help me plan my ride through NZ - Cape Reinga to Stewart Island

help me plan my ride through NZ - Cape Reinga to Stewart Island

as much as I have been riding around NZ for the last 10 years or so there is a few places that I have not been to yet also I have yet to do an end to end ride- Cape Reinga to stewart island I have done many loop rides of place (like when I ride from horse show to horse show helping out at the shows) back in 2007 I went down the west coast of the south island to wanaka where I got a lift around parts of southland? before having to head back to the north island. in 2006/2008-09 and in 2012 I did loop rides of parts of the middle  and the top of the south island - most of my riding has been in  the north island because of the cost of the ferry to the south island also because when i am helping at the shows most of the 4-5 months around summer are spent at helping at shows or getting to the next show (that may be 2-300+ km away from the last show)

so I have decided that when I get back on the road (Im have been stuck in Te Kuiti at my mums place  as my bike has needer some parts - they should be here latter this week of next week - A big thank you to cyclepro bike shop in hamilton that has been helping me get back on the road after I had killed most of the drive chain on the bike as well as a few other parts that I needer to replace - living on the road tends to be hard on bike parts ) I might do a few short (about a week)loop trips before heading north up to cape reinga to start an end to end ride - yes I know its winter time - I will just need to pack warmer gear and good rain gear - when I went down the  south island west coast back in 07 I seem to remember that I had 3 days when it did not rain out of the 3 weeks I was on the coast (I did have 1 day of riding in the snow- that was fun : ) 

so Im looking for nice/fun places to see along the way also any places/people that I may be able to camp/stay over night at I will be trying to stay on back roads as much as I can - gravel roads and hills don’t worry me 

What about training for the 8 lap lake taupo ride?

I will be using this ride for part of the training over the next few months doing the odd longer ride (rides over 120+ km )with out the gear on the bike (day rides) when I get my bike lights worked out I might do the odd over night ride just to add to the fun : ) I tend to do any thing from 30 km to 160+ km a day  with 1-2 days off  the bike a week when touring on the bike - as I don't know which way I'm going yet I don't know long it will take - its not like I need to be any where any time soon - its one of the up sides of how I live my life

I will be posting on my facebook page and this blog (also maybe twitter if I can work it out : ) what Im getting up to and where I am in NZ when I can (thats to say when I can find the time and where my cell phone works : )

riding 8 times around lake taupo and fundraising for catwalk trust

riding 8 times around lake taupo and fundraising for catwalk trust

between the 21th and  the 25th of november 2012 I will be riding 8 times around lake taupo on the extreme endurolake taupo cycle challenge (8 lap 1280 km ) fundraising for the catwalk trust

if you would like to sponsor me  i will have  fundraising page set up soon - i will have a link to it as soon as it is set up ok



About the catwalk trust

The CatWalk Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Trust is dedicated to raising funds to support the body of scientific opinion which says a cure for spinal cord injury will be found.

By challenging the pace and boundaries of research, our goal is to enable SCI sufferers to walk again. A cure is no longer a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’.

We want those affected by spinal cord injury out of wheelchairs and back on their feet.

The CatWalk Spinal Cord Injury Trust was founded in 2005 by Catriona Williams, formerly one of New Zealand’s leading international equestrian riders. Following a riding accident in 2002, she is now C6/C7 tetraplegic and confined to a wheelchair.

Initially a group of friends planned to fundraise for Williams herself – but a bigger picture quickly became clear. A cure for all was Williams’ dream – and so CatWalk was born.

"Only legs that work could make my days better!" says Williams. “I want to do things not have things.”

After exploring several options, the group agreed that supporting researchers in the very realistic bid for a cure for Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) would be CatWalk’s aim. And so, The CatWalk Trust is dedicated to raising funds to support the body of scientific opinion which says a cure for Spinal Cord Injury will be found.

 the web site for the catwalk trust is at 

http://www.catwalk.org.nz/

time off the bike

time off the bike

Im still waiting for some bike parts - the last i heard was I might get then some time next week-I have replaced the bb so all I need to get now is a new crank set -I did a few test rides by reusing my old crank set but as it has some grovers cut into it from when the bb died on me ( as the bb came apart some of the bits cut into the spindle? of the crank set) I don't trust it not to fall on me in the middle of no where so until I get a new crank set i’m stuck in te kuiti staying at my mums place

on the up side its giving me time off the bike to do a few other things as well as giving the bikes a full over hall that i have been meaning to do for a few months I can and most of the time I will do the work on the bikes when they need work done on then Im slowly been getting the mt bike set up for off road touring - just need to work on a better bike fit (I had been getting sore hands when riding the mt bike over 50 km) and work out what to do about the front rack ( I may do a bike-packing set up using a frame bag and handle bar set up)

