Murray Neill: Around the South Island Xtracycle Tour

Longing for summer

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:02:32 GMT

Mixed weather - Southland NZ

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:30:45 GMT

Kaycee

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:10:10 GMT

Yesterday, at around 5am, Kaycee passed away. Her 17 year old body just gave up on her, after a 48 hour struggle which just happened to coincide with a 15-year storm and a 48 hour long power outage. We have the power back on now but she is gone. I buried her under the trees on the other side of the creek just a stones-throw from the house.

She was my best friend. I can't say much more about her than that.... perhaps those that knew her will understand why.

Itching to ride again

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 10:35:33 GMT

I've just been sitting here watching a slideshow of photos from my xtracycle tour last summer, with The Warratahs (the best of) playing, while treating myself to a sip or two (or three, or four) of wild turkey bourbon, generously mixed with dry ginger ale. A nice way to spend a Friday night at home. Watching those pixelated cell-phone photos fade in and out has bought the feeling of being on the road flooding back. With everything I really need (as opposed to everything I mistakenly think I need) loaded on two wheels, with just the open road, and the New Zealand landscape in front of me... no set timetable or agenda. I'm itching to be doing that again.

I have a large laminated poster sized map of New Zealand pinned to my wall above my table which I now find myself gazing at longingly (again). This summer I think the East Cape of the North Island is calling me. I've been up there once before, back in the days when I was a commercial deep-sea fisherman for a job (ugh, I can't believe I ever did that). While we were fishing for the elusive Orange Roughy we had to duck into Hicks Bay to shelter from rough weather. The weather stayed bad for more than 48 hours so the skipper allowed us deckhands (5 of an 7 man crew) to go ashore and mingle with the locals. This area is a long way from the main highway and so doesn't see a lot of tourists. People are pretty down to earth. I remember walking into the pub there one mid-week evening, and almost instantly feeling as welcome as I have ever felt anywhere before. I think half of them were only at the pub because there was a unfamiliar fishing boat anchored in the bay, which in turn meant there might be some new faces to meet (and welcome) down at the drinking hole. Anyway the one encounter I've had with that part of New Zealand left me with a good feeling, so I'd like to take some time to see it properly; and what better way than on my bike.

Let the planning begin...

Missing Summer

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 11:29:28 GMT

Moraki beach, taken a few months ago on my cycle tour.
I've been dreaming of next summers bike/camping trip possibilities today. Can't wait for those days to get longer again.

Dusk on Lake Moeraki

Thu, 03 May 2007 08:54:06 GMT

Ephemeral homes

Tue, 01 May 2007 08:20:42 GMT

While on our South Island cycle tour I got into the habit of photographing our various campsites. It was always an odd feeling when I'd packed all my gear back onto the bike each morning, to look back as we rode away and see no sign of what had been my home for the night. Here's some of my favourite campsite shots...

Clarks Reserve on our first night of the trip. I like how Kaycee came prancing out of the tent just in time for the shot.

Punakaiki was night six of our cycle tour. This is just down the road from the famous pancake rocks.

A bit of fun with a tripod and a torch under a full moon at our campsite near Wanaka. This was night 15 of our tour. We got woken up at dawn by a grumpy campground manager demanding our camp fees that we had failed to pay into the honesty box 'on arrival'. We were gonna pay.... honest.

This is the start of a (nice sunny) cycle touring day in Manapouri. I sleep with a camera by my pillow :)

I can't even remember exactly where this campsite was. Somewhere near Waikouaiti I think. I do remember I couldn't have coffee in the morning because we were short of water. We discovered the river nearby was actually tidal after we had made camp so (fresh) water was on very short rations. Luckily there was a little town just a couple of kilometers away, with a little bakery, that had suuuuperb coffee. Phew.

Roadside - Buller Gorge

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 09:35:48 GMT

Kekerengu Campsite

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 08:12:58 GMT

This is probably my favourite photo of the last 6 weeks, taken on my 38th night of the tour. My Xtracycle, my dog (who by this time was a well experienced cycle-touring passenger), my tent and a place under the pines to pitch it; what more could a man ask for? Just beyond the trees is a kelp-littered, steep stoney beach with surf surging in and out. A soothing sound to sleep to.

So soothing in fact that I was up before dawn...

