some where to a camping ground 28/09/2013

some where to a camping ground  28/09/2013  40 km

after packing up my camp I get on the road by 8 am riding over a mix of rolling hills and riding beside the coast stoping at a shop for lunch before dealing with strong winds and rain - so i decide to have a easy day and stop at a camping ground (with a hot pool : ) for the night where I’m typing this on the  laptop now 

some where in Auckland to some where 27/09/2013

some where in Auckland to some where  60 km 27/09/2013

well i got out of auckland in once pice by bike with out having to use the trains - leaving the place where i stayed last night I headed in a zed-zad trail across town unto i got to manurewa? where after taking a few more city roads I get out of the city  -going by clevedon and a few other small towns and after having a chat to a  some one on a cycle tour going the other way  I ride out to the coast where after a few more hours I find some where to put my tent for the night 

the other person I say doing a bike tour : )

some where in Auckland to some where elso in Auckland 26/09/2013

some where in Auckland to some where elso in Auckland  35? km 26/09/2013

after repacking the bike I get on the road heading for one of the cycle ways that run beside the motoways - after about 10 km i get to motat where i decide to spend a few hours looking around as its been years from the last time i been here (its been on my places to go list for about the last 10 years ) after spending a few hours looking around the place (well places as its at two sites with a tram ride between them ) getting  around 250 photos 

leaving motat I get back on the cycle trails and find my way across town to where im heading for the night -riding around auckland off road cycle ways at night was fun if some what hard work- my bike maps got a good work out as I worked how to get to where i wanter to get to 

day ride around Auckland 25/09/2013

day ride around Auckland 40 km  25/09/2013

spend the day riding around Auckland trying out a few cycle ways and getting some batters and a roll of film  for the film camera also dropped in to see some friends at work in town 

riding in auckland can be fun at times if some what crazy - having the bike maps do help to get around : )

weather day 24/09/2013

weather day  24/09/2013

  wet and windy day so stayed in once place for most of the day - well i did go for a 2 hour walk in the wind and rain - why? um because i can : ) no other reason 

woodhill to auckland 23/09/2013

woodhill to auckland 23/09/2013 35 km?

leaving woodhill sands where i had been helping out at a horse over the weekend  I get on the road with a full touring load on for the first time in about 10? weeks taking it easy as I work my way to words auckland - at kumeu I pick up some auckland bike maps and decide to try out warm showers -its a website where people can host touring cycles . after a bit of a play I work out how to use the app on the phone and find some where to spend the night (that ending up becoming 3 nights because of some crazy weather ) 

using the bike maps i found a way into auckland using a mix of roads with cycle lanes , roads with no cycle lanes and a fun mix of off road bike trails - only got lost a few times and posted of a few kg of books and a few others things i don't need unto after the taupo ride 

I all so picked up a film slr camera with 2 lens and a flash - why a film camera? because A) i just don't have the money to get a good DSLR camera yet and B) its can be fun to play with film some times as you tend to think more about each photo- I leaned to take photos with a film camera so i still have a good idea what im doing when playing with then .

once I found my way to the place where im staying the night i do some reading for a bit before heading off to bed for the night

Training for Taupo

training for taupo

well its around 10? weeks until the taupo bike ride 

So how is the training going?

well its going ok not great but there not much i can do about that - some weeks are better then others with the most i done in a week was 400 km - with one of the rides being a 200 km ride that week  most weeks its been around 70-140 km a week  

most of the riding has been going into town so a 65-70 km ride with a few longer rides like a 130 km  and a 200 km ride 

once I'm back on the road i should be doing around 60 -100 km a day as i tour around the place - when i get to taupo i m planing to do day rides when I'm not helping at events - some of then at night to get used to doing longer rides at night ( maybe a 2 lap ride of the lake? maybe a longer ride ) - yes some of my training rides are longer then  many of the fun rides like the (one lap)160 km lake taupo ride that people train for a year to do (some times longer)  - on a side note when I'm doing some of the longer fun rides and some of the riders think I'm just doing part of the ride because of what my bike is (a folding bike with 20 “ ) its fun when they find out that I'm doing the full ride or even more then one lap (my bike friday is a folding touring bike thats cost around $3000 and it’s done maybe 45,000 km in the 5? years that i have had it )

trying to work out how much training to do for a 1300 km bike ride can be hard work as there is a few ways that people use to train for rides this long - some do racing to get fit others ride they bike to work each work day and do longer riders in the week ends ,some even get early (before sun rise ) to train before work  - for me i use my bike touring to get fit for longer rides as well as doing the odd longer ride - longer rides being from 130+ km up to 200+ km depending on what fun ride I'm looking at doing 

- i don't do bike racing - my ave speed seems to be any where between 15-25 km/h - its part of why i don't tent to enter many fun rides as many riders seem to treat fun rides as races also with the time frames that many rides do from start time until the close the course mean i would have to do an ave speed of 27-30 km/h - not what i would call a fun  ride as i like to look at places along the way and not just head down going as fast as i can - on a side note i may not be able to go fast as others do  but i can do the speed I want all day (maybe because of how my dyspraxia is i don't get sore legs on the bike - even after doing 640 km (riding 4 laps of lake taupo in 2011 with strong head and side winds ) i had a bit of a sore back and neck (bad bike fit?) but my legs was fine )

