Category: Bike Tour

We finally had a day where we didn’t need to balance timing! All factors were in favor of an early start, so we set the alarm for 5am. By the time we were ready to roll at 7:15, a few other souls had roused, but we had the facilities to ourselves through breakfast. The early…

Today was a rare occasion when an unheralded destination ends up eclipsing the journey as the memory of the day. Which was particularly impressive in this case because I had seen a cycling guidebook (at our Blenheim WarmShowers hosts) describe the ride from Springs Junction to Reefton as a world-class stretch of bicycle touring. And…

Today we just had a bit more climbing to do before we got to the top of Lewis Pass. Once again, since we had a short day of riding, and nothing to do before check-in at our AirBNB, we took our time getting on the road. I wasn’t sure if yesterday’s one-way construction would still…

With a semi-early start (“early”, to be on the road when traffic is lower, “semi” to not be in camp too soon and fighting sandflies all day), the campground kitchen was far less-crowded. Hanmer Springs is a bit unusual in the New Zealand road network, in that it’s a 5-mile dead-end offshoot (via SH7A) from…

Our final day on the Molesworth Muster Trail was a short one, with a huge downhill dropping us into the town of Hanmer Springs. But by now we were wise enough to know that didn’t mean it would be easy. Before we started, we figured there was a chance that we would just want to…