the backpackers.

Day Twenty-Eight : Dec 28 Invercargill
This morning we sadly took Tanya to the bike shop around the corner to bid her farewell (though not before stripping her of her tyres - we didn't want to give her back with tyres that we had paid serious coin for). We leave tomorrow morning to fly back to Brisbane.


It really has been the experience of a lifetime this trip - we've seen some great scenery, met some great people, had a great stack and done some other things that were great. The weather for the first week of the South Island threatened to dampen our spirit a little, but it was nothing some waterproof pants and some shopping bags couldn't handle. As an added bonus, our level of fitness seems to have improved somewhat in the process.

We'd like to sincerely thank everyone who has donated to Red Cross on our behalf. We have raised over $2500 so far, but if you would still like to donate (now that we've actually made it!) please do so by clicking the link on the right.

Trip Summary

North Island
Days Riding : 13
Kilometres covered : 1225km
Avg km/day : 94.2

South Island
Days Riding : 10
Kilometres covered : 1097km
Avg km/day : 109.7

Overall
Days riding : 23
Kilometres covered : 2322
Avg km/day : 100.96km/day!!! (Gee that's a lot of kilometres!)


Thanks for your support!

- Simon and Joe

Week Three (and a bit) - Picton to Queenstown

Day Fifteen : Dec 15 Picton to St Arnauds 131km
We awoke to the sound of rain on the roof of the backpackers - this set the scene for the next week or so which was to turn out to be very very VERY moist. After a quick scoot to Blenheim and a visit to the local bike shop for some new gloves for Simon (he thought he had lost the others) and to a jeweller to fix his watch which was damaged in "The Fall", we headed west up the Wairau River valley. We rode all morning up a constant incline into the wind and rain. Morale was low. We stopped for lunch at a random country pub and tried in vain to dry our clothes in front of a heater. After accidentally setting chair on fire we made a hasty exit and re-mounted Tanya. More of the same...yada yada yada....St Arnaud. Had dinner and beers with a Pohm called Mark. Top bloke.

Day Sixteen : Dec 16 St Arnaud to Reefton 145km
Still raining. F**k. Kept on - this time a little more downhill towards what we thought was Westport. Had got a flat at about midday and pulled over to peform what was now a 5-minute pit stop style tyre change. It was here that we met some of the local wildlife. Sandflies. They truly are the douchebag of the insect kingdom. They bite with absolutely no provocation and for now benefit that we could see. Even the freaking massive bumblebees that seemed so interested in our fluoro hi-vis vest didn't sting. We had aimed to make it to a place on the coast called Charleston but we took a wrong turn and ended up in a random old gold-mining town called Reefton ('Town of Light'), which as it happens was the first town in NZ to get electric lights. Wow. Camped out under some tree to avoid the night's rains. It only worked to a point.....moist.....Joe discovered, much to his astonishment, that his bivvy was STILL not waterproof.

Day Seventeen : Dec 17 Reefton to Hokitika 116km
Instead of rain, today our natural enemy was wind. We spent the entire day pedalling into seemingly gale-force Southerly winds. Turns out wind is more crushing to the spirit than rain could ever be. At least with hills you get to go down the other side...with wind there is no relief. Simon did not think it was a good way to spend his birthday, but the various text messages did help to elevate the spirits. After arriving on the coast at Greymouth by about 4pm - we headed south and the wind restricted us to only 40km in 3 hours. Bloody wind. We camped out at a holiday park in the rain after having a nice bite to eat and some drinks at the only place open in town for Simon's birthday.

Day Eighteen : Dec 18 Hokitika to Franz Josef 134km
Today was the first day without any rain on the South Island. We followed the coast road south through some pretty sweet scenery. We climbed a hill called Mount Hercules at about 1pm, then just as we were about to start the descent a tour bus came up behind us. We let him past, then Joe managed to tail the bus most of the way down the other side. Fun stuff, if a little scary. We put in a hard afternoon's pedalling and made it to Franz Josef, with the FJ Glacier in sight, at about 7. We chose our backpackers wisely, as they had free vegie soup on the stove which we inhaled a few bowls of. We thought we could eat a large pizza each at the bar across the street but only managed less than half. Fridge pizza for the next 2 days it was.

Day Nineteen : Dec 19 Rest Day Franz Josef
Our second day off of the trip. Funnily enough - it was raining. A lot. We booked in for a half-day glacier trek for the afternoon. Luckily they provided waterproof gear. The hike was amazing - had about 2 hours on the ice with crampons the whole works...but it was absolutely bucketing down the whole time. Kinda frustrating because we couldn't take any photos so we set our minds to committing the amazing scenery to memory (like they did in the old days).

