Day 9 - Final day! I was really disappointed to not sleep very well last night, I woke up very tired and worn out (maybe it was the excitement that it was the last day of our adventure, maybe it was all the coffee's, or Paul's snoring??). Luckily we only have a short ride today [...]

Day 8 The forecast was for a frost today so we planned to leave between 8:30am-9am. We were also aware that the first 40km were dangerous with high traffic flow and very narrow roads. The start was so hard! cold, slightly up hill, head wind, and very tired legs. It was a relief to get away [...]

Day 7 - Ray We decided last night not to ride anymore of the wilderness trail because it wasn't really suitable for our road bikes. By doing this it has cut about 60km off our total distance. Then Paul got in his head that he wanted to ride 200km and for some crazy reason I [...]

Ray's Diary Day 6 Well we woke to a beautiful west coast day and were on our bikes at 7:50am.  While I was riding I was thinking that I wouldn't have much to report today, we were ticking off the kms pretty quick and easy. Nek minute we got hit with a strong head cross wind, [...]

Day 5 start was nice and easy, only 94kms to ride today so no pressure. Because Paul is racing in Nelson next week I thought it would be best that he treat today like a recovery day so I spent all day on the front to look after him. First stop was after 7km to [...]

Dear Diary, Well today has been amazing! We rolled out of Makaroa 8:55am, according to Paul he was late because it was cool but those of you that know him will know how much he fluffs around. As we went to leave 3 Asian ladies came over to check us and our bikes out which was [...]

RAY - Diary Entry Day 3 Well today we were up early and in for breakfast at 6:30am. We were keen to get started early knowing that we had a big day with lots of climbing but the temperature was only 3 degrees so we waited until 8 o'clock. I was very cold for the first 15 [...]

Rays diary entry after day 2... Well day 2 started ok, Paul was only 20 min late which is better than expected. We arranged to meet Jo for breakfast at Five Rivers which Paul "googled" and said it was 35 kms but it turned out to be 50km (never trust the internet...or Paul...or maybe never [...]

And so the adventure begins for our two shop roadies Paul and Ray! Their mission is to cycle from the southern most point of the South Island (Slope Point) to the northern most point (Farewell Spit) on road bikes (Paul - Specialized Allez Sprint Superstar Sagan, Ray - Specialized Tarmac Expert Disc) with only what [...]