Don't throw away that old microwave!

Well that was an epic day!  A 120 km introduction to New Zealand's hills - they go up, they go down, so we did too, into a steady headwind that never really left us.  Except for a 5 km stretch to get us onto 90 Mile Beach - gorgeous! for a sweet 15 km ride over the hard-packed (thank goodness) sand.  Beautiful finish to a challenging day.  And all that riding happened after a 3 hour bus ride to the north end of New Zealand, to Cape Reinga, unloading the bikes, fussing about with our new jerseys and taking the  "before" photo.  Tomorrow I think we'll try for starting a tad earlier!

So about those microwaves...you can use your old one as a mailbox!  We saw a couple of those today along with little house-shaped ones with corrugated steel roofs just like the big houses, and of course the kind that must come from whatever the New Zealand equivalent of Canadian Tire is.

....but now it is past time for bed....tomorrow is another ride!

Another day in paradise....

It really is ridiculously beautiful here, and "here" for today is Paihia, in the Bay of Islands.  We rolled in about noon on our air-conditioned bus, after leaving Auckland this morning.  Our pickup point was  in a park across the street from our Auckland hotel; this made it easy to cross the street with the boxed bikes and the duffle bags, as the rush hour traffic was pretty much at a standstill.  I should clarify - it was easy for Wayne to do all that.  But I did wash up the breakfast dishes in our tiny hotel room kitchen so I wasn't just sitting around sipping coffee.  Oh, coffee!  We have learned to speak Kiwi when ordering coffee - I have a long black and Wayne has a flat white.  No snickering now! They do make excellent coffee here, along with delicious wine and Wayne hasn't complained about the beer at all - and of course the fish and seafood! And the lamb!  It seems they have good food and drink figured out.

But back to the Bay of Islands.  After last night's reunion dinner, we have widened the circle of friends to include the other cyclists in the group, some other TDA 2011 participants, friends of the organizers, and friends of friends! All in all making an interesting group, and we got to know some a bit better over lunch in a cafe overlooking the lovely blue water.  It was a busy afternoon, going to the beach and in for swim.  That's it - but we have busy days ahead so I guess this is the tapering part.
I should go and see how Wayne is doing with getting our bikes put together, but it sure is nice just sitting on this deck with a cool breeze blowing!  Tomorrow we get to be tourists, then we start early Sunday morning with a 2 hour drive up to Cape Reinga and then we begin the ride with a long stretch down 90 Mile Beach.

Beautiful Place!

We are here!  It didn't take long for us to figure out why everyone who visits here loves it - this is a wonderful land!  We went to Waiheke Island today; its other name is Island of Wine -perhaps not an exact translation from Maori,but it definitely fits, there are vineyards everywhere!  Our bikes have to stay boxed up for transport to the north end of the island so we rented bikes and away we went to try out the New Zealand hills and practice riding on the left.  Our rental bikes came with handy "stay left" stickers on the handlebars
  It was a good day with gorgeous views, a vineyard lunch and a stop on a beautiful nearly deserted beach, we plan to return to when we have our rest day here next week!  Walking back to our hotel we passed a yacht named "Selina Louise"!  Too bad it was misspelled!

Here we go again!

Time has passed, the wheels of our bicycles have continued to turn but we have stayed closer to home since returning from Africa...until now!  In a few days we are travelling to New Zealand to ride with some fine Kiwi friends who have organized a cycling tour of their enticing country, beginning at the north end of the North Island and finishing at the south end of the South Island.  We have already noted many differences - we don't need vaccinations or visas, we don't have to bring along spare bike parts since they are readily available along the way and we don't have to bring camping gear or stuff every spare nook and cranny of our bags with rolls of toilet paper!

Slideshow Details

I thought I had the invitation attached but it is trickier than I thought….maybe I can't blame all my technology challenges on Africa and should just admit to user error!

Here's what is happening:

Wednesday, June 26, 7:00 - 8:30

at RIDLEYS CYCLE OKOTOKS
14 Crystalridge Drive

please RSVP to okotoksinfo@ridleys.com by June

Come and See Our Photos!

See below for details on our slideshow/talk Wednesday, June 26 at the brand new Ridleys store in Okotoks!

Cairo to Cape Town and Back Home Again

After a couple of weeks back in Okotoks, it seems time for some final reflections on our adventure in Africa.  To start off, a few numbers:

-over 11,000 kilometres cycled

-89 cycling days

-28 rest days (we needed every one of them!)

-4 transit days (bus, ferry)

-77 nights of camping

-43 non-camping nights in accommodation ranging from icky hotel rooms to a luxury safari tent

It is wonderful to be back home with family and friends nearby but I feel kind of...restless, so it must be time to plan another trip!  Deciding to sign up for the TDA gave me the challenge of a lifetime and I was glad to find myself able to persevere through the 121 days and enjoy 99.9% of my time in Africa.  I guess life is like that; not every moment is wonderful but the bad ones make the good ones that much more appreciated.  Travelling by bike through the 10 countries gave me a new understanding of the realities of life for many people less lucky than I.  We live lives of privilege here due to little more than the good luck of being born in Canada. Despite their sometimes precarious circumstances, the people we met were generally kind, courteous and interested in us.  Some time and distance has even mellowed my perception of the children of Ethiopia, but I may not go back there anytime soon.  I hope to return to Africa one day, to spend more time in the places that truly enthralled us and and to delve a little deeper into understanding the infuriating complexity of a vibrant, noisy, dusty and very real continent.

We have been asked to participate in the grand opening celebrations of Ridley's Cycle in Okotoks with a few photos and stories of the Tour d'Afrique - I will post the details here when I have them.