Final 3 weeks in NZ and Xterra

Before heading back on the ferry up to the North Island for Xterra, I had a couple of weeks left on the South Island to explore a few of the many great trails for riding. I spent a few days in the Golden Bay area trying to fit in as much swimming as possible and I also did the Remeka Track, a great natural singletrack descent which was great fun. I then met up with one of the downhill girls in NZ, Harriet Harper and we teamed up to do the Whakamarina trail, one that someone had told me I must do before I leave! It was a classic NZ trail in the middle of the bush ! We drove the car up a very dodgy gravel road and then set off on the trail following little orange arrows in the trees for the next 35km ! There was some pretty steep climbing at first and then about a 40 min push, but the rest was just natural unspoilt walking track, tonnes of roots and rocks and about 1hr of awesome switchbacks down through the bush. I think the only other people that use most of these trails are crazy New Zealand pig hunters !! The next day we experienced even more wilderness thanks to a helicopter dropping us in the middle of nowhere !!

Yes…helibiking….one very cool adventure. I think the chance to ride in a helicopter is just as much fun as the ride back down !! I gate crashed a company trip with the guys that import Rockshox into NZ. Worralls were having a weekend of biking in Nelson and I joined in, so I owe a big thanks to Alistair, Pete and the boys at Worralls for letting me tag along ! We did 2 heli drops and rode 2 different trails. Again it was all just amazing natural singletrack that at times was just too steep and technical to ride and almost as impossible to walk down. We also had to do some river crossings and walking down riverbeds with water above your knees ! An absolutely fantastic day of adventure riding!

Straight from there I then headed to Picton the main port at the northern part of the South Island and started a 2 day mtb ride on a famous 72km walking track, the Queen Charlotte. It’s a walk along the ridge line and along the shores of the Marlborough Sounds, so we had amazing views nearly all the time. Sadly the weather was not fantastic and we had a bit of rain that made the clay surface pretty slippery both climbing and descending ! However it was great riding and a really nice 2 day ride. It was then straight to the ferry to head back up to the North Island and then a 6hr drive straight to Rotorua.

This is where the suffering was going to begin ! I decided back in October that I was going to set myself a challenge this winter, so I entered the Xterra triathlon in Rotorua ! It’s a 1km lake swim, 26km mtb ride and 11km trail run. So before I left in January I had 3 swimming lessons and could just about swim 4 lengths of a 25m pool without bursting a lung ! I am not a natural swimmer so have worked hard to get to a point where I would be able to stay afloat for 1km ! The biking would be fine and the running would be ok although I had only ran that far once before in my life about 6 weeks before the event !! In general I was pretty damn unprepared about what I was letting myself in for.

Although I had been doing a bit of swimming and running, I had not ever done them all back to back ! Thankfully it was another beautiful day as I lined up on the lakeshore with 400 other people ready for the mass start swim ! I positioned myself right at the back so that I was not going to get swum over by the entire field. I set off fine and after about 5 mins I had started to settle in to my breathing and the nervousness had gone. I looked up and all I could see were 499 blue swimming hats way ahead of me ! I couldn’t believe how fast they were all swimming !! I had never swum 1km non stop before so I was just making sure I would make it around ! 24 mins later I made it back to the shore and in fact I wasn’t last so that was good. Then into the transition and onto my bike. I then spent the next 1hr30 trying to pass all the technically terrible bike riders that are most triathletes !! The track had loads of singletrack in it which was great fun, but not when you felt like you were on the M25 at rush hour most of the time! I can now see why you have to be a good swimmer for these events !

Then into the run, I had eaten my energy bar and some drink a bit to near the start of the run and felt pretty sick for the first half of the first lap and then I started to feel ok until the last 20mins and then my legs just wanted to give up! However I made it in a time of 3.26 well inside the time I had aimed for so that was really cool. It felt great to have finished it and achieved something I set out to do almost 6 months ago. So that concluded my trip in NZ and it’s now time to head home to get everything sorted for the season in the UK and Europe.

It was a fantastic trip and I definitely rode my bike a lot more than I would have at home in the grey old winter. I have a load of people to thank for making my trip run smoothly, all the accommodation, transport and just general hospitality of everyone along the way. So a big thanks to Kona Australia – Mark, Ty, Kate and family, Anne-Marie, Kate and Ian Potter and family. In NZ Sergio and family, Alden and Wendy in Rotorua, Vanessa Quin for cheering me at Xterra ! Bike Barn- Euan and the boys for the loan of the van for my trip, Dave and Gail Judson, David at Labyrinth Rocks park at Takaka, Worralls for my shock and heli biking, the McCarthy’s and everyone else that helped us on the way that I have forgotten to mention !! Next up the first National at Ae Forest next week.