Day Twenty : Dec 20 Franz Josef to Haast 145km
This was a big day. Even by our standards (cause we're awesome). The rain had seemed to actually get heavier, which meant that we were a little tardy off the mark in the morning. We taped shopping bags to our shoes in a vain attempt to keep our socks dry. It worked for a while, but by the end of the day the inevitable happened. Squelchy. We made short work of the three big hills between Franz Josef and Fox glaciers and arrived in Fox by about 1pm. After lunch we endured what some say was the most demoralising and cold afternoon of cycling ever experienced by mankind. We had, however, set our goal as Haast and we were not to fail. So we didn't. Pulled into Haast wet and freezing (it was about 3 degrees and blowing a gale) at about 8.30pm. The tavern was still serving hot food so we got a steak and each ate about 15 potatoes from the salad bar. They are high in carbohydrates, you see. There was no way we were going to camp out in that weather so we checked into the local backpackers for the night. The manager was a little odd. All our clothes had gotten wet despite the garbage bagging but we weren't allowed to use the dryers. Oh the inhumanity!

Day Twenty-One : Dec 21 Haast to Lake Wanaka (Boundary Creek campsite) 93km
We set off up the Haast river valled towards the Haast Pass : the only road over the mountains to the east. The sun was finally out after many long, long days of rain and we were very happy for it. We arrived at the base of the pass proper at about 1pm and started climbing. After about 20km of steady climb we got to the top and stopped for a bit of a photo op. Getting over the Haast pass, which we had been looking forward to with some trepidation for weeks, turned out to be not nearly as difficult as we had expected. Cruising down the other side was fantastic and we started cruising along the bank of lake Wanaka. We decided to camp at a Dept of Conservation campsite on the bank of the lake at Boundary Creek. The scenery was fantastic - not a cloud in the sky. We met an American couple Graham and Pam who were travelling in a camper van, and shared a few beers. We built a HUGE campfire on the beach after going for a swim in the frigid waters purely in the interest of hygiene. It was so cold it gave us an instant cold headache as soon as we put our heads under. Now thats cold. Pam and Graham were going to Queenstown the next day so they offered to carry our gear for us which was great. The stars were amazing too.

Day Twenty-Two : Dec 22 Lake Wanaka to Queenstown 117km
With Tanya having lost a lot weight thanks to Graham and Pam, we set off at pace along the banks of Lake Wanaka and then Lake Hawea. We arrived in Wanaka at about 1pm then set off up the Crown Range road, a 'short-cut' from Wanaka to Queenstown. We climbed steadily for about 30km then the incline increased when the road gods decided that they were making it too easy for us. The last 10km from Cardrona to the summit of the Crown Range was pure bitumen evil . We were stuck in 1st gear and did not dare stop for fear that we would not be able to start again due to the incline. Mounting the summit was certainly an extremely satisfying mounting. The view was fantastic from the highest sealed road in New Zealand at 1078m above sea level. After finally getting up, going down on Tanya was truly the climax that we had worked so hard for (ahem.....maybe I should re-word that....nah). The next 20km was the steepest downhill run we'd had by far and we gave the disc brakes a real workout. After navigating the hairpins, we had another 20 or so k's to Queenstown - rolling in at a very respectable 6pm to Pinewood backpackers, our home for the next four nights. We headed out to find Graham and Pam and headed to Fergburger for what is by far the best burger place we have ever been to. Bar none. The oldies went home and we headed to the World Bar to drink cocktails from teapots. Ran into a couple of chicks we met on the glacier walk on Franz Josef and ended up burning up the DF until 4am. God it felt good.

Day 23 : Dec 23 Queenstown
We slept until midday. Got another burger, got coffee on the lake, booked in for a skydive, rode the Gondola up to the top of a mountain for some spectacular views, had some beers, rode the mountain luge on the summit a few times (got ripped off in the process), Joe cooked a great dinner of steak and pesto pasta, drank some CabSav and wrote up the blog. It's late, we're going to bed. Tomorrow we are jumping out of a plane at 15,000 feet. It's the highest skydive you can do anywhere in the world. Yeahhhhh...adrenaline here we come. Tell Tiny Tim we won't be coming home this Christmas...

