In 2018 I cycled 3000km around New Zealand, here are some photos and memories of the trip.
Of NZ’s 5 million people, 1.6 million live in Auckland and 87% live in urban areas. After my experiences in Indonesia and Malaysia, arriving in Auckland was a bit of a comedown. The streets felt empty and dull, and the deathly silence rang out in my ears.
I picked up an old Gary Fisher bike for 100 NZ dollars or about £50 from Adventure cycles in Auckland, the best bike shop I’ve ever been to. The owner, by the name of Bruce O’Halloran, was a fascinating character.
The rolling green farmland of the North Island provided fantastic vistas. Although NZ is famous for lamb, the number of sheep has halved in the last 30 years with the dairy industry taking over. Agricultural products are the country’s biggest export, but export holds a small share of the economy, with service industries dominating.Huka falls, Waikato River. The North of NZ has a sub-tropical climate and I was surprised by the lush rainforest. Since humans arrived on NZ, land covered in trees has reduced from 80% to less than 40% (by comparison, for the UK that figure is ~13%).The North Island is well known for its geothermal activity and I enjoyed bathing in hot springs at the end of a long day on the road. Mount Taranaki pictured is dormant. I slept in my bivvy bag under the stars for all but a few nights. Beautiful evenings like this were often spoilt by the presence of sandflies. Maori mythology says that the goddess Hine-nui-te-pō, ruler of the underworld, released sandflies to stop humans from lingering too long in such a beautiful place and becoming unproductive. They certainly kept me moving as I tried to eat my breakfast and get dressed.A little larger than the UK and with only a fraction of the population, there’s plenty of wilderness to explore. When Polynesians came to NZ sometime around the year 1300, they were the first humans to step foot there. It seems crazy that humans have only lived in NZ for just over 700 years! In 1642 the first European visited, a Dutchman called Abel Tasman, but he never set foot on land. Named after him is Abel Tasman National Park, some of its pristine sandy beaches are pictured here. Aotearoa, the current Maori name for New Zealand, translates as ‘land of the long white cloud’ and is a reference to how the Polynesians found the islands (specifically the North Island).The furthest inland point of New Zealand is around 75 miles from the sea, and I never strayed far from the coast.The natural beauty of the South Island was stunning. Pictured here is Lake Pukaki with Aoraki/Mount Cook on the horizon. James Cook was the first European to set foot on NZ in 1769, over 100 years after Abel Tasman had visisted.
Sealers and whalers came next, followed by missionaries and merchants. By 1881 some 400,000 people had arrived from Britain, infecting the Maori with diseases and fuelling bloody inter-tribal Mauri conflict with the provision of muskets. In 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, the translation and intent of which is still disputed. Disagreements over sovereignty and land ownership led to the Land Wars, and the impact of the injustices is still felt among the Mauri community today.
At 12,218 feet/3724 metres, Mount Cook is NZ’s highest mountain and was the training ground for Kiwi mountaineer Edmund Hillary, the first man known to have climbed Mount Everest.Milford Sound, Fjordland. While I did meet other travellers, cyclists and locals, I often felt