98% of my riding is done on my own - thats to say i don't do rides with other riders (like saturday morning group rides that many road cycles like to do - why not? because when on on tour I’m heading for a new place each day with a full touring load on - when I do day rides the type of training I do means that I tend to keep to a set speed for a set number of km on each ride also because the speed that im riding at is just to slow for most group rides - many group riders seem to like treating the weekly rides as min bike races also when im doing the fun rides that I do most of the time im on my own and not part of a group so in many ways its better that i do my training rides on my own at my speed as that is how i do the fun rides as well as i have a better idera how my training is going (riding in a group in a pace line  is around 20% ( maybe more? )better then riding by you own and I can work on things like testing bike or gear set up with out holding other riders up 

my bike set up for taupo (and other longer rides ) is mostly work out - one of the things that I been working on latly is rear lights - how many lights to use and where to put then on the bike ( where my main rear light used to sit on the rack each time i folded the bike i had to remember to take take the light off or it would break on the ground as the bike rear rack sits on the ground when the bike is folded 

 As for front lights I got that worked out now- a main light power off the front wheel  (so no worrying  about it going flat ) and 2 little led bike lights to use as back up lights and a front low power head light to see places where the bike lights don't show ( like the Handel bar's/bag )   (I'm still looking for this light  so might just pick one up in Taupo ) 

what my plans are for the next few months

what my plans are for the next few months 

im looking at getting back on the road next week - on monday i will be seeing some who might be able to help work out a few things  that i been dealing with my heath - depending how that goes  should be back on the road around tusday-wenday unless they want me for more tests? in that  case it may take me longer to get back on the road

once back on the road i will be heading towards hamilton over the next 3-4 weeks for an horse event called equidays where i be helping out at for a few days the heading down to taupo for at lest 1 (maybe more )dressage events where i will be helping out at - im looking at staying at taupo until the taupo bike ride - doing more training bike  rides and maybe helping out at a few more horse events at the place i will be staying at in taupo 

After the taupo ride I'm looking at heading back up north up to the cape to start my end to end ride. I'm not sure about dates yet for the end to end ride as it depends of a few things like how long it will take for me to recover from the taupo ride (a 1280 km bike ride over 4-5 days)as well as how long it going to take me to get up to the cape 

Northland - land of many hills

Northland - land of  many hills 

 It's a eary start so up at 5 am and on the road by 5:30am  

As I head up the first hill of the day I take it slowly as i know there will be many hills to come over the day

Taking care on the gravel road as I head down towords S.H.1  at hukerenui  where I turn lift on to S.h.1 for the next 10 km before turning off on to Russell road at whakapara with there being pacher of mist around and stars over head 

Riding along Russell rd as the sun starts to come up the road starts out some what flat  before the hills start with a climb and a long deset down to helena bay where I see the sea for the first time of the day before the road starts climbing - over the next 40+ km  the road drops down to sea leavel before climbing the next hill out of the bays

The weather is nice blue sky with a bit of wind in places

Some times riding the road is a bit like a roller coaster other times its just hard work at one point I past a road that's around 10 km shorter to Russell but gravel and looks like it heads over a few big hills - maybe next time : ) 

Some where along the way the name of the road changes to rawhiti rd then to manawaora rd before passing the other end of the short cut road (Russell whakapara rd) from there the road is called Russell whakapara rd until I pass the turn of to okiat (aucks? Rd) - just passed the turn there's a few bits of old ship parts from one of the ships sunk near by for diving on - makes for a odd sight 

So why did I turn for okiat and not Russell ? It's because the (car) ferry from okiato to opua is only $1 per person - the (foot) ferry from Russell to paihia is $7 

Getting to the ferry just before it leaves ( there are 2 car ferrys that take turns -maybe 10 -15 mins to cross ) I pay for the ferry out of some of the money I find on the side of the road that I leave in my handerbar bag for things like this 

At opua I climb up the hill on to S.H.11 turning lift towords Kawkawa 11 km away - in places the tar seal on the road is riped up - going up a short but hard hill I spot what looks a bit like a set of 10 pins in this case some things set up to make the road safer ?- would work better if more people knew the road rules and drove better 

A few km before the town of Kawkawa the road cross's over a set of rail lines - this rail line was the first one in the north island ( or some thing like this ) it's now used as a vintage rail way - well the part that's still open - they are planing on re opening the line to opua 

Kawkawa is a some what odd town as the rail line runs down the middle of the  main st (S.H.1)

Stoping at a bakey for some food - at this point I'm getting sick of musley? bars  I take a 5 min break before getting back on the road - back on S.H.1  I work my way over a few smaller hills and a larger long hill before passing the turn off to my friends place at hukerenui having deside as its a such a nice day I will just keep riding and see where the road will take me ( doing my "I wonder where this road will take me" : ) riding along the main road until I get into town (whangarei) I deside to head to the airport - why ? Well I never been there by bike yet so why not : )  

Riding beside the sea? For a bit before the road climbs up a hill and pass's some shops before getting to the airport where I keep going along the road for a few km just to see where the road goes before turning around and heading back to the bridge - passing though a police checkpoint at one point (where they take a good look at my bike friday as they wave me though )doing a do a loop of the two river(sea?) bridges ( the one near the city centre and the new lifting bridge ) then it's time to do a bit of shopping before heading the 30 odd km back to my friends place having some fun on a gravel road for the last 6 km 

So how far did I ride today - around 200 km -over the last week or so I done around 450-500 km on the bike - some what of a change from doing 70 km a week ( one ride a week ) now who's idea was it to do a 70 km day the day before doing a 200 km day - opps  things like that tend to happen around me some times 

You know you on a long bike ride when see the sun rise and the sun set on the same ride 

Todays Sunset