One month on the road – Thoughts, Stories and Learnings

Friends of Restrap, Alan Danby and Britt Walker are a few weeks into their epic journey from New Zealand back home to the UK. In this blog they check in with us to share their stunning photography and stories from the trail so far. (If you'd like to know more about their set ups, you can read their first blog post here).

The warm up

We're one month into our trip through the first country on our tour – New Zealand. It's been quite the ride already; we've ridden some great trails, seen some beautiful sights, met so many amazing people and had plenty of time to test our kit for the long road ahead. Wile this has been an adventure in its own right, this has just been the warm up.

We’ve been fortunate enough to take personal tours of riders' favourite trails and experience the warmth of being welcomed into people’s homes. One memorable encounter led us to stay with a kind woman in her forest cabin. We settled in, listened to her stories, and went to bed feeling content after a hearty meal of home-kill steak, eggs, and mashed potatoes. Britt even broke a decade of vegetarianism to enjoy the steak, followed by a couple of juicy sausages the next morning.

Where we've been so far

Our initial plan for New Zealand was to follow the Tour of Aotearoa route south, with a couple of detours along the way to surf, see some sights and to ride the best trails. We've found that, so far, every day brings new ideas and fresh recommendations from locals. As a result, we've become more relaxed and open to the route developing over time, rather than being too rigid with planning the coming days or weeks.

We started our ride at the northernmost point of New Zealand, Cape Reinga, where we headed south along the infamous 90 mile beach accompanied by a few fellow bikepackers, who we enjoyed our first sunrise with. With heavy head winds and rain we decided to take our first detour from the Tour of Aotearoa route and headed into Aupõuri forest to discover some all time gravel trails and to shelter from the elements. Our bikes and legs were very grateful.

We continued along the TA route back to Auckland, through thick rainforest, over punchy gravel climbs and along the ever changing coastline. We said goodbye to the friends we had met along the way and headed off on our next detour to the Coromandel Peninsula, to enjoy the white sandy beaches and search for our first waves. Highlights from this section included the gravel ride to Port Jackson from Coromandel town and our first waves which we enjoyed at Hot Water beach, followed up with a dip in the hot springs to warm our toes up.

After our beach break we started to head south west in search of some of the more well known trails on the North Island, the Waikato River and Timber trails. Much of our ride had been along the road, logging tracks or gravel roads, so we were excited to jump onto to some single track and explore some more.

The Timber Trail exceeded all our expectations. Spanning 84 kilometres of flowing singletrack, it winds through ancient rainforests, historic timber tramlines, and across some of the longest suspension bridges in the country. This section quickly became our favourite part of the ride, so much so that we started to forget we were riding fully loaded bikes; they rode so smoothly along trails.

After the Timber trail we decided to take our next detour to Taranaki National Park to hike and check the surfing highway from New Plymouth. We chose to ride along the mysterious and scenic Forgotten World Highway, connecting ancient Māori trading posts and old railway settlements that have long been forgotten. The riding itself flows through untouched native bush, multiple tunnels and the unique town of Whangamomona, that declared itself a republic in 1989. After three days riding we arrived in Taranki and stayed with our first warmshowers hosts, Rhys and Dinky, who inspired us with their stories and looked after us for a few days as we rested and hiked around the national park.

For anyone out there looking to start a tour, we would highly recommend using the warmshowers app. The bike community really feels like a family, and it’s a great way to meet generous like minded people, who are more than willing to share their knowledge and help fellow bikepackers.

Our last few days riding on the North Island were spent cruising along the Surfing Highway from New Plymouth to Whangnui, checking as many surf spots as we could fit in and enjoying some great camping right behind the beach.

After taking on the Restrap Solstice Century on the penultimate day, we put ourselves only 40km from our last nights accommodation. However, in classic New Zealand style, the weather turned and we rode straight into a juicy headwind for our final day. We laughed about it post ride, and after a big feed we got ready to set sail for the South Island the coming day.

Learnings 

Yes, we overpacked, just a tad. We're both used to short weekenders or week long bikepacking adventures, so when we first came to put out kit list together for a year long trip, we were a bit overwhelmed. After day one, or even the first hour, we realised we had brought a few too many luxuries. So we got rid of the aeropress (there's plenty of delicious coffee in NZ), the extra cosy fleece and multiple items we decided we really didn’t need. 

Our Restrap bags were more than up to the job of carrying our heavy loads; it might have just been our bodies that would have been broken. Now we have minimised things, we’re yet to find a trail or surface we haven’t enjoyed. The bikes have taken to all terrains with ease, they coast along the roads and when you jump on to the trails they really come into their own. The bags have allowed us to have a really simple and smooth life on the bike. We’ve been able to organise all of our gear across the bike to make day to day tasks easy, allowing for quick morning pack ups and swift evening camp set up. We’ve been through all the elements, sometimes daily, with the bags proving themselves to be durable and protective of our kit when we need it the most.

Overall, we are chuffed with how the steeds and Restrap bags are making our journey easy and hassle-free. We can’t wait to start riding through the South Island and further afield very soon.

Realisation

Some days it's hard to get up, you're tired, it's cold and it's wet outside. But the morning bird songs and the warm touch of sunlight on your skin, remind you it's going to be a great day and you should go and ride your bike.

Our next chapter

We've now wrapped up our time on the North Island and will be heading down through the South Island over the next couple of months. We'll be looking to follow parts of the Tour Aotearoa route linked with a bunch of extra trails, sights, huts and surf spots we want to see along the road. We'll be hoping to really test the kit, bike and ourselves on some more challenging trails like the Old Ghost Road, Queen Charlotte's Track and a bunch of trails around Queenstown.

You can follow our adventures on our social channels @britt.walkerrr/@alan.danby or through the eyes of Restrap.

All photos: Alan Danby/Britt Walker