Ok that's about enough for this instalment. We are staying in QT until boxing day - then we've got 2 more days of riding to get to Bluff and we fly home from Invercargill on the 29th. Can't believe the trip's nearly over! We've had a great time. We sincerely hope that by reading this you don't think we are too wierd (or wired?)....

Goodnight and good luck.

- J & S

Photos!

At long last, we have finally uploaded some photos. Click on the slideshow or here to take a look.

We made it to Franz Josef glacier today and we're going to go hiking on the ice tomorrow for our second rest day. We've made really good time in the south island so far and plan to be in Queenstown for a few days over Christmas. We'll put up a more detailed day-by-day soon.

SP

Week Two - Auckland to Wellington

Two weeks in and we're still going strong, although the second week was not without incident by any means. We've had no end of tyre trouble, a lot of rain and a rather nasty run-in with a railway about 500m from our destination in Wellington...

Oh, and I think it's time for us to reveal that we have named our trusty steed "Tanya the Tandem" or just "Tanya" for short. Sometimes we call her "That Bitch", "You heavy ****", or various other obscenities....

Day Eight : Dec 8 Auckland to Ohinewai 88km

We had a very lazy morning after spending the night with Jenny and Steve in Auckland. Once we did get going though, the drive out of Auckland was pretty easy, although we did have to navigate a whole lot of traffic lights. Cruising along the expressway we got a flat, changed it in record time then continued on, but about 5km down the road the back tyre decided to tear, and the tube exploded. Big problem. With a torn tyre we couldn't just replace the tube, so we were stranded. We walked the bike to the nearest town off the highway which happened to be a little ghost town called Ohinewai on the bank of the Waikato river which used to be a truckstop on the old highway but had since been made almost completely abandoned by the bypass. We approached what we thought was a service station only to find it had a guy living in it and was guarded by some very mean dogs. He was nice though and offered to give us a lift in to the next town the next morning to buy a new tyre. We set up camp next to a boatramp and just as we crawled into the bivvy's the rain started. The service station guy came down a bit later with an old tyre that he'd found in his shed which we put on and would ride on in the morning. It pissed down all night until about the time we got up, when we awoke to discover everything was soaked - even our supposedly waterproof lodgings.

Day Nine : Dec 9 Ohinewai to Putaruru 103km

It was still raining (and did so all day) as we rode into Huntly to buy a new tyre. We got the only one the Honda dealership had and put it on. Headed east through some farmland and got to Cambridge where we found another bike shop and bought a better quality tyre. About 10km from our destination, we had another flat (still raining...morale takes a dive), so we grimly change the tube again. Ok, lets go...one...two...BANG - the tube blows out again - we realise we have destroyed the second tyre in as many days. Once again - stranded. Joe set off over the hill to see what he could see and a nice passing truck mechanic pulled up in his mobile tyre repair workshop (van) and offered to repair the tyre for us. After doing this, we realised the tube was still leaking (it had quite a hole) so he gave us a lift to Putaruru (only about 10km - not too lazy of us). We stayed in a hotel and hung everything out to dry with the heater cranked while we ate a big homemade spagbog.

Day Ten : Dec 10 Putaruru to Taupo 87km

After a nice refreshing and warm nights sleep we set to work fixing the bike up again. Unfortunatly Putaruru did not have a bike shop. With some grim determination and a foor knocking attitude we found a suitable tire in the local print shop. Oh what a tire, it lasted all of 87km. After setting everything up oncemore we had lunch and off we went to Taupo. Up and up and up. The bike fought us every inch and the hills did not help much either. About 10km out of Taupo we stopped in to see a thermal valley. There were some holes in the ground. There was some steam. WOW. we had to break in to see them. Fortunatly the chickens, a duck and a few peacokcs did not object to our trespass so we jumped the fence and help ourselves to a half hour walk and all the steam we could eat. A sneaky hour later and we arrived in Taupo. Then BANG!!!! 500m from the backpackers. 3rd tire down. Nothing much to do for it the a few beers and worry about it in the morning.

Day Eleven : Dec 11 Taupo to Waiouru 112km

Lake Taupo is a sight to behold. And we had most of the day to behold it. After finding a new tyre (we paid a bit more for one that wouldn't burst after a day) we set out in search of new lands. We followed the lake for around 50km adn then stopped for lunch and a quick photo sesh.

After reaching Turangi we started our final major climb for the North island. We rode up and up all the while with snow capped mountains ahead of us and lake taupo behind. At around 7pm we reached the peak and started on the desert rd. this involved 30 km of nothing. An ice cold wind was our only friend. We rode as fast as we could, trying to beat the sunset. Just as it became dark (around 9pm here) we pulled into Waiouru. Waioruru is a tiny town built around the local army base. We found a cosy little motel to warm our toesies for the night and recover for tomorrow, the next assault on our bodies.

