For the love of cycling…

Full title: Why the h*ll are we doing this? For the love of cycling…

Based on a true story. This is a work of non-fiction. All the people in it are real and are identified by their real names.


Auckland, the 12th of April 2008, 10:28 in a local bus:

Vera: Hey look! There’s the weather forecast for the coming week!

Today: Sunny with chance of rain. 23-13 degrees Celsius.

Sunday: Heavy rainshowers. 22-13 degrees Celsius.

Monday: Rain the whole day. 20-13 degrees Celsius.

Tuesday: Heavy rains. 19-13 degrees Celsius.

Wednesday: Intermittent heavy rain showers. 19-13 degrees Celsius.

 

Auckland, the 12th of April 2008, 13:15 at a bicycle rental store:

Vendor: The South Island? You must be crazy to go there now. It’s really cold and a lot of rain at the moment. At higher altitudes it even has been snowing!

 

Auckland, the 12th of April 2008, 16:25 at a coffeeshop:

Jean-Christophe (JC): But which sleeping bag did I pack?

Vera: The one that only has a comfort temperature until 10 degrees Celsius…

JC: Ah…

 

Auckland, the 12th of April 2008, 20:08 at a local restaurant:

JC: Ah, do you remember Norway? How much it rained? It was incredible! All our stuff wet.

Vera: Oh yeah, and it was so cold with the wind… Especially once we were wet. Brrr… I still remember now getting into my sleeping bag that was still wet from the night before. Horrible!

JC: Pfff… and how tired I was this one day when we had to go uphill only the whole day…

Vera: Ah you mean the time when we had to go up 1400 meters and didn’t see anything on the top because it was full of clouds and raining?

JC: No, it was effectively raining, but I remember this really long hill that never got to an end as it would go up- and downhill all the time…

Vera: Yes I remember. Horrible! But it wasn’t the time we had snow no?

JC: Ok, can anybody remember me why we want to do New-Zealand by bike???

:-)

Vera & Jean-Christophe

5 Comments

  1. Joao Ventura
    Posted April 17, 2008 at 10:06 | Permalink

    Snow!!! Powder!

    You can always forget the bike and go skiing :)

  2. Markus
    Posted April 18, 2008 at 0:06 | Permalink

    I can remember that you told this story from norway… :-)
    So have a nice time when you go cycling in the snow! So ask for the spikes or this bike

    http://www.gizmodo.de/2007/11/04/winterreifen_fur_fahrrader.html

    ;-)

  3. Posted April 18, 2008 at 23:28 | Permalink

    Hello Vera and JC,

    so you have the same feeling in New Zealand like me in Germany. The difference is that I’m moving in my car;-)

  4. Vera
    Posted April 19, 2008 at 0:34 | Permalink

    @Joao: Excellent idea indeed! We might consider that one! :-)

    @Markus: Cool idea! Well if the skiing doesn’t work out, then we could always consider this option.

    @Juergen: Pfff… Yeah, yesterday we were talking to a guy here at the guesthouse who told us “but the hills aren’t too high or too heavy” but it just really isn’t the same thing when you are sitting in a car… And for the rain it’s the same. I just hope the rain will be ok, because that’s the worst. Cold is fine, you can get dressed against that, but rain and humidity definitely suck…

    Vera

  5. Posted April 21, 2008 at 19:37 | Permalink

    Hallo Vera en JC,
    Tja. nu weet ik het weer, eind maart/april begint de nieuw zeelandse winter. Vandaar ook dat wij toen in december en januari in New Zealand waren (mid summer, hot and nice weather, BBQ in the evening outside the border near Lake Taupo and Lake Matheson). Uiteraard zagen we ook Mount Nara…moeilijke naam waarover men vertelde dat je daar in april/mei kunt skien.
    Het Zuidereiland zal dan nog wel een graadje natter en misschien ook kouder zijn. Bij Queenstown in het zuiden is een prachtig skigebied…..is er wel iets te fietsen? Jammer van het natte weer want de natuur is prachtig (vooral op het zuidereiland en met mooi en …….weer.
    Groeten
    Giel