Hello and welcome to my blog, I’m so glad you’re here 😊 In this little corner of the internet I want to share my adventures with the world and hopefully inspire others to follow their dreams. I don’t really have a solid plan much less a posting schedule but I hope to upload a new article weekly from my current bikepacking adventure of cycling across New Zealand. Content will be raw, real and unfiltered as I’ll try to provide a real insight into bikepacking aka travelling by bike and what it entails. If you have any feedback or questions about my travels I would love to hear from you in the comments and feel free to like and subscribe to the blog if you enjoy the content! Apparently it helps with the visibility and all that techy stuff.
So let’s get into this weeks article about why I decided to cycle across New Zealand…
When I shared my plans about quitting my job and taking 3 months to go bikepacking across New Zealand I got some mixed feedback. Some people were super stoked and sounded envious. Then I had some blank faces and a few people asked why. Why would you quit a nice job to go see a country with more sheep than people for 3 months? And cycling? Why on earth would you do that? Have you got e-bikes? Isn’t it going to be cold? Surely you can’t do that in the middle of winter/beginning of spring??
Sometimes the best ideas start as bad ones… Here’s how and why I decided to ride from Cape Reinga to Bluff. Buckle up – it’s a long story!
The energy of the past couple of years has been what I would describe as stagnant. The old adage of feeling like you’re stuck in a rut that all of us inevitably experience from time to time. So I needed to keep moving – literally. I’ve tried to mask it with the pursuit of an insane amount of busyness and revolving new hobbies. It certainly hasn’t been missing in excitement and achievements. In 2024 alone we did 5 major yacht deliveries together covering 2000nm. I completed an Aida 2 Freediving course. I presented at several conferences and did a few professional development courses and signed up to a mentoring program. I also took up pole dancing and had my first showcase and mini solo performance. But despite all these efforts something just wasn’t quite right and I knew it deep down. I was being called to take a break, focus inwards for a little while. I also felt a little stuck in my current job and we both felt that way so we decided to throw the towel in, pack up our things and leave on a big adventure! 🗺️📍🚵♀️
Now I know that setting out on a trip like this searching for all the answers is futile. These things usually just lead to more questions than anything else. But I’m willing and curious to find out what this brings up and I’m ready to do the inner work with hopefully enough quiet time and a significantly reduced amount of external stimuli to allow for that to happen. What some might rightfully see as a form of escapism – I try to think of it more as a returning. A returning to nature, embracing the slower pace of life, reducing distractions to turn inward and return to oneself. Hopefully I can achieve some of that. But ask me in 90 days time. 😄
Why 3 months?
90 days is what the tourist visa limits me to stay in the country for. We have to cover just over 3000km and we wanted to do it at a sustainable pace. With this being my first big bikepacking trip I didn’t really know what to expect so thought it best to allow for a little extra time and rest days if needed plus inevitable bike maintenance along the way. Slow enough to allow for some non riding days and detours. Some exploration off the bike and visiting friends. 3 months is also the maximum time we had available working back from being able to prepare for it and leave on time. As we have plans to head to Europe after this where we both have family.
Why cycling?
It’s funny I’ve never really considered myself a cyclists. That all changed quite rapidly when I met my boyfriend. I bought my first road bike 2 years ago. A few months later and a steep learning curve (quite literally 😅) I was kitted out in the flashest Lycra and signed up for my first 100km ride. It was the right amount of fun and challenging and I loved the vibes of a big group ride like that and it was for charity too and we raised a combined $1500 for MS. A new saddle and many kms later I started venturing into my first triathlon before going on our first bike packing trip on the local QLD rail trail. It’s fair to say I’m a bit obsessed 🚴♀️
But bikepacking is more than just a sport. Traveling by bike is fast enough to cover some distance and see more compared to walking but slow enough that it enables you to really slow down and be in the present moment. It’s a very efficient way of travelling and you can carry all the essentials with you. You always have a mode of transport. I love the freedom it provides. And that it allows you to not only travel from a to b but truly immerse yourself in the culture and communities you visit and travel to remote places off the beaten track.
Why New Zealand?
I had completely different plans. I wanted to buy a yacht and sail around the East Coast of Australia up to Lizard Island and eventually cross the pacific to Tahiti. While I still want to do that at some point it just wasn’t the right time for us and things didn’t align with a right boat and the budget so we decided to still go on an adventure but scale it back and simplify it. Europe or the Tour Divide in the US were possible destinations but that would’ve been going into winter and also more cost for travel etc. we settled on New Zealand for ease of access from Australia, and also because I had never been before and it was a completely new country to explore. It had the perfect combination of newness and ease of access and whilst still cold to begin our trip, it was moving into spring. We could still go to Europe after our return for a winter Christmas.
As an added bonus there were no deadly creatures to negotiate, only sandflies I heard were bad.
If you’ve read this far, thank you for being here and follow along for the slow miles, snack breaks, and stories from the road!
Let me know in the comments if you have gone bike packing before or if you are keen to give it a go 🚴♀️
Snack Break Chronicles 