That concludes my first bikepacking trip. New Zealand is an absolutely stunning country from north to south and I highly recommend visiting. I started in Auckland and rode 1,364 miles down to Queenstown. I relied on my paper maps to get me to each checkpoint along the way and only went full second LT twice; which ironically added up to 64 unnecessary miles. Of course once I got to Queenstown (the adventure capital of the world and mountain bike capital of the Southern hemisphere) I rented a mountain bike and got to ride some of the best trails in the world. Queenstown was a great place to end the ride, especially as my back wheel was hula dancing at that point.
Throughout the ride, I met many fellow cyclists from all over the world and learned about many different cultures. I also learned that if you’re going to live in a tent for three weeks, you may want to invest more than $31 on it. The same goes for a sleeping bag. There’s a good chance that $19 blanket from Amazon is NOT going to keep you warm on cold nights. Aside from waking up to what I thought was an earthquake but was really just me shivering, and a two day battle with food poisoning, it was a fantastic trip and I will be doing much more bikepacking in the the future.
Lastly, I learned the best cure for food poisoning is riding your bike 88 miles one day and 91 miles the next while drinking liters of Powerade while keeping your roll of stolen toilet paper easily accessible.
Just a few memorable quotes from the trip:
“I heard you’re from Hawaii. I’m really sorry about the fire, I heard it was like another Pearl Harbor.”
And
“Oh, you’re from Maryland?! I’m from the part of Canada that touches Maryland.”
“No part of Canada touches Maryland, that’s Maine or Massachusetts you’re thinking of.”
“No, it’s definitely Maryland. Well, you know, the Maryland region.”
“Gotcha.”
And finally:
“What do you do in Hawaii?”
“I’m a librarian.”
“No you’re not. You have US Army US Marine written all over you.”
“It’s a cat….”
by 29r_whipper