cycling new zealand

cycling new zealand’s south island

1,500km from picton to bluff over two weeks

After first experiencing New Zealand’s South Island during a life-altering thru-hike in 2015, I returned with a same-but-different journey in mind. This time astride her Kona Sutra LTD, I reconnected with the familiar terrain through a new medium all while stitching together classic stretches of mixed-surface bike touring routes to cover the 1500km from Picton to Bluff.

This was my route:

vuja de: bikepacking new zealand

Read the entire story here on The Radavist

There are certain events that become an invisible division of life before and after the milestone. Mine was thru-hiking the length of New Zealand. The elusive mystery of these islands in the middle of the Pacific beckoned me from my comfortable existence in the US, and I obeyed the calls within. I ditched my day job and cleared room for a life unexpected. In 2015, the dream of thru-hiking from top to bottom of NZ became a reality, joined by a ragtag tribe of extraordinary humans and a documentary film thrown in the mix. Slowly, I walked myself to a simple existence of self-sufficiency. My life was forever changed.

Now, seven years after that maiden voyage, I return to this country with a deep appreciation. For one, it’s my partner-in-crime, Jim’s, homeland, which in so many ways makes so much sense. On another existential level, the ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’ became my catalyst for exploring the world by means of human-powered travel. Earning one’s travel the self-supported, long-distance way is rewarded with heightened awareness. While other fast-tracked tourists thrive in comfort, they are denied the deep connection to a landscape. Fueled machines conquer time with efficiency, but by using the human body as propulsion at an analogue pace, the hours seem to slow down. I find there is no match for the cadence that comes with long voyages with everything I need (food, water, shelter) in my backpack or bike bags.