Messages from the Pale Blue Dot

Six Days, 383 miles and 24,471 feet of climbing - ride finished!

Just a quick catch up with more details to follow. After two days of limited internet access, I'm finally back in Whangarei and finished with the ride. Tomorrow, I take the bus back to Auckland and fly into Wellington.

Today was a tough day, with more than 7,000 feet of climbing on the back route from Russell out along the Bay of Islands and then down the Pacific coast. I'll be catching up with photos and descriptions of the last few days when I'm in Wellington later in the week. But, for now, here are the Motionbased stats for the last three days:

This is a map of the entire route, done clockwise from Auckland to Whangarei.

Top of the North: Hit the windward mark and pop the chute

After the second band of showers passed through Omapere yesterday, the skies parted and the day turned fine. The first part of the ride was along the lovely Hokianga Harbour and then across the bay on the ferry at Rawene.

The crumpled landscape had more rolling hills but nothing unpleasant. After three full days of riding, on the fourth day I started to feel stronger and more confident that I'll be able to make Russell tonight and on to Whangarei tomorrow evening.

Yesterday's ride was 90 km in 5 hours and 19 minutes. Slow, easy paced.

The toughest challenge for the first days has been getting enough food throughout the day and feasting well enough in the evening to keep up with calorie output. Most days I'm averaging 5,000 calories per day just in cycling output, meaning that I should be getting in about 7,000 calories to stay even. I think that by the time I finish this ride, I'll be down a kilo or two, which won't be bad. It is just keeping up the energy levels during the day and not bonking.

So, I'm off now on Monday morning to head north for a few kms to the most northerly point on my trip and then turning to ride to the southeast with the wind at my back. With a low pressure system stalled in the Tasman Sea, the winds are picking up today from the northwest and may reach 35-40 knots. Time to make the final stretch to the north and then put up the big spinnaker and sail downwind to Pahia or Russell for tonight.

Lashing Rain in Omapere

Issued by MetService at 08:53am 29-Jul-2007

HEAVY RAIN FOR PARTS OF NORTHERN NEW ZEALAND TODAY, ALSO FOR SOUTH
CANTERBURY AND EASTERN OTAGO TOMORROW

A deep low lies to the west of the New Zealand, with an associated front
currently over Northland, expected to move southeast to cross the remainder of
the North Island by Monday morning. A strong moist northeast flow ahead of this
front is expected to bring a period of heavy rain to northern New Zealand. The
rain has eased over the Far North, but heavy falls are expected to continue over
southern parts of Northland and also Auckland until early afternoon. Heavy rain
is also expected over Coromandel Peninsula and western Bay of Plenty through to
this evening and for eastern Bay of Plenty and northern Gisborne from later this
afternoon through to Monday morning.

Further rainfalls of 25 to 50mm for southern parts of Northland and Auckland are
not excessive, but are likely to include some brief thundery downpours of 15 to
25mm per hour.

====

No sense in going out too early this morning. The rain was really heavy during the night and a second band has just passed on to the south. I'm happily sitting in the Capthorne Hotel dining room, with some cool jazz on their sound system, a roaring fire and a fast internet connection. But, there is now blue skies to the north and time to ride. I'm going to try for Kaitaia today, about 100 km along some windy, but not too hilly roads.

Short, sharp climbs day

Up, down, up, down, down, down, up, up, up, down, up, incredible descent then two little climbs I called the "Dolly Parton" hills before arriving this afternoon in Omapere. This is a delightful harbor, with sand dunes across the bay and a nice beach here at the Copthorne Hotel.

Here are two view to the west and then to the north of Hokianga harbor, from the second of the Dolly Parton hills, looking down:

Today was a bit of an easy day, with 4000 feet of climbing in just 32 miles after two long days in the saddle. I took my time, stopped at the Mataraua forest information center and then began the long climb up to the top of this lovely fern and Kauri forest.

