Cycling the South Island of New Zealand
In the winter of 2002 (late January to early March), I took a trip to New Zealand to see if I could accomplish a long solo bicycle tour. I had a set of increasing goals to cycle part, if not the entire, length of the South Island of New Zealand.
Being that this was my first, ever, bicycle trip and that I was in merely average, if not below average, shape for a 54 year old, I decided to travel along the east coast of the island. This was presumably warmer, drier and flatter than the west coast. Looking at the climatology of the east coast, I decided to go from north to south since the prevailing winds in February were northerlies (I was to be surprised).
The following pages are a day by day journal of the trip. I managed to cycle the entire length of the South Island from Picton to Bluff, primarily along the main road, State Highway 1.
The original journal was done as a weblog generated using Radio UserLand. The original weblog can be found here.
Table of Contents
Daily Journals
- January 21, 2002 - I'm Off Tomorrow
- January 22, 2002 - On My Way
- January 24, 2002 - Arrived In New Zealand
- January 25, 2002 - A Day In Auckland
- January 26, 2002 - A Second Day In Auckland
- January 27, 2002 - An Unexpected Visit
- January 28, 2002 - Auckland Day
- January 29, 2002 - An Island Tour
- January 30, 2002 - An Inauspicious Start
- January 31, 2002 - First Stop, Picton
- February 1, 2002 - Onward to Blenheim
- February 2, 2002 - The First Ride to Windward
- February 3, 2002 - A Short Ride and a Lazy Day
- February 4, 2002 - The Kaikoura Coast
- February 5, 2002 - Rain & Wind in Kaikoura
- February 6, 2002 - Riding into a Gale of Wind
- February 7, 2002 - Lots of Hills (and wind and a little rain)
- February 8, 2002 - It Seems To Be Winter
- February 9, 2002 - Finally, A Fine Day (But Tiring)
- February 10, 2002 - Another Slow Sunday
- February 11, 2002 - Hot And Sunny, Finally
- February 12, 2002 - Summer Went Missing (again)
- February 13, 2002 - Summer is Still Missing
- February 14, 2002 - 200 Kilometers to Dunedin
- February 15, 2002 - Cold and Cloudy is Getting to Me
- February 16, 2002- A Day Off
- February 17, 2002- A Sunny Sunday
- February 18, 2002- Only One Sunny Day At A Time, A Gray Monday
- February 19, 2002- A Killer Hill
- February 20, 2002- Notes From The Asylum.... Lodge, That Is
- February 21, 2002- Another Milestone Reached...I finally made it to Dunedin
- February 22, 2002- Dunedin, Day Two
- February 23, 2002 - Into The Southland
- February 24, 2002 - A Lazy Sunday in Milton
- February 25, 2002 - A Monday Meteorological Mistake
- February 26, 2002 - Onward to Invercargill - Unintentionally
- February 27, 2002 - On To The End Of The Road--and then some
- February 28, 2002 - More Stewart Island
- March 1, 2002 - Still More Stewart Island
- March 2, 2002 - Still More Stewart Island
- March 3, 2002 - Leaving Stewart Island
- March 4, 2002 - Returning To Auckland
Further Reflections
- Reflections on Lodging
- Reflections on Equipment
- An Ideal Cycle Tour
List of Photos
I took a fair number of digital photos as I traveled along. Most will appear in the daily journals. A complete list of links to those that are published can be found here.
Updated: 13 May 2002