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| Natural beauty in abundance on a recent shakedown ride |
In less than 10 days, a rag-tag group of bike packers will converge
on Cape Reinga with a single goal in mind; to eat sleep and ride their way to
Bluff. The route is a spawn of Jonathan Kennett’s work on the NZ Cycle Trails,
taking in the scenic highlights as it winds its way from north to deep-south.
When the idea was first mooted I was always going to be a
starter and now with the ride imminent my excitement has reached fever pitch.
While final preparations have had the pleasant distraction of a new baby Maxwell,
I’ve managed to stick loosely to my plan and pull everything together physically,
mentally and gear wise with a few days to spare. We’ve actually been blessed with Max’s 3-4 hour night sleep cycle,
but the 6 hour minimum stipulated for the Tour Aotearoa will luxurious by
comparison!
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| BLAAT (Bike leaning against a tree) |
My bike setup has seen some incremental improvements from
the steed used in shorter rides such as the Big Hurt and Cloudride here in Australia.
Some lightweight carbon aerobars have dropped half a kg of weight, and coupled
with curvy Carver MyTi bars give a range of hand positions to keep tingly
fingers to a minimum. A refined K-lite dynamo system will allow me to choose
between possum dazzling illumination or USB charging at the flick of a stem mounted
switch.
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| What the wind gets to see |
For tires I’ve gone with sketchy/fast Maxxis Tread Lites, and
I replaced some aging XT brakes and cranks with some shiny XTR stuff which will
probably only be shiny for the first few days.
Newcastle’s Bike bag dude has sewn up some uber-light bags
including the maiden ‘fast’ ride for a cavernous frame bag, allowing me to run
a huge bladder in lieu of bottles.
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| What I get to see |
My trusty Rohloff internally geared hub remains with my
years of trying to kill it leaving no scars, while the Ground Effect clothing including cat/dog proof Anti-Cyclone and Exocet shorts wee always going to be first on my packing list.
Having been through the motions of a ride like this a few
times, my mental state has been relatively withdrawn, and only now as I pore of
cue sheets and ambitious daily itineraries does the enormity of the task at
hand sink in. While I’ve got some of the best form in recent memory over short
distances, I’m very much relying that I’ll settle into the old groove of long
days in the saddle.
A unique challenge of the route is the requirement to string
together a number of ambitious distance goals early in the ride, and only if all
goes to plan will we be able to make the ferry sailings. Packrafting could be a
backup option but my kayak weighs more than my bike and gear combined so I’m
planning to take my chances with the
ferry!
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| Pack rafting - not really an option for the Tour Aotearoa |
To see how it all pans out keep an eye out on Instagram
@whalleyollie where I’ll endeavor to make regular posts, and you can track the
adventure at https://touraotearoa2016.maprogress.com/