Although not a fan of the New Zealand met services (weather reports), they say that a big storm is coming in tonight. I have had three lovely days of riding, but might have to lie low here for tomorrow morning until the heavy rains pass. Weather here in NZ is always unpredictable at best, so I'll see in the morning and evaluate.

Wellsford to Kaihu Farms

Looking at the elevation profile for today, I was drawn to the middle part of the ride, going into Dargaville and north from there. "Looks like a flat day," thought I. This was wishful thinking and a very poor evaluation of the map. This day's work, all seven and a half hours on the bike, was tough. Not only were the hills heading up Highway 1 and then westward to the Dargaville flats big and mean, but the wind blowing 30 knots into my face on the flats made them seem very steep. But, the killer was the last hill, just before dusk, up about 1300 feet (400 meters or so) to the lovely Kaihu Farms, run by Michel and Ginny.

Michel and Jinny have a backpackers' farm, up at the top of the hill on the southern part of the Mataraua Forest, up above the Kaihu River. They offer a perfectly wonderful space for the weary traveler, without pretense and lots of space to make oneself at home. They were quite patient with me, totally exhausted from my ride, and fed me well both dinner and breakfast, before sending me off this morning.

While reading the newest Harry Potter book, I felt that I had stumbled into something between the Weasley's home and something rather Tolkien-esque.

The moving time was 7:12 and total distance of 82.34 miles and vertical elevation during the day of 5814 feet.

As you can see, by the elevation profile, the hill at the end of this long day was cruel and unusual punishment.

The day had far too many of these signs:

Heaps of Hills

On Thursday morning, I picked up my touring bike from R&R Sports in Auckland and started my ride off to the west and northwards along the western coast of the North Island. (Doug Wester, at R&R Sports was a great help, doing an on-the-spot bike fit using my Serrota bike fit stats and his own measurements. After three days on the road, no tweaks, so things were perfect. Thanks, Doug!!) The ride out of Auckland was, predictably, urban, trafficked and a bit confusing. But, following the little blue signs for the Northwest Route, I made it into more pastoral settings in the third hour of the day.

"Heaps" is a lovely word in New Zealand and Australia, meant to express a large abundance of something. Well, when I asked several people if there were any hills between Auckland and Wellsford, heading up Highway 16, the universal response was "heaps." They were not kidding.

Pedaling a bike with 22 kilos of gear in the panniers, is no picnic. I knew I would not be doing a usual 28 kph, but averaging 16-19 kph was even less than I expected. But, into the wind, up and down big hills were a match for me on Thursday.

At the end of the first day, I was knackered. Much longer, and much tougher to Wellsford than I had planned, but I pulled into the Kings Court just after sunset, had some beers and food in town and got a good sleep before taking off the next day, Friday, for my second day of riding.

67 miles in 6 hours of riding is no world record, but I am learing to take my time, go slow up the big hills, ride slow and enjoy the adventure. It is a long haul.

Leaving Auckland

Late morning and I'm off to Wellsworth, leaving Auckland behind

A Fine Day Around the Bays in Wellington

Two days until my grand trip around the norther part of the North Island. Today was a lovely day, cold and breezy but sunny and brilliant blue skies. Here is a shot looking back towards Wellington along the bays.

I stopped at Chocolate Fish, but the weather brought out tons of customers and the line was too long to wait for a "flat white" and something tasty. Here is a shot of the outside seating area, usually vacant this time of the year. But today was extraordinary.

It was a lazy, relaxed ride in 13 degree temperatures and a strong northerly breeze. The high pressure system over the Tasman floated past and gave us a spectacular sky. In the distance, you can see the ferry that transports cars and passengers from Wellington to Picton on the South Island.

Tomorrow, at 10:30 am, I'm off to Auckland to spend the night and pick up my bicycle the next day. Back to packing!