Day Twelve : Dec 12 Waiouru to Bulls 110km

Nothing exciting happened today. Well, to be honest it was kinda exciting going down some big-ass hills, but other than that it was unremarkable. Well....ok..we did end up in a place called "Bulls" which we thought was pretty cool. We had a beer at the local, said hello to a local who showed us his new AC/DC tattoo and cooked our own dinner before camping under an almost cloudless sky. Yay.

Day Thirteen : Dec 13 Bulls to Wellington 155km (not 151)

Ok, so we weren't sure if we'd make it all the way to Wellington in one day but we set out in our usual tardy fashion and ended up stopping in a place called Levin to buy some pants. This took longer than expected and we in fact didn't leave Levin for almost 2 hours (after surfing the net, and general window shopping, etc). We had about 80km to go at about 3pm...and we put our noses to the grindstone. After giving Tanya a good lube-up she performed much better and was able to maintain those high gear ratios that we needed as we cruised along the coast towards Wellington. About 30km out we hit a very picturesque stretch of highway along the water's edge, but Joe was too busy trying to keep us alive (i.e. not stray from the 5cm of bitumen reserved for bikes) to see any of it. After this was a big climb which was pretty scary too (perhaps we should call it "Death Climb #3). The last 20 or so k's took us through some backroads to avoid the motorway and then up a huge hill and down another. We were almost keeping pace with the traffic as we cruised into Wellington. About 2km from the Backpackers in the heart of Wellington we turned onto a stretch of road skirting around a footy stadium. In hindsight, we probably shouldn't have ignored the sign that said "This route not suitable for cyclists" but we pressed on.

Joseph stared in disbelief as his hands fell off. From them arose millions of tiny maggots....maggots....maggots.......... pop culture references aside, and to put it in simpler terms, we were riding along, Tanya was upright, and then she tripped suddenly on a railway track. We suddenly made good friends with the bitumen. Simon even gave it a kiss. With his face.

Unfortunately we didn't get the stack on film, but the camera was lucky to be alive after being attached to the handlebars at the time. We made sure we weren't dead, got the debris off the road, checked ourselves for puncture wounds, spokes through our heads or whatever, and walked to the backpackers a little sore. No major injuries, just some bruising (of body and pride).

Day Fourteen : Dec 14 Wellington to Picton 0km (ferry ride!)

On the fourteenth day, the weary travellers rested. We met up for breakfast with Clare from NZ Red Cross who gave us some stickers etc for Tanya and some clean T-shirts. Our old ones are dirty, you see. It was a very rare still cloudless day in Wellington and it really was quite nice. We boarded the InterIslander ferry at 2.15 and sank......a few local beers on the way to Picton, the gateway to the next half of our adventure : THE SOUTH ISLAND!

More beers ensued...then we wrote up our blog...then this happened....then this.....my brain hurts...

Love to all back home and abroad.

- J & S

Week One - Cape Reinga to Auckland

So we've survived the first week, though not without a lot of pain, rain, wind and mosquitos. We're staying with a friend of a friend in Auckland tonight (it's nice in here...indoors...), its late and we rode 100km today so this will probably be brief. A day-by-day account:

Day One : Dec 1 - Kaitaia to Pukenui 42km
We arrived in Auckland to find that a mixup at the bike shop had prevented us from being able to get the bike until Monday morning. We stayed at a mate's house and headed over there in the morning, picked up the bike (got it on the rack) and drove North to Kaitaia. It was raining the whole way so it didn't look too inviting to ride in...anyhow we got on the road at about 5pm and headed North towards Cape Reinga. After our first flat tyre in the rain at dusk we stayed at Pukenui after a dodgy pizza from the local.

Day Two : Dec 2 - Pukenui to Cape Reinga 68km
We left early after our first night sleeping in bivvy bags and headed north towards Cape Reinga. 20km south of the cape the sealed road ends and the unsealed road for the last 20 was covered in loose rocks and really hilly, and we managed to get ourselves 2 flat tyres. We made it to the Cape exhausted and were planning to camp out there but a friendly Hungarian and his wife gave us a lift back to to Waitiki Landing where the bitumen started again. We camped there for the night. Lots of mozzies and a naughty possum.

