04/07/19-12/07/19 (nine days)
Country: New Zealand
Distance: 92 km / 57 mi
Elevation: 1,288 m / 4,226 ft
Campervan: 946 km / 588 mi
WE DID SOME CYCLING. The van plan finally came together this week and we got to do a fair bit of riding along trails we wouldn’t of made it to, before the end of the trip.
First we spent an afternoon cycling around The Redwoods, which is a free mountain bike park in Whakarewarewa Forest (good luck pronouncing that – a tip: ‘wh’ makes a ‘f’ sound in Māori). With 180 km of trails, we just scratched the surface – and mostly on the kiddy and easy trails to be honest. But it was awesome! So awesome, we’ve already priced up some mountain bikes, since our steel Surlys were a little rough going on the tracks. We want some suspension. We suspect we’ll be riding mostly off-road in New Zealand, as cars and bikes just don’t get along, making a mountain bike a must.
From here we parked up near Taupo and pedalling to Huka Falls, which are a series of waterfalls on the Waikato River that drain Lake Taupo. Interestingly, the Waikato River provides 15% of New Zealand’s power, via a handful of hydropower stations. This was another awesome single-track ride – we’re becoming more evermore eager for a front suspension, or fatter tyres at least!
One of Dan’s old school friends, Sam, now lives in Taupo, so before we left town we managed to catch up with him, his fiancé and little boy for a beer (the kid didn’t drink). They explained how different New Zealand is in the summer and how the population of Taupo pretty much doubles with Kiwi and foreign tourists.
With a few days left before we had to hand the van back, the Waikato River Trail seemed like the obvious choice to cycle, since we were already on it and it heads north, breaking to the ocean just southwest of Auckland. It was the perfect route back. At 425 km, the Waikato River is the longest in New Zealand and a 103 km section of it has been pruned and perfected to become one of New Zealand’s Great [bike] Trails.
We parked up at a free campervan spot on the edge of Lake Maraetai in Mangakino, which happened to be pretty central on the trail. We then spent one day cycling north along the Waikato River, and another day cycling south. It’s a fantastic trail, with some short, steep climbs and tight s-bends. You’re well away from roads – as is the case with other trails we’ve cycled – and you’re on a single-track in a dense forest. Despite having to backtrack both days back to the van, we were pretty glad of a proper bed, hot shower, and car heating when we were done.
That, sadly, was the last bit of riding of the trip.
Do you know what we’ve come to realise? Even though our logo states London as the start line, we actually started pedalling from Dan’s parents’ front door in Oxford. And when we landed in New Zealand, we only got as far as Cambridge before hiring a campervan to drive and ride the rest. So… you could say that we cycled 12,800 km from Oxford to Cambridge! Apologies, I made that joke already on Instagram. And spoiler alert: if I ever write a book about the trip, that’ll probably be how I end it, too.
For our last night in the van we finally got to spend a New Zealand $20 note we’ve been carrying since the very beginning. Obvs on beer. Before we left, a lovely director I had been working with got me a leaving present – a beer at the start, middle, and end of the trip. Let me tell you, we definitely spent that Russian ruble a few times waiting for a court date...
En route back to Auckland we passed back through Cambridge and spent one more night with Colin and Janet. When we stayed a couple of weeks ago, Colin had got us in the local paper and had kept a few copies aside for us. Totally framing it along with our five minutes of fame in the Middlesbrough Gazette. They’d also kindly bought us some port pipes of our very own, which we’ll crack open at the first full-time job offer we get. And they received a 32 kg parcel from home for us, which was full of more appropriate clothes to wear to work, the pub, the cinema, a restaurant other than McDonald’s. Oh and hair straighteners.
We left Colin and Janet’s and bombed it to Auckland to drop the campervan back on time. Then found ourselves crossing an imaginary finish line and collapsing into bed. That’s it. After 468 days, the trip’s done and dusted.
Of course we’ll still be cycling around New Zealand, but we’ll be based in Auckland from now on and it’ll be rides around a workweek – the 9-5 is looming. It is a bit more of an abrupt end than we had planned – if you remember, we wanted to cycle the whole length of the country. But if we’ve learned anything on this trip, it’s just to roll with it. The Russian scandal, Everest rescue, the cracked wheel rims, route changes (we weren’t meant to go to Nepal or any of Africa). All the hiccups are what has made this trip really. We didn’t want an easy ride and we sure didn’t get it. By far the best and the most challenging thing either of us has ever done – and while at times it’s strained us, pained us, and drove us batty, we’ve come out the other side still smiling. And not only that, we’re already talking about cycling home via South America, whenever that homeward journey may be.
For now, though, we’re going to take time-out to digest the last fifteen months. We’ve got a few bits to wrap up, like a kit review; totalling the trip cost, which we’ll share; and the country tips pages we’ve been compiling. We also plan to do something with the weeks’ worth of footage we have, although a bit of bad news on that front: one of the hard drives has corrupted and Dan’s having to try and recover it this weekend. Fingers crossed it works, as we’ll have lost all of Europe and Asia footage if not. But that’s not for you to worry about…
It’s now time to say goodbye! This is the last weekly blog. Thanks to everyone who’s followed along, sent us kind messages of support, and stuck with us until the very end. We hope you’ve enjoyed the ride as much as we have. And like I say, there may one day be a parte dos.
The end.