New Zealand Haka

On October 30 1999, I flew into South Africa for the very first time, arriving in Johannesburg where I went immediately to the hotel the night before flying the next morning on to Cape Town for a United Nations meeting. When I arrived at the hotel I turned on the TV to a dire warning, "If you are a Springboks fan and are considering suicide, please call the following number... "

Come to find out, the South African rugby team, the Springboks, had just lost their semi-final match in the Rugby World Cup to Australia, a doubly crushing defeat following the storybook ending to the previous World Cup final, held in South Africa, where the newly liberated South Africans had beat the hated All Blacks from New Zealand. Not a rugby fan, and never having been in South Africa before, I realized a) that this was a country that really cared deeply about sport; and b) that rugby was something that I might have to pay a bit more attention to, particularly while in South Africa.

Four days later, I found myself in a fairly wild Cape Town bar during the Third/Fourth place (consolation round) game between the All Blacks and the Springboks. What followed was a full-on lesson in rugby, during a great match that found the Springboks beating the All Blacks 22-18. While I still don't have a great grasp of the rules, I got the idea and discovered the passion that the South Africans feel about the game.

However, the one thing that absolutely amazed me was the "haka" that the New Zealand All Blacks did just before the start of the match. Wow! this absolutely fearsome, war chant brought sport to its primal level and raised the hackles on my neck. Although I bought a Springboks jersey back in 1999, it was the All Blacks that have always fascinated and attracted me, particularly for the haka. Indeed, it was the haka and the sprit that it captured about sport and raw chauvanism that got me thinking that New Zealand was a place I wanted to visit and bring my family to explore.

Although that original haka I saw in 1999 is not available, there are some other great examples of hakas on YouTube:

In this clip, in a match against the Samoans, the All Black haka is challenged by Samoan Sipi Tau war dance. Great stuff!

So, now Sam and Kai are doing the haka in our living room here in Highbury, Wellington. They learned it in school and each year group gathers on Tuesday in the school playground to practice. It is one of the parts of New Zealand culture that they are bringing back to New York.

Makara Attack(ara)

One of the real pleasures of living here in Wellington for the last six months has been the ability to head out of the house and get right on my bike for a ride. Within minutes, I can be climbing and descending some awesome hills on back-country roads.

After a long ride on Thursday and a heavy running/lifting workout yesterday at Exodus gym, it would have been easy to take today off. But, unlike yesterday, the day dawned dry and the low clouds lifted by noon, leaving a weather window that was just too irresistable to pass up. Also, I was thinking that having a taste of that Castle Cliffs 2004 Pinot Noir would be so much better after a good ride today, so I dressed and headed out the door.

So, cruising through Karori, doing about 23 mph on the flat, I flew past another rider heading for the climb up to the big drop down to Makara beach. It was a real suprise, about three minutes later, to see him, come past me on the climb as I was going up at a fair clip. The road wound back and forth and I could see he was fading fast and that perhaps his move past me me was more testosterone than climbing ability. I felt that for sure I would be going around him again on the next curve, but as I came around the bend he was gone. Until I was up over the top of the pass and heading down the other side I thought that maybe he had gotten a second wind, but as I descended, I found myself in back of a line of five cars that were going more slowly down the winding road. There was no way that this guy could have passed these five cars. I'm pretty sure that he pulled off on the climb, taking a side road. No doubt, he rode past me on the hill well past his red line and then, rather than get passed on the climb (evidence of the hot-dog move), he bailed into the side road. Sad.

Anyway, on the way back from the beach, I decided that today would be a good opportunity for an uphill time trial.

As a point of reference, this same climb (from the "curvy road" sign at the bottom to the trail head sign at the top) took me 13:52 two days ago and my fastest had been 13:46 back on 27 May. Today I climbed this same distance in 12:37, taking more than a minute off my best time. I topped out at 173 bpm towards the end of the hill, sprinting at 20 kph at the very top. Ok, not TdF time but great preparation for the long rides coming up in the next months.

One of the other small, but wonderful pleasures of living where we do in Wellington, is that there is a Subway sandwich shop on the way home. One "veggie delight" later, I was home with that Pinot Noir and one great, fast ride finished.