Two Wheels Around New Zealand

I just finished reading this book recounting a 1986 bike tour by Scott Bischke and Katie Gibson. The New Zealand Scott and Katie experienced back in the 80's no longer exists. I was first in New Zealand in the early 1980s, and have been back for hiking trips three times: 2004, 2005 and 2008. What a difference a couple of decades makes! I first read about riding in New Zealand in Barbara Savage's classic book Miles from Nowhere, which was written in the 1970s. If I remember, the Savages never visited Australia by bike, as they ran afoul of the immigration folks, but New Zealand welcomed them with open arms. That book must have done more for Kiwi tourism than anything the NZ government could ever dream up. Check it out from your public library sometime. It's a winner.

Scott and Katie did a year long trip on the North Island, then down the West Coast of the South Island to Stewart Island, then back up to Christchurch, and back up the North Island, eventually making it to Ahipara. They camped most of the way, met both wonderfully friendly, and terribly ornery people, and they seemed to have been rained on a lot. Did a lot of fly fishing and even fit in a marathon. Wow. They did the ride on a couple of mountain bikes, and the few color photos in the book are hilarious, showing a couple of scruffy tourers in their half billiard ball helmets. Still, they were both in their twenties in the 1980s (as was I) when they did this great trip. I wonder where they are now? They sound like an appealing couple. I hope they're still riding.

I'm back to planning my North and South Island trip, circa 2011. I've just booked a flight from Melbourne to Auckland for early January, and a return to Australia in early March. Fortunately, Australian immigration is OK with long distance cyclists by now I figure. I don't plan on doing much riding in Australia. I go "home" frequently, and the motorists are still the crazy galahs (my Dad's phrase) they always were. I hope the Kiwis are better. I've read mixed reviews on this, so I'm trying to think positively. I'm figuring out how to carry everything I'll need for about nine weeks' of riding on my folding bike. As far as I can tell, there is no Brompton dealer anywhere in New Zealand, so I have to bring everything I need with me. It's at the Chinese puzzle stage, let me say.