Tour Aotearoa 2018

In short: a 3000km brevet-style ride the length of New Zealand. Min time 10 days, max 30. Enforced 6h sleep in every 24. It's pretty much self-supported and across a full range of terrain (road, gravel, singletrack, hikeabike), weather conditions and with a few ferry/jetboat/canoe sections thrown in for good measure...

Info/dates etc. - http://www.touraotearoa.nz/

Route outline:

At some point last year I sent an expression of interesting for this, last night I finally got round to making the charity donation and carbon offset to confirm my place and start date (26th Feb). There's a few minor issues I need to address: no bike, no bike gear, need to do bike practice, need to extend visa, lots of tramping and touring in the van to do around this. The whole things needs to be done on a shoestring budget too.

Got a few ideas/plans/vague ambitions, let's see how they unfold over the next 10 months...

Looks like a nice trip.

Looking forward to hearing about this. I saw a few coming through wanaka/qtown last time, they looked tired, hirsute but still smiling. I'd love to do it at some point in a few years.

Looks like a stunning route.
If you have an objective to work towards, things can fall into place.
6hrs enforced sleep is tough on insomniacs, though!

looks so cool. would love to do it but probably too much cost just to get to the start line for me.

I like the charity and carbon donations very much.

3hrs of eating, 3hrs of sleep :)

Poo, saw this thread, got interested, apparently 2018 is full,,,

I think there's around 600 riders interested. Probably worth emailing them anyway, I guess there might be a reserve list or something.

Positive news, I rode a bike for the first time in months yesterday. It wasn't far, it wasn't fast but it was a lot of fun and did pretty much confirm that I should suck it up and get a single speed.

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3 months later...

It looks like I might be getting a bike this weekend! It's not quite what I was after but it's cheap and doesn't have gears so I'll make it work somehow :)

We're holed up in the suburbs of Wellington for the winter and I'm a stones throw away from a whole bunch of mountain bike trails and the commute home, while relatively short, is a pretty stiff slog uphill all the way. Plenty of options to extend, increase the elevation and throw plenty of singletrack in there too.

Popped down to a Q&A evening with the organisers a few weeks ago. Interesting to hear others questions/concerns. Mostly seemed to focus on logistics and bike set up (aero bars, weight, tyres etc.). I was hoping to hear a bit more about the ride and peoples experiences but the vets were pretty much overwhelmed by kit questions.

Did pick up one tip worth investigating - stuffing a kg jar of peanut butter in a frame bag and buying stuff to dunk in along the way. Plant-based options along the way are likely to be a bit limited so it seems like a good way to avoid relying on clif bars the entire time which are crazy pricey here.

Anyway. That's where I am with a little over 7 months to go...

I haz bike!

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Where's that? Red Rocks or round the back of Eastbourne?

Sweet! Going with the rigid fork? Where are you based? Oh duh welly.

Pencarrow Head(ish)

Yep, just need to switch the crown race tomorrow.
Welly for the winter then taking the van over to the south island in the spring.

I lived in Wellington for twenty odd years. The old Rimutaka train line which then goes around Pencarrow is amazing. I lived in Owhiro Bay so used to ride around red rocks a lot. Also if you cycle from central Welly up the either the Bearings Gorge or up through Ngaio to Johnsonville then out to Ohario Valley through to Makara then up into the back of Karori then into the city is a good hilly ride as well.

Actually any ride in Wellington is hilly unless you ride around the waterfront.

Also the Southerly is horrible in Wellington I don't miss it at all!

Try and get through Auckland outside working hours, and you will want to ride with a bloody baseball bat to keep the aucky drivers away. Lived there 7 years and hated every road ride. Rest of NZ is great, esp. Rotorua . Enjoy

I think they've routed a lot of the Auckland stuff to avoid traffic, sticking to dedicated cycle lanes where possible. I've got a rough plan for how long I want to ride but I'm yet to figure out where that'll put me at the end of each day and such.

A lot of riders were asking about traffic in the south island while some roads are still closed post-earthquake, it sounds like the traffic in a couple of places there has the potential to be really bad, but hopefully the main highway will re-open in time for Feb/March and it'll quiet down again...

Fitted the rigid fork, recieved some free bb7s in the post (woo!) just need to get adapters for them and some cables.

As the frame/fork are different shades of gold I'm considering these to top it off...

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I've got one if those Lezyne pumps and have screwed a fair few valve cores out. Avoid unless dead set.

Yeah, I've had that too but generally been pretty pleased with them otherwise. Did you end up with something else?

I've got the above which I commute with and Topeak Mini Morph for any longer stuff where getting tyres back to a decent pressure counts.

Likewise I've switched to a cheap press-fit pump since going tubeless. Pity, as I prefer the Lezyne otherwise. Maybe they will rework the nozzle to avoid the valve-core thing somehow eventually.

Subbed, looks amazing!