New Zealand post 4: MANAGING THE MAUNGATAPU TRACK It’s hardly first light when we get away at 07h45 after cooking oats and coffee, cleaning up, re-packing our bikes, etc, etc, but the sky is blue, the sun is shining and we are rolling again! We are cruising through beautiful farmlands. Everything is peaceful & pristine.…
New Zealand post 3: HUNKERING DOWN Steve is studying the map and I lie down on the single mattress that we’ve decided we’ll both squeeze onto. That’s the last thing I remember. I awake sometime in the dead of night and it takes me a few moments to remember where we are. I feel around…
New Zealand post 2: LORD OF THE CHAIN RINGS We cook up our oats and are up and away before 07h00. Just out of town, we spy a bike track that leads off the main drag onto a forest path. We decide to give it a go and it turns out to be the most…
New Zealand post 1: Pre Amble My head is pounding fit to explode! We’ve been travelling for 35 hours thus far and still have1 flight to go. I really am not enamoured of this aspect of travel. If only we could employ some floo powder and just materialize at our destination, but alas, I fear…
Packing Day 23: Conclusion We spend the next 2 days hunkered down in the aircon and only venture out to eat. On day 1 we decide that a late breakfast and early dinner should suffice, but by 14h00 our resolve has crumbled. We are all starving – seems we have underestimated how hollowed-out our exertions…
Packing Day 22: So much for Democracy! The tent is literally coated with muggies when I awake, but I am not letting them stand in my way! I shake the flap vigorously and send them flying, then hurriedly climb out and zip closed before they can hone in on Steve. The sunrise is more dramatic…