A pair of South Canterbury cyclists have successfully pedalled their way down the length of New Zealand.
Shane Brookland and Brian Bennett set off on February 22, along with friend Evan MacClure, who completed the North Island leg of the tour, to tackle the 3000km bikepacking odyssey Tour Aotearoa.
The tour challenges riders to pedal their way from Cape Reinga to Bluff through a combination of cycle trails, tracks, paths and lanes connected by country roads.
It took the experienced duo 23 days to complete the tour, riding eight hours, about 130km a day.
Mr Brookland said they had been looking to tackle the tour for the last decade.
‘‘We’ve done a bit of bikepacking and this was one of the things that we needed to get ticked off the list.
‘‘We finally booked it and after that you are committed.
‘‘There was a natural gap this year too. Normally it clashed with the charity ride, which I’ve been heavily involved in for the last 15-odd years.
‘‘We both turn 50 this year and as you get older you suddenly realise you start to run out of runway, so stuff’s got to get done.’’
Mr Bennett said it was tricky to train for the ride.
‘‘How do you train for a threeweek trip?
‘‘You just try and fit some longer rides in six months out and we tend to cycle all year round.
‘‘As the summer months came around we started doing overnight trips and then just gradually increasing distance, time and consistency, day after day.’’
The first three days of the tour were the hardest, Mr Brookland said.
‘‘We pushed our schedule pretty hard for the first three days. We had a water crossing to get into Auckland so we were quite mindful that we needed to block out a fair chunk of countryside.
‘‘A lot of people went for a four-day schedule to the boat. We went for three, and a couple of clowns did it in two.
‘‘Our biggest elevation day was day two so we climbed 2.5km on that day but it was probably the heat that caught us out the most.’’
He said day five was probably their first easier day.
‘‘It was pretty simple after that, really. It was just a case of eat, pack up, ride, eat more, unpack, set up, eat more, sleep, do it again.
‘‘We did pretty well. We knew what to do, how to not push too hard and blow yourself up.
‘‘It’s fair to say it did keep us honest and fatigue did kick in but after 20-odd days not many people would be able to say they weren’t tired.’’
Mr Bennett said stopping off at the designated photo points was his highlight.
‘‘The tour has 30 photo points that you stop at and take a photo.
‘‘They prove that you’ve been there but they’re also natural points of interest as you go through.
‘‘I was focusing on getting to those and there were a few that did intrigue me more than others.’’
He said the stops gave them something to look forward to.
‘‘A lot of that route I’d never been through before so it was all pretty interesting.’’
He also highlighted the fact that the landscape they cycled through dramatically changed every two or three days.
‘‘You’d go from native forest to pine forest to plantations to native bush to farmland.
‘‘I always found that quite interesting as well.’’
Mr Brookland said a ‘‘magic’’ section of trail between Lake Kaniere and Hokitika was a highlight, as well as the people they met along the way.
‘‘Every time I go touring it always harks back to the fact that you meet some cool people.
‘‘Whether they’re behind a counter in a shop or bike touring, tourists or just Joe average.’’
He said through the trip they engaged with different people they would never usually meet.
‘‘You end up having a chat for five minutes because you’ve got five minutes and that’s actually quite a cool part of this whole style.
‘‘If someone’s in strife you give them a hand and a mandarin shared on the side of the track with another bike packer seems to be like gold some days.’’
Mr Bennett said it took a little bit of time to fully comprehend completing the tour.
‘‘It was hard to look at it as a whole picture because we were looking at it a day at a time.
‘‘Talking to other people afterwards they seemed to almost have a better recollection of the entirety of the trip than than I did, until I actually sat down and looked through the photos and put the whole thing together.
‘‘It wasn’t until then you sort of start to appreciate where you’ve been and what you’ve done.’’
He said that was when he realised he actually accomplished the feat.
The pair said they would now be setting their sights on completing other tours like Southland’s Tuatara 1000 and Kopiko Aotearoa.
‘‘While we are capable we might as well do what we can and it’s a fantastic way to see bits of the countryside.’’
