Author: snackbreakchronicles

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 🚴‍♀️

📆 Monday-Wednesday 

↔️ 136km

⛺️Rawara beach, Plantation forest, someone’s garden in Ahipara

It was a chaotic whirlwind of a start to the trip. Caught an early bus out of Auckland on 25 August to head to Kaitaia via Kerikeri which took all day. In the haste to get the bikes off the bus we left Dan’s puffer jacket behind which meant staying in Kaitaia for the night in the hope of getting it back on the morning bus due to arrive at 10am the next morning.

We didn’t want to immediately blow our budget on accommodation so we wandered around the town scoping out potential free camping spots for the night. It started raining which with the annoyance of the jacket getting lost didn’t help the vibes. 

The mood was low, we were both annoyed, and it was rather cold and wet, making the prospects of wild camping somewhere in this rather uninviting town not very appealing. We were also getting ‘hangry’ as it was after 2pm and we still hadn’t had a lunch. We decided we needed some food before making any further decisions so we pushed our bikes along on the main strip in search for a takeaway that would still be open for lunch. Weighing up between Subway and Pizza Hut, a staff member inside Pizza Hut waived vigorously at us and came outside and asked if we were travelling. Slightly puzzled, we answered yes, after which he proceeded to give us an entire gigantic pizza order that someone hadn’t picked up! That dramatically and instantly improved the mood as we walked our new prized possession over to a park bench by a children’s playground and ate as much as we possibly could which was still only half (the order consisted of three pizzas and fries)! 

With our bellies full we proceeded to deciding where we were going to sleep that night. We thought we found an okay spot by the river on the outskirts of the town just as a pair of dogs came barking and running towards us when we realised the area of grass that we thought we could pitch the tarp appeared to lead to someone’s driveway. In the end with the weather not improving we caved and decided to look for accommodation online. At the same time we were still debating on whether to take an expensive shuttle to the cape or start the trip in Ahipara at the bottom of 90 mile beach. 

After some quick research online using our data on the eSIM and posting on the TA Facebook page we found a lady offering a self contained room for $90 and a shuttle to the cape the next morning for $220. They would wait for us to see if we could get the puffer jacket back too. After a long day of travelling and the intermittent showers we decided that was the best thing to do and we were so glad we did when we got to the place. 

On the way there we went to PAK’nSAVE to stock up for the next few days riding back from the Cape and picked up a salad and some fruit for a very light dinner after the hearty meal from earlier. It was warm and we had a tv and wifi and could finally plan the next few days of riding and saved some routes into our Wahoo bike computer. Went to bed way too late but had a much needed rest and good sleep. 

Filled with that unique mixture of excitement and a bit of unknown anxiety we couldn’t wait to get to the Cape and start our adventure!! 🚴‍♀️🚴‍♀️🚵‍♀️

The next morning we said goodbye to our lovely host Sarah and went straight to the bus stop where Dan got his jacket back (it was exactly where we left it on the bus in the luggage compartment above the seats) while I went to the post office to send some things back home. We met our driver and after disassembling the bikes managed to fit them into the car was a bit of a game of Tetris. The drive was scenic and the 1.5h flew by as we conversed with our lovely driver, a young local. 

Arriving at the cape it was windy as expected but a lovely sunny day and reasonably warm in the sun. The cape was stunning and more impressive than expected with gorgeous wild forested hills and cliffs and the star white lighthouse perched at the bottom a great contrast to the radiant blue of the ocean. Where Tasman meets the Pacific Ocean, a special sacred place in Māori culture, who believe our ancestors return to the sea after death here. It certainly had a majestic feeling about it. After taking photos with the lighthouse and signposts we had a quick late lunch and officially started riding. We had a reasonably big first day considering we didn’t get going before 2pm! We had to make it to Rawene beach campsite which was 61km away. 

The riding was challenging with reasonably strong winds and windy, hilly roads. We had to press on and couldn’t stop for a look at the sand dunes. The bikes were quite heavy with food for 3 days as we didn’t expect to find many shops on the way. We stopped for a few snack breaks but made steady progress and pushed on to try and get to camp before dark. As we got further away from the cape the landscape changed from rugged, forested hills to more green undulating hills and farmland and we saw the first sheep and cow farms that later would become so familiar and emblematic of the north island. There was a rough section with lots of barking dogs, a lot of which came out running at us on the street as we rode past and weren’t contained. One of which attacked me and jumped up on my raincoat which was really terrifying but luckily it didn’t bite me!