Day Three : Dec 3 - Waitiki Landing to Kaitaia 91km
We started heading south for the first time and re-traced our route back to Kaitaia. We stayed at the MainStreet lodge backpackers. Met a guy called Rodurigo who was hiking up to the cape. He'd just finished a few months hiking in California on his own with the bears. Crazy. Shopped up big at the Pak'n'Save for the next day.

Day Four : Dec 4 - Kaitaia to Kerikeri 100km
We decided that the trailer was far too heavy for us to drag the whole way with us so we did a massive cull of our gear. We managed to get rid of (i.e. send home) about 6kg of non-essential gear each and that allowed us to fit everything into Joe's panniers and a new set of panniers that I bought at the local bike shop. We sent our gear home and the trailer back to Auckland. Now 21kg lighter overall, we were ready to tackle the next leg with a bit more speed and a few less clothes. All the stuffing around at the post office meant we didn't get on the road until about 1pm, then headed East towards the coast. Rode through a few nice little coastal towns, then up into the hills and eventually made it as far as a little touristy place called Kerikeri (it had Subway) and stayed at a Top Ten Holiday Park in a cabin. Not exatly 'roughing it', but we were glad for a real bed.

Day Five : Dec 5 - Kerikeri to Whangarei 103km
With the bike that much lighter and our legs getting more used to the riding, we started to cover more and more per day. Then the rain came. We spent the morning with our coats on trying to see through the water on our sunglasses and stopping every few kilometres to ring out our socks. The waterproofing on the panniers worked a treat (built-in on Joe's and "garbage bag" on Simon's). After midday the rain let up and we had a fairly easy run into Whangarei. We dropped in to the local Red Cross as we rode past it (not sure why..just to say gday really) then treated ourselves to a huge meal and a few beers in town. The alcohol tolerance was obviously very low as 2 beers hit us like a truck (no pun intended). We got a patch of grass under a tree next to a creek at a local campground where we set up camp and met a guy called Steve who was also riding through the North Island. Upon telling him of our plan to make it the length of the country, he thought that it was "in the realm of possibility" but it was not going to be easy. (be more constructive with your feedback, please.....did Steve tell you that perchance? Steve....)

Day Six : Dec 6 - Whangarei to Sandspit 108km
Spurred on by Steve's lack of faith in us, we hit the road hard, getting underway in our record early time of....8am. Ok, so we're still not really morning people....yet (and sleep is good when you rode 100km yesterday). About 30km into the day, we hit what can only be described as "a real bastard" of a hill. A hill deserving of it's own restaurant at its peak. After slogging uphill for what seemed like hours, we stopped and each had their "famous" $10 big breakfast. Big mistake. I don't know what was in those sausages, but we were reminded of what they tasted like all afternoon. Nasty. Protein. Earth. Physics. It's all good.

Our goal for the day was Wellsford, but on our arrival here we found that nobody wants to stay there, so there are no campsites. We kept on for another 20km to Warkworth, but again they had the same problem, so we ended up riding 8km off the highway to a nice little seaside spot called Sandspit where we spent the night wondering if other guests of the caravan park would see us in time to avoid running over us in our sleep. But what a sleep it was. The bike was covered in 'cement' dust from some roadworks that we had encountered and the gears were not working as well as the should, so we gave the beast (yet to be named) a good tweaking and a bit of a lube.

Day Seven : Dec 7 - Sandspit to Auckland 95km
Apart from the chain coming off about 2 minutes into the day's ride, our bicycle mechanic efforts seemed to be successful. We were now able to get into the lowest gear for those uphill slogs, and on a bike with 27 gears, thats pretty low. We opened with what we now affectionately call "the Death Climb" with about 3cm of shoulder on the road and increasingly heavy traffic becoming more and more terrifying for our brave travellers. The first of these near-death climbs led into what can now only be described as "the second Death Climb" which of course came hand in hand with some sweet downhill action. We took a video of one of these descent-climb-descents coming into the coastal town of Orewa where we had a break on the beach. Very nice. Half of New Zealand (every one of whom own cars) were out enjoying their Sunday afternoon. It was hot. We followed the East Coast road into the heart of Auckland (to avoid the motorway) and got onto a ferry across the harbour at Davenport to the CBD. We met a lovely American couple and discussed politics over a kebab all the while fighting off intrepid sparrows who wanted a free lunch. Luckily we had a free dinner coming our way. We are staying tonight with a schoolfriend of a mate from Brissy (thats you Kate). Had a great bbq dinner and discussed our proposed route south with them as they are both keen cyclists also. Thanks heaps to Jenny and Steve for your hospitality!

Well - one week down and we're still going strong. The legs, while not exactly 'enjoying' the experience, are certainly becoming better able to take the abuse and we hope this continues to be the case in the weeks ahead. Tomorrow we're heading south towards Hamilton, but we're just going to ride and see how far the roads (and our legs) take us. We would put up photos, but to be completely honest, we'd rather just go to bed so that might have to wait until next time. Sorry folks, we know you're all hanging out to see us in bike pants.

Miss you all back home,

- Simon & Joe

1 Week to Go!

Well, the time has nearly arrived.  We leave for NZ on Sunday to start the ride!  We've got all our gear ready and we've both got our feet into some clip-in shoes (haven't fallen off yet...although everyone says its inevitable).

We'd like to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has donated to the Red Cross on our behalf.  We've raised over $1500 so far for the Australian Red Cross and we've aldready had a few donations for NZ Red Cross.  The online donation sites will be up and running until well after we get back at the end of December so it's not too late to donate!

If you don't have a credit card and would like to donate, remember that you can also donate using PayPal (which can direct debit from your bank account), or email me at simporter at gmail dot com and I'll send you bank details by email.

Remember to check the blog during December for updates on our progress, photos and videos!

Once again - THANKYOU TO ALL HAVE DONATED.  The Red Cross do so much for so many and I'm sure they appreciate your generosity as much as we do!

Wish us luck!

-Simon & Joe

DriveSmart - Our First Corporate Sponsors

We're proud to announce our first corporate sponsor DriveSmart GPS Hire Australia. DriveSmart is proud to be supporting our ride and have generously donated the use of a portable GPS navigation unit. DriveSmart is Australia's very first in-car GPS navigation hire service and has helped hundreds of travellers navigate roads and cities worldwide. Whether you're travelling within Australia or overseas, let DriveSmart make your next trip faster, cheaper, easier and safer – without the stress! Take a look now at

www.gps-hire.com.au

NZ Sponsorship Page Online Now

With the help of Clare Cain, Red Cross New Zealand's national fundraising manager, RCNZ is now able to accept online donations through NZ's Fundraiseonline website.  We have set up a page to accept donations in $NZ so if you have friends / family over there who you think might be willing to throw a few bucks Red Cross's way please send them to our page at 

www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/nztandemride

Thankyou so much to all who have donated so far and for your continued support of our fundraising efforts!

Our First Tandem ride - Southbank to Southport

On Sunday 12 Oct, we hired a tandem and took part in the Wilson HTM Brisbane to Gold Coast ride. The 100km ride was supporting the Heart Foundation and Diabetes Australia. With nearly 8000 other cyclists (quite a few on tandems!) we managed to complete the ride in about 5 hours.

The 100km ride has taught us a few things:

1) Tandems are very fast on the flat and downhill.

2) Tandems are slow uphill.

3) Sitting on a bike seat for 5 hours hurts. A lot.

I purchased a pair of good padded bike nix the day before and I'm very glad I did. Joe on the other hand, did not. He has changed his tune since sunday and is now saving every penny to get the most padded shorts he can get his hands on. I'm sure it'll be worth it.

100km before 11am wasn't a bad effort, and we think it will be a lot easier when we've got a whole day to cover about 80km/day in NZ.

The training continues...might even have to start getting up early soon...imagine that!

-SP

Something to do in December

Simon and Joe are just two ordinary 25yo guys from a sharehouse in Brisbane. (They are not known for their cycling abilities to date.)

One afternoon not too long ago, Simon and Joe were sitting around trying to think of what to do for the month of December.

"Let's ride somewhere" one said. "Somewhere far away."

"Where?" asked the other. "I haven't ridden a bike in ages."

"Neither have I...we'll need to train."

"How about New Zealand!? We could ride the whole length and raise money for charity!"

"Yeah but anyone can do that - what's the novelty factor?"

"Let's ride the length of New Zealand...on a TANDEM".

...some time passes, fears and doubts are put aside, old bikes are resurrected, tubes are punctured, lights and helmets are bought, flights are booked, a tandem bike is hired...(imagine inspirational montage music is playing...)

Now here you are!

The plan is: ride from Cape Reinga, Northland, to Bluff, Southland, New Zealand from Dec 1 to Dec 28 this year. On a tandem bicycle with a trailer.

While we could do something this stupid just for the fun of it - we thought why not support a great charity like the Red Cross in the process!? So please support us by donating to the Red Cross and make the inevitable pain we're going to go through worthwhile.

Thanks!