awanun to waitiki landing 83 km

awanun to waitiki landing 83 km

after packing up the tent I head back on the road turning right on to S.H.1 riding along the road most of the traffic is logging trucks with a nix of bus’s and cars making up the rest - its been a few years from the last time I was you theres ways (2008) so I have seem to of forgoing just how many hills to ride over (lots of hill : ) stoping at the 3 or 4 little shops as I work my way up to near the top of nz - it's a hot day for riding (cold weather is easier on me then hot weather ) around 4 pm I get up to waitiki landing ( back in 2008 I stayed here a few days after I had my tent ripped in a big storm with 160+ km/h winds ) after chatting to the people there I decide to have an easy day and stay the night.

Kerikeri to awanui 98 km

Kerikeri to awanui 98 km

Packing up my tent and saying good bye to the people at the place that I have been staying at ( helping out ) I head up the hill into town to do a few jobs and get food for the next 2 days before riding back up to the main road to head north . Riding along S.H.10? I  felt that the headset on the bike is a bit out so I stop to fix it -  one of the bike tools I bring with me when touring is a 36?/40mm headset spaner as my bike has the older type of headset that takes 2 large 40mm spaners to work on it - its a 5 min job for me to do the headset now I will need to keep an eye on it over the next few days  ( it used to take me about 30+ mins to do it so I'm getting better at it ) back on the road I pass though a few small towns as I work my way over the hills for the day going down one of the last hills i spot an farm tracter that is doing around 20-30 km/h as I'm going around 50 km/h I pull out and pass it like a car would  ( it's a long down hill and I can see a long way down the road or elso I would not of passed then)  when i get into the town of awanui i start looking for a camp ground or some where to set up my tent - it looks like some of the places that i stayed at last time are no longer around so i had to do some hutting around to find a place - i end up staying at the norfolk motel and campervan park for he night ( $15 a night) -it looks like I will need to have a look at the front gears some time soon as I still can't seem to get into the small chan ring in the front most of the time ( just some thing elso to work on with the bike )

Today's plan was to do an about a 60 km ride then start working out where to spend the night but as its a nice day I just keeped going until it got dark so I ender up riding 98 km today ( in other words I did 2 days of planed rides in one day
today)

lake taupo ride 2012

well I have gone and done it - no I have not gone mad (thought some might disagree with me on that : ) I just went and enter the lake taupo bike ride 8 lap ride -1280 km of riding up and down hills with maybe the odd flat bit in there some where over 4-5 days(and no I wont be taking my bike trailer or panner bags with me on the taupo ride: ) . riding the 4 lap ride in last years weather has not put me off doing it this year-what don't kill me had better get riding : ) whats a little wind and rain when out on a nice bike ride 

now all I need to do now is start on the rest of my to list starting with getting in some training on the bike - a bike ride from one end of nz the the other end  over the next month or so should be a good starting point as its some between 2000 to 3000 km then I have to turn around at the far end  to get back up the the north island to help out at some horse events (my summer job if you can call it that)

part of the reason that im doing this ride (the lake taupo ride) is to do some fundraising for the catwalk trust - the 2th thing on my to do list after doing the entry for the ride was to set up a fundraising website for the taupo ride  -now that I have done that here is an link to the website - http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/damianday2012/

Just a few notes for people who read my (this ) blog

Just a few notes for people who read my (this ) blog

This blog is done by a disable bike rider who spends they days riding around nz taking photos and helping out people where the can ( at horse events and other places)

I have been traveling for over 10 years ( the last 7 have been full time) some times I ride 6-7 days a week other times I may stop a for a few days or more - the road will aways be my home which ever way I get around

it takes me around 1-3 hours to type up each blog post - by the time I type it up , redo it ,do the spelling , do photos if any then post it on line

there is a lot I don't talk about on the blog because I don't wish to or I just can't type what I would like to say because of my dyspraxia

unless I have good notes to work from there will be things that I do forget about so the don't end up in the blog

I'm no good with names so there is few names in the blog posts - also some times people do ask not to be on the blog

If you would like to know more about some thing on the blog or the way I live my life - do ask and I will try to say more about that suff

Why I travel

Why I travel


When I first starter to travel the goal was to get to a place on the map in the shortes way or faster way- as the years pass I find myself going the long way more and more some times staying at a place for a day some times a few days( or more) the more time I travel the more I lean yet at the same time I find out just how little I do know about life and the world that we live in so I keep traveling to keep leaning- that is how I live my life

paihia to kerikeri 37 km

paihia to kerikeri 37 km

after leaving the camp ground I head in to waitangi going over the little one line bridge that was built in the 1940 ‘s as part of the 100 year celebrations of the signing of the treaty. after locking up the bike and showing my (out of date : ) passbook  to get in to the grounds - if you are a kiwi and show photo id you can get in to the grounds for free - for ever one else its $25 just to get on to the grounds - I have a good look around the grounds and trier house getting some good photos also leaning some more a bout the triter? after a few hours its time to get back on the bike to head back the way I came passing the camp ground on the way out of town .stoping to get some photos of the water in flood then its time to get back on the road heading north (well first west then north : ) riding until I get to the turn off for kerikeri where I stop at a shop to decide if to get some more food - just as i was going to leave some one on a Mt bike rides up beside me - there are on a bike tour from what I can tell  after a bit of an chat I head into town heading for the stone store & kemp house ( 2 of the olds building in nz ) after getting some photos I look on line (on the iphone) for some where to camp for the night as its getting late so after a phone call to make sure they are open (as many places are close over winter) I head off to the place that I picked to stay the night - as Im checking in there is some talk about doing some woofing  so I end up spending the next week or so helping out around the place

just an update

just a updat- im now back on the road now so I will try to keep this up dater when I can but it may take some time -keep an eye on facebook or twitter @gyspyonabike to see what I get up to when I cant do the blog ok

rest day at paihia/Russell 13 km

rest day at paihia/Russell 13 km

spent the day having a good look around paihia then got the ferry to Russell ($7 each way or$12 for return ticket ) in  russell at the top of an steep hill is a flag pole that was cut down a few times (see photo for more info on that) spent most of the rest of the day looking around town and chatting to people before getting the ferry back to paihai then the road back to camp 

2 day at paihai 0 km heaver wind and rain so ender up spending most of the day in the tent