Cameron Flat

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 07:45:33 GMT

We arrived at this campsite after dark having just cycled the gruelling Haast Pass road. The next morning it was raining heavily so I just stayed in my tent and enjoyed a well earned sleep in. By the time I emerged mid-morning all the other campers (vans and trucks) had moved on. For several hours we enjoyed a scrolling show of clouds and rain squals. You could sit and watch clouds form and disperse in minutes, while beams of sun broke through here and there. I could have sat there and photographed it all day.

It's good to be home

Sat, 28 Apr 2007 06:43:48 GMT

Well, we're back. I've had the last 48hrs just resting up. It's been raining since about an hour before I arrived home on Thursday night as if it was waiting until I was indoors again.

I've been thinking about telling a few stories here about our xtracycle trek around the South Island, but I'm struggling to decide how to start (without having to type for three days to finish the tale).

I have been dying to post some high res shots to show you what was really behind all those chunky mobile phone pictures (they were fun though, weren't they?), so I guess I'll do my usual trick of letting the pictures tell the story, a little bit at a time.

These two shots were taken on about day 11 of our voyage on our way through Haast Pass. It was raining on and off all day and we encountered some of the steepest roads in the entire trip. Travelled from Okuru (about 15km SE of Hasst), over the narrow, steep, incredibly beautiful pass, and down to a little DOC campground called Camerons Flat just North of Makarora. This is an example of some of the many views that cannot be appreciated from a car or a bus as you need to stop and walk to the edge of the canyon, and this piece of road is just too narrow and dangerous for a motor vehicle to pull over.

More high-res shots from the trip coming soon, in no particular order ;)

While I'm gone....

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 07:38:01 GMT

While I am on the road my latest 10 pictures from my mobile phone should update automatically below. Click through to Flickr to see the rest.

www.flickr.com

More of murrayneill's photos tagged with aroundthesouth

We're not sure about these....

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 01:50:26 GMT

One more sleep

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 23:00:06 GMT

I leave tommorrow morning. Today I'm spending indoors, no biking. Friends are coming to visit for coffees and a few boardgames (Settlers), which will be a nice way to get my mind off the "what have I forgotten to pack?" question. I can't beleive that for the next 5 or 6 weeks my bike will be home for Kaycee and I. No TV's, no computers, no radios, no clock's, or pressure, or timetables, just new horizons.

Things I'm most looking forward to now:

The downside of the Spooners range. The lookout up there will be the last veiw of Nelson. After that I'll really feel like we're on our way.
Camping next to the mighty Buller River.
Jackson's Head.
The Rail Trail in Otago.
My favourite part of NZ's coastline, the Kaikoura Coast. This will feel like the home strecth to me and there's some great camping spots along there. There is something about be able to hear the pounding surf on rock beachs from where you sleep that is deeeeeply relaxing.

I've configured my phone to send photos for my Flickr account and tag them with "around the south", "mobile phone" and "coffeewaffle". I can give each photo a title by changing the name of the image file before I send it. I'll add descriptions whenever I find an internet cafe.

I will post again before we leave... probably just before with the bike all loaded up.

Kaycee's new touring box

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 10:23:06 GMT

More photos on Filckr

Going for a wee bike ride...

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 09:55:54 GMT

My Xtracycle averages over 300km per week these days. Just cleaned it today so was a good excuse to get a decent photo with its new custom snapdeck on.

In just two weeks I begin a 6 week break from work. During my time off, my friend Devon and I will be going for a bit of a bike ride. The plan is to leave Nelson on our Xtracycles, ride down the west coast of the South Island to the southern-most tip of New Zealand's mainland, then ride back up the east coast. We will be camping in tents most nights, and aiming to ride at least 100km every day. With six weeks to do it we should have plenty of time up our sleves to explore many side roads and generally take our time. Kaycee will be coming along. I'm havig a special plastic box made as a 'sidecar' for her to ride in. I will be setting up a yahoo group to post photos, videos, and text from my mobile to, so you can all come along for the ride. We have been planning this trip for well over a year now but I haven't really mentioned it here. When we first started talking about it, we found some people didn't really beleive we could, or would do it, so I just didn't talk about it. We'll just do it instead. After all this planning I am now getting excited about it.