I also been slowing working thought my pile of books to read - its nice to not have to have lots of books to take up space on the bike when having to do a lot of reading ( most of the time I seem to have some where between 1-6 books on the bike when touring)

getting an hour of swimming in this week I did a lot of work getting my arms and legs to move at the same time in the pool -in the past it's not some thing that I have been able to do 99% of the time from what I can remember ( there is a lot in my life that I can only remember bits and pieces of I think I am starting to under stand why that is - not that it makes it any easier to deal with) so it looks like i’m slowly getting better at doing some things- a lot of it has to do with all the time that I have been spending on the bike over the last few years as well as the hapkido that I did for a few months last year what was a nice change from just spending all my time on the bike (doing hapkido is a good  core body work out )

some of my reading lately has been as I work on my training plan for taupo also putting together a plan for the ride - because of my dysables (ie my dyspraxia and other thing I deal with each day) Im having to do things my way - people who dont know what I have to deal with each day just to be able to ride and do other things each day tend to find my way of doings thing some what odd  or some say it cant be done that way- I have been  getting that a lot from people lately- not that I would let a little thing like that stop me from doing what I do in life : )

 as I don't get sore legs or tired the way most people get tired I do get more mentally tired then most because of all the extra work to get my body to do what I want it to do (dyspraxia suff mostly) I don't seem to get physically tired like most people do as  I seem to lake the feed back from my body (IM not sure how it should be as i have had dyspraxia all my life so I dont know whats it like for most people ) so a rest off the bike or sleep is more to rest the mind more the any thing 

 when I was doing the taupo ride last year I did hard a hard time keeping the bike going with the high winds- my legs was fine just all the work to keep the bike going where i wanter it to go was very hard mentally ( keeping the bike upright on a good day can be hard work for me any way) so I was burning thought my food faster then planed ( some thing to add to the ride plan for this years ride in case of bad weather) yes I could of giving up and stop the ride ( a D.N.F) but I don't give up that easily - every thing in my life I try to give it at lest 110 % that is to say I try to give it ever thing I can - yes I could have an easier life and not do much with my life but thats not living for me -Im aways looking to see what my next goal is and what I need to do to get there 

a week off the bike

a week off the bike

Well, I'm now in te kuiti having got the train up from Palmerston north. I'm staying at my mums place for a bit as my bike is off the road as the bike needs some parts (this time the bottom-bracket and maybe the crank set replaced) so i have been spending the days reading and starting the planing for taupo (working on the big plan as well as starting to work out how to train better and have a better plan for the ride also working on back up plans for when thing don't go to plan in training and on the ride) i don't used a coach for my riding because a i don't have the money to hire one also finding one that can work with me would be hard- i tend to do thing my way as most of the time it's the only way i can do things 

 not having much body awareness as well as trying to deal with the other parts of my disables as I do the training and planing for the events that i do - things tend to take me longer to learn as well as the fact that i tend to um mis place the info on how to do things - some time i find the info latter other time I need to re lean it because of the dyspraxia -have a few head injuries don't help as there are big parts of my life i don't remember as well as the other thing i have prolings  with because of the head injury and other disables I have  

so on the bike training  is on hold until i get the bike back on the road some time this week or next week - it odd not riding on the bike most days as most of the last few years have been spent riding 3-7 days a week - about the longer that I can re member  having spent off the bike from the time that I got my bike friday would of been the 3 weeks or so after i got hit byBtu the truck back in 2008 only because i could not lift my hand up to hold the handle bars (as soon as I could do that I was back on the bike : )

just a note on word used and spelling

out of the words that I under stand i can only say around maybe 15-20 % of then so that most people can under stand what I’m saying. with my spelling its about maybe 5% of the words that i under stand - looking up a word can be hard work as if you don't know how to (or just can’t) sound a word its hard to find it in the dictionary ( the spell checker on the lap top helps a lot when doing the blog) each post on the blog takes around an hour to type up (some times more) i have been adding a lot of words to the spell checker like place names of where I have been

so if my blog or other typing has odd words used it maybe because i could not work how to spell the word that that I would of like to of used