My cycling journey across New Zealand — The Preparation.
Before the journey and my plans
My journey began in 2021 at the point where COVID was becoming too much to handle in the UK and my thought was “I just needed to leave”.
But before we jump straight into that, I want to say that travelling New Zealand wasn’t my original plan, because for a few years I had always thought about travelling the world, but didn’t just want to get in a plane and go from one popular touristic town to the next. So what better way to see the world, than to get on a bike and just go as far as I can.
I started to plan this world trip through 2020, as at first I didn’t think this pandemic was going to take up so much of our lives, having the idea that when its over I can set off and see the world. I would go from Manchester, where I lived at the time, down south to Portsmouth and cross over to France, where the journey then would take me all through Europe.
I had taken lots of time to plan a map that had all the places I wanted to see and how long it would take me in each country, estimating that it would probably take me about 2–3 years to complete what I had drawn out.
It was all going so well until the world situation became worse, more and more borders closed and I also didn’t take in to account the Brexit situation. Brexit was a huge spanner in the works for me, knowing that I could only spend 90 out of every 180 days in the Schengen area meant I would either have to change my route drastically, or cycle at incredible speeds!
I want to leave!
It got to the point where for a while I just thought it was becoming impossible to achieve. It frustrated me and angered me because the UK depressed me, it wasn’t where I wanted to be and felt like I was just being trapped there. But I wanted to leave the UK so bad and wasn’t going to give up on this idea. I sat down with my Dad and we talked about my possibilities and where I can go in the world, maybe even to just start smaller. Then I remembered my passport! Luckily from when I was younger, over 10 years ago at that time, my parents and I gained our New Zealand permanent residency from living there for 4 years. All I had to do was to renew it and move it over to my new passport. So, while I waited for that, I bought a map of NZ online and got to work with red pins planning my route.
The Route and my worries
I had heard of people cycling NZ previously, going from the tip of the North (Cape Reinga) to the tip of the South (Bluff). But no one seemed to go South to North (I will later realise why that is), so I planned my route from Invercargill, found points where I can stop and where I want to visit. I am not too bothered about details and having to leave directly from the most southern point just for bragging rights, Bluff being awkward to get to, made me think that it was a bit pointless and I was happy to start in Invercargill.
NZ was also the perfect place to do this challenge too. It was one of the only countries that had avoided COVID for so long, a haven almost.
I finally got my visa moved over, booked for my time in the mandatory 2 week quarantine, and booked my flights for the 15th July. Now all I had to do was wait.
My Route would take me up the east coast, through Dunedin, Christchurch and Blenheim. The crossing from Picton would then take me to Wellington where I would cycle across the west coast for a little bit before heading through the North Island over to Napier. Then to Taupo, Tauranga, Auckland, then up into Northland for the final leg of the journey to the Cape. It seemed to be perfect in my mind, but hesitation started to swoop in. I started to question if I was going into this too optimistically or if I would even be able to achieve this, baring in mind that until this point I hadn’t actually even got on a bike and started to train yet! Was I too unprepared? Would I get there and give up after a few days? Should I even go?
My bike and budget
My next step was buying the bike and figuring out my budget and getting my gear ready. I wanted to travel light and also try to do it on a small budget, apart from the stupidly high cost of flights but we will ignore that…
I bought an old bike for £50 and decided to spray it, do it up and make it travel ready. It was an old heavy bike that actually turned out okay in the end and I was so proud to see what I had done. Then, because I booked with Qatar I checked on their site for bike and sports equipment transport. But even though I was going with barely any luggage, they had to class it separately and were wanting to charge me £1000 to transport my bike over to NZ, Yet another thing I hadn’t taken into consideration when organising this trip. The best choice was to buy a bike down in Invercargill at a small bike store I found there and ride with that. For the mean time, I used this older bike to practice, I started to ride to and from my grandmas house which was about 50km one way. This quickly made me realise that even with a comfy bike seat, they are useless after a few days! I managed to do about 5 or 6 practice rides to my grandmas house and decided I would just see how it goes when I arrive in NZ.
Flight, Thoughts and Quarantine
July came around really quick and before I knew it I was on the plane heading to New Zealand! My excitement was building but I tried to calm myself because 2 weeks of quarantine was immanent. Now, don’t get me wrong, 2 weeks of peace and quiet in a hotel room with free food was lovely, but I was more than ready to leave and get on my way!
Also while I was sat there in isolation, I was researching restaurants to go to and I saw one that was in Invercargill called “Fat Bastard”, it was a pie shop that had world famous pies! I love pies and it would be the perfect start to the journey with a coffee to compliment it, so I planned to have this on the morning of my trip!
Leaving quarantine, my next step was getting to Invercargill, so the next day I hopped on a plane and flew down there, found my hotel for the night and then went out to buy a bike! I told the guy in the store what I was planning to do and that I was looking for a cheap bike but a good enough one to see me through the trip. He tried selling me a bike that was about £1000, but I told him that it doesn’t need to be that expensive! I saw a bike for the equivalent of £300 and it was perfect and so light too! I bought it but he was insistent on the fact that it wouldn’t make it even a few hundred kilometres. Being British however, that just persuaded me more and my stubbornness wanted to prove him wrong.
That night I packed my bag ready to go on the back of the bike and the hotel was nice enough to let me keep all that in their store room too! I also brought some panniers with me so that nicely fit onto the bike. Things were looking up and I was pumped to get going. one last sleep before it begins!
The morning of
The morning of August 1st came around. It was the big day. A bit cloudy but the weather seemed quite cool and perfect for cycling. But then, I checked my phone and… the worst had happened… I couldn’t believe what I was reading…what was I going to do…
(This is Part 1. I will soon be uploading Part 2 of my cycling journey)
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