As regular readers will have noticed, my cycling volume dropped away considerably over the last few years.  There were multiple factors, including work pressures, my "new road" addiction (and the lessened interest in roads well worn), and that my now 50-year-old body was increasingly not coping with the stresses and strains of sitting on a road bike for hours on end.   Strictly speaking, I was a cycle commuter long before I ever put knobbly tyres on, and started the slow and sometimes painful process of mountain-biking.  My first three rides were to Red Rocks and then two l ..read more

Not twelve months ago, in summing up a curve-ball laden road cycle tour of Tasmania, I described it as "a spot that is begging for a rerun, perhaps with a mountain bike and campervan."  Not one to let a good conclusion go untested, once it became time to sort a summer holiday, I began digging into the idea. Having committed to riding mountain bikes, the travelling party soon followed.  While Kaitlyn hasn't touched her bike since starting university some 5 long years ago, Khulan averages a few rides on hers a week, and by now has probably spent more time mountain biking in her life th ..read more

I returned from our recent trip to Taiwan feeling like I needed a break, and hoping like hell that a work trip to Malaysia would prove the necessary antidote!   A decade-long institutional relationship with a private college in Melaka had taken me annually to the region, but this would be my first trip back since the pandemic.  I'd taken a bike with me only once before, and had a wonderful time, simply following my wheel.  I hoped to have a similar experience, and to make space for it, extended the trip by five nights over the much shorter stay of my boss.   Prep ..read more

Way back in February, Sarah and I booked an October trip to Taiwan, as a fitting way for me to celebrate my 50th birthday.  We had been there once before, though in the sweltering summer months, and despite the heat, had been really impressed with what the island nation had to offer.  We thought the occasion warranted company, and were delighted when Brendan and his partner Viv accepted our invitation.   Little did we know how much needed - and well timed - the trip would be.  This has been an incredibly challenging year at work, and our somewhat regular breaks have pr ..read more

One of the nice things about this time of year is that Facebook reminds me of a period that was a turning point in my adult life.  10 years and a couple of days ago, I was riding into Paris at the end of Le Cycle Tour de France, and a few days after that, I was introducing Sarah to my parents (and vice versa), at Wellington airport.  "French, Kissing and the USA", posted in January 2014, was the first of many posts on this blog documenting our family cycling activities.   It took us a long while to organise my first trip to Mongolia, but timing of the 10th Mongolia Bik ..read more

While I do enjoy the fleeting glimpses Facebook's algorithm gives me into the lives of my friends (past/present, actual/figurative), the social media platform I'm most active on is Strava, both in terms of sharing an important dimension of my own life, as well as keeping an eye on what folk are up to.   Case in point, way back in June 2019, local rider (and lovely guy) Mark Hussey had a work trip to Seoul, and shared a few rides he'd done on what appeared to be top-shelf cycling infrastructure.  Jump forward a few years, and the top line detail remained - South Korea was high on ..read more

With the exception of the very first cycle tour I ever did - from Wanaka to Hokitika in my early 20s - I've favoured the "credit card" tour approach, namely travelling without camping gear.  The benefits as I seem them are compelling, but not all equally obvious. Cycling is nicer when you're not hauling too much luggage, and once you commit to camping, your gear list tends to explode (or your comfort levels suffer, or both).  Not only shelter, but a sleeping bag, mat, and probably cooking gear as well.  The list goes on... Not only is the riding nicer without luggage, but it is ..read more

After a veritable orgy of international travel in 2019, the limitations imposed by the pandemic have really starting to wear thin on Sarah and I.  As the end of daylight savings approached in March, we started to see signs that restrictions were beginning to ease.  Other than noises the government was making about fully opening our border, Air New Zealand scheduling seemed like as good a signal as any - they had so much financial stake in things, I assumed their decision making would surely reflect the best forecasting money could buy.   On 28 March we felt we'd waited long ..read more

If the pandemic has had any silver linings for me, one has undoubtedly been ticking off a handful of domestic travel omissions, Chatham Island and Milford Sound being two of the more exotic destinations.   The 2021 Delta phase nipped a planned spring getaway to the Coromandel Peninsula in the bud, but it remained on my radar - aside from a single night in Whangamata in my early 20s, and slipping along one extreme between the Bay of Islands and Wellington in late 2020 (which could be described as scraping the bottom of the Coromandel barrel), I'd never been.   My drivin ..read more

After a long hard year, a cycle tour with Sarah over our Christmas break was much anticipated, and very much needed.   Planning had begun not long after we'd got home from our previous tour - that one from the Bay of Islands back to Wellington.  Broadly speaking, we'd take new roads between Kerikeri and Paeroa, before heading through the Karangahake Gorge and onwards through Waikaremoana.  Forays during the year up through Hawke's Bay and as far as Gisborne always had me studying maps a little more closely to scope out a route home. As with so many elements of our lives, th ..read more