Category: New Zealand

“Neil, wake up, something has been going at your bike.” It’s 12:30am, and I’m somewhat surprised that my critter-sensitivity has allowed me to sleep through activity that Rett detected, especially since I should have been primed: 7 hours earlier I had caught a glimpse of a rat’s tail slithering down my rear wheel as Rett…

Tenting it was a “risk” since there was supposed to be rain in the morning (a bike touring couple who looked more-hardcore than us had taken one of the rooms at the holiday park), but the hope was that it would be done by the time we woke. The “rain” was done, but an annoying…

We certainly didn’t get shorted on our Hobbiton experience last night. It was nearly 10pm by the time that the bus brought us back to the Shire’s Rest, and then Bob still had to drive us all the 30 minutes back to our campground (we did take the slightly-longer but less-hilly/curvy main highway this time;…

Day 3 On November 1st, 2023, we had booked an Evening Banquet Tour at Hobbiton. This special tour is so in-demand that the first slots available were five months in the future, so five months in the future is what we were forced to book. With that peg planted, we then based our travels in New…

We’ve moved to four different places over the last eight days, but thanks to two different trains, or simply short hops, we haven’t done a bike ride longer than 15 miles over those eight days. Today’s 42 miles would be nearly twice the 8-day total, and our longest distance since we descended into Christchurch three…