My bum and legs were starting to get sore and I was tired and needed lots of snacks to keep me going and when we finally saw the sign on the side of the road to turn off to the campsite with 4km we were very relieved. The last 4km were relatively easy gravel road which was made sweeter by the sunset. We finally got to camp and immediately set up the tarp and cooked dinner in the dark. We were all done when it started raining. It was quite windy and cold so we went to bed early, tired from the first day of riding and hoping the tarp would hold up fine in the wind and rain. It was a very disturbed sleep, not surprisingly, it being the first night in the tarp and a rather windy one we woke up many times. Waking to light showers the next day we prepared breakfast (our go to breakfast is oats and instant coffee) under the tarp. Went for a stroll to the beach along the river which was very windswept. We were both a bit tired as we didn’t sleep amazingly the first night in the tarp. Pack up took us a while being the first time for everything and we still have to get used to a system. 

Once we got going there was constant, very strong headwinds and crosswinds which made it near impossible to ride. We also got lots of rain so ran jackets stayed on all day. Stopped for lunch in Pukenui where we found shelter inside a bus stop and treated ourselves to chicken and chips at the four square which the Māori girl driving us to the cape recommended. It did not disappoint and we devoured it.

We were glad when the road finally turned in away from the state highway 1 and into slightly more sheltered forest/logging roads. Smooth gravel and the occasional logging truck is all we saw as well as avocado plantations. Didn’t take long before the road came to a section that was private and had signs not to go there. We detoured to the beach and ended up doing a short section on 90 mile beach, lucky that the tide time was right. It was crazy windy and felt like we were in a sandstorm so it was slow going. We eventually found a way to cut back into the forest roads. Progress had been slow and this detour didn’t help, we decided it was too far to go all the way to Ahipara and set up camp in the daylight in the plantation forest a bit away from the road. Offered some wind shelter and slightly warmer as well as padded sleeping. We had to ration drinking water as had to make it last for cooking, drinking and cleaning. We had an early night and a pretty good sleep. 

Day 3 saw us finish the far north section of the tour and get into slightly more civilisation. Came across a lovely art gallery and Kaui exhibition in Awanui with a very nice looking cafe so called in for a coffee and snack and filled up our water bottles as well as had a cat wash in the bathrooms. Feeling a bit better and rested we admired an incredible Kaui carved staircase carved out of a 45,000 year old Swamp Kaui!

Refreshed we continued our way to Ahipara through beautiful farmland, rolling green hills, lots of cows and the last bit was my favourite, elevated with sweeping views to the coast on the right and mountains on the left. There was a remote rural town kinda vibe about this place with a nice bay at the foot of a pretty impressive mountain. It was pretty cool and wet and there was not much of a town, one cafe which was shut, one servo and a small general store. We stocked up on some dinner supplies and found a camping spot online in someone’s garden. We rang them up and they said they aren’t really open yet (normally open mid September) but they made an exception for us. As we were the only guests and the grass was quite wet, we camped in the little camping kitchen area. Had a lions red and dinner and off to bed. The next day we packed up, had a dip in the cold ocean and a nutritious breakfast and went out on our way south to Broadwood…

We did it! We quit our jobs, sold all our belongings and put the rest in storage, moved out of our house and tomorrow we fly to New Zealand for an epic adventure!

The bikes are nearly packed, paperwork complete, visas applied for and other last minute health checks and unforeseen events all but taken care of. We are absolutely exhausted! It was a hell of a month in the lead up to this and frankly I can’t wait until we get on that plane and can relax! The excitement is starting to kick in and the heaviness and stress from the past few months is starting to melt away slowly…Many sleepless nights wondering if we will make it. Headaches. Tears. Emotional rollercoasters. Arguments. Colds. It will all be worth it soon. But let’s rewind.

Tomorrow we (we are Daniel and Laura) are headed to New Zealand (Auckland to be specific) from Gold Coast, QLD, on a trip of a life time. We plan to cycle across the country on the Tour Aotearoa (North Island) and Sound2Sound (South Island) on our bikes, a total of ~3,090km, in 90 days. To finance the trip, we saved up some money, rented out the house, put our things in storage and quit our jobs one week before departure! Some friends and family think we are crazy while the majority have been supportive and excited with a hint of envy. I would be envious, too!

This blog was born to document the journey, keep friends and family in the loop, and hopefully inspire others to follow their dreams and set out on adventures of their own.

Welcome to WordPress! This is your first post. Edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey.