Oh boy, where do I start. First off, I booked this trip on a whim. I have the luxury of a 4-week sabbatical from work this year that I had been planning to take this coming June. Life & work being what they are, it worked out better that I take the time off in February. Okay, what physically challenging thing can I do in February? The tropics aren't really for this pale girl, so Southern Hemisphere it was. I'd heard & seen amazing things about New Zealand, so I started researching bike trips and I booked this about a month before it was set to start. Excellent decision on my part. I live in Denver, and after a particularly mild January, meaning I could actually ride outside - it decides to snow nearly 2 feet the night before/day of me leaving. This may have been the only time in my life I have asked the snow to stop. Despite this, my plane got out. I took this as a sign of good things to come. I arrived safely in Auckland and had a day and a half to timezone adjust and enjoy the city, yadda yadda It was then down to Christchurch to meet up w/ the crew. In walk Lofty and Magnus and my first thought is "My goodness, they're tall down here. And attractive. And have accents. Works for me!" But seriously, they were awesome and really made sure everyone on the trip had a great time, between Lofty basically knowing the entire island from his exploits growing up and Magnus being an amazing chef who kept us well fed and excellent company on the road, no complaints from this girl! The riding was amazing. I will be using the word amazing a lot. Sometimes I may substitute in awesome. Or incredible. Fantastic. Glorious. You get the point. I look at my pictures, and they only capture the visual, and not very well, the sensory engagement of riding around the island just added so many levels to being present in the moment. And it makes it easier to relive the moments now that I'm back to Denver. Instead of giving a play by play of each day of riding, I’ve decided to just highlight a few of the rides/moments I had… Day 3, The Buller Gorge, and ultimately to Punakaiki Water. I'm a Pisces and I'm also primarily a swimmer - and I currently live in a land-locked state on essentially what is the high desert. Safe to say, I miss the water. The Buller is spectacular and my pictures do capture some of that you just know you're somewhere special. I couldn't get over the color of the water the greens, the blues. Happy to say that I never did. Punakaiki just made me smile, in particular the pancake rocks. Pancakes are my thing I've based my annual holiday party around them. So when Lofty suggested (jokingly, but not really) I make them one morning for the group, I thought "Why not!" I did pass on the recipe, only for Magnus to take on the cooking duties, which let's face it, I was happy to not have to wake up earlier than I had to ; but that's the type of trip this was seemingly pointless conversations are acted on. Day 5: Fox Glacier to Haast - Glaciers are cool, I dig'em. And when Bruce Bay came into view, once again I just had to slow down and take it all in. Magnus asked "What's stopping you from going all in?" in response to me just dunking my head really got me thinking. My answer of "the next 50K I need to do" just sounded really lame, so a quick deck change into my suit and I was swimming around in no time. I don't know if I have ever been in such a state of bliss/euphoria/whatever you want to call it. It had to have been here that I realized I was in fact on the trip of a lifetime and to squeeze everything out of it I could - in other words if the answer to the question "What's stopping you?" is in fact myself, well, that was no longer acceptable. See, life lessons learned on holiday! Day 9: Walter Peak to The Key - Oh boy oh boy oh boy - save for that horrid 20K stretch of loose gravel, this would easily have been my favorite day. After a rest day in Queenstown, we were ready to go and I was feeling good! We were so isolated and I like to think I'm physically suited for that sort of terrain and elevation profile - hell I was even gleefully smiling at the headwind in a "bring it on" sort of manner. The scenery was gorgeous, I loved the remoteness, and as a group we were all so determined to get thru that awful gravel, that miserable experience that bonded us all, that once we got off of it the adrenaline took over and most of us went easily past the marked ending spot on our maps. And yes, I really did want to kiss the tarseal when I got off the off-road bit. As we passed and picked up folks from the road, each new person got an ovation and high fives all around when they got on the bus - just wonderful camaraderie. I really could go on, you get the picture. But I will end w/ a list of favorites Favorite Ride - On road - Descent off of Cardrona Saddle Summit to Arrowtown Favorite Ride - Off Road - the 50K from Walter Peak to Mavora Lakes Favorite Coffee - The one Lofty gave me 5K from the Millhouse Favorite Meal - Magnus - why the salmon w/ ginger, garlic & honey of course Favorite Meal - Restaurant - turns out I have a thing for venison pie - we'll go w/ the Arrowtown one Favorite Dessert - The wondrous chocolate one I had the last night at the Millhouse Favorite Lodging - Punakaiki. Windows open, sleeping to waves crashing. Perfection. Favorite non-cycling excursion - Bungy jumping off the Auckland bridge during a layover Favorite Landscape - Milford Sound. Favorite expression - "Dark White" (Kate describing how tan she can get, i.e. not very) Soundtrack that was running thru my head while riding: Me in Honey - REM Wild Wild Life - Talking Heads Nothing But Flowers - Talking Heads Room @ the End of the World - Matt Nathanson Modern Love - Matt Nathanson The Ballad of Mona Lisa - Panic! At the Disco Big, Wide Wonderful World - Chris Isaak All These Things That I've done - The Killers Mickey (in Spanish) - Toni Basil Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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