Auckland to Wellington NZ via Thorn Nomad MK2

[John Saxby]

the bike just simply worked without a single hiccup

Great stuff, Tony. Delighted for you that the bike worked as it should, that your training worked as it should, so that you felt comfortable during and after the ride, and that you were free to enjoy yourself.  Thanks for the fotos, too -- loved the inquisitive goats.

Cheers,

J.

[nztony]

Thanks John for the kind words/encouragement. I've yet to post my first little 4 day, 3 night tour I did as a practice run for this tour - I was too keen to get this bigger tour online. I'm almost ready to post a nicer version of the album I've already posted - just finishing off the captioning. I seem to like making things difficult for myself as I back up my photos up to three separate online albums, but I am determined to never lose a photo.
Tony

[John Saxby]

Thanks, Tony.  On the task of backing up photos:  I use Dropbox.com a lot -- allows me to send a link to people to view the fotos, or an access link.  Plus, Dropbox sets up a folder on your hard drive, so you can back that up externally if you want to. That might simplify things a bit.

I've found Dropbox much more stable than Google, where I've lost things like workplans on calendars (!!). And, unlike Picasa albums which show only lo-res photos, Dropbox keeps the fotos as hi-res, so you can print directly from it.

Look forward to your fotos from your shorter trek as well -- these days, we experience cycling second-hand, with some jealousy, as you can guess...  I just spoke to my wife, many thousands of kms away in Ottawa (I'm writing this from northern Mozambique), and she said the back yard is still full of grey granular snow & grit :-(

Hope to have my new Raven on the road by the end of April -- spring, when it eventually comes, is about 10 - 14 days long, then we lurch directly into July.

[nztony]

John

I (think) could run seminars on backing up photos - I add my photos to albums on Google+ Smugmug, Flickr and Microsoft Onedrive. I am fairly sure Picasa Web Albums is now Google+ photos that do go up in full res. Back up to Picasa and they are available via Google+ and vice versa, as Google are trying to get us to use Google+

As for my cellphone photos they auto back up whenever I get into Wifi coverage and they back up into private Google+ AND Microsoft Onedrive albums, no wires, no connectors - love it.

I also use www.backblaze.com on my laptop and home computer. Five $USD a month and everything gets backed up via the cloud - the first back up took a couple of months to get 200gb loaded but now just my additions go up. When I dumped my trip photos onto the computer, the 600megs of photos silently backed up - I am so confident of my back ups I don't even use external HDDs anymore.

As you can probably tell, I love playing around and learning with new technologly - I'm a big lover of the "cloud"

Hope this wasn't too far off topic!

Tony

[nztony]

Hello all,

By now you may have seen the photos of my trip, but here is an alternative album I have just finished that (I think) shows them off in a nicer format:

http://nztony.smugmug.com/Auckland-to-Wellington-March-2/



Regards

Tony

[jags]

fantastic photos tony thanks for sharing.
btw whats with all those fizzy drinks dont you like water.

[nztony]

Anto,
Many thanks, but it was only 2 bottles of coke strapped to the bungee cords and 48 hours without a shop on that 150km stretch of road.
If it's any consolation, they weren't very refreshing when warm.  
Tony

[jags]

Tony i'm sure when your ambling along on your super nomad loaded down with panniers on a lonely stretch of beautifull newzeland highway your thinking to yourself ,oh how different this is to all that gruelling training when you were training on the olympic track team .
 i know its a completly form of cycling but thinking back would you go through all that training again.
i bet cycle touring never entered your thoughts way back then.

[honesty]

This looks fantastic. I've only managed to get over to NZ once for my brothers wedding (a whistle stop 6 days, where at least the first 2 were lost to jetlag) and managed a little bit of sight seeing around Auckland, a short road trip to Rotorua, and a day in the Waitakere Ranages park. It was winter as well, so I found out first hand about the NZ aversion to things like insulation, double glazing, draft excluders, well fitted doors, central heating... Would love to get back there and do some longer touring, especially now my brother has moved to Wanaka.

[nztony]

Anto,

i bet cycle touring never entered your thoughts way back then. Smiley

It's more the other way around: I'd have never ever in my wildest dreams would have thought I'd be cycling at the 1988 Olympic Games five years after this photo was taken. Not in a hundred years! Admittedly I would have never thought I'd be cycling 800kms Auckland to Wellington 30 years after this photo was taken either.


Cape Reinga, northern tip of New Zealand July 1983

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nztony/sets/72157608855534353

Would love to get back there and do some longer touring, especially now my brother has moved to Wanaka.

Honesty, you need to go see your brother in Wanaka immediately, it's my favourite town in NZ!


Lone Willow, Lake Wanaka, 2011 https://www.flickr.com/photos/nztony/5844324965/

Regards
Tony

[Danneaux]

I'd have never ever in my wildest dreams would have thought I'd be cycling at the 1988 Olympic Games five years after this photo was taken. Not in a hundred years!

Just goes to show what natural ability, dedication, and a great deal of determination and hard work can accomplish. As much mental as physical.

I would have never thought I'd be cycling 800kms Auckland to Wellington 30 years after this photo was taken either.

...And the same applies here!

You've still "got it", Tony!. All admiration your way; so nice to see you back on a bike again and to share in the journey via your lovely photos.

All the best,

Dan.

[nztony]

Dan, thanks for the kind words. Taking the photos was half the fun, but I didn't take enough on Day 1 and 2, as I was too busy trying to get going. Luckily by Day 3 I chilled out and started taking photos. I knew this might happen, yet I still allowed it to - good learning for next time.
Tony

[honesty]

Well my brother loves Wanaka, not least because he was able to sell the house he bought in Hillcrest in Auckland coming on 10 years ago for something silly like 5 times what he paid for it and move to Wanaka pretty much mortgage free!

When my 3 year old gets a bit older we are going to head over but at the moment I don't think I would be able to cope with the 30 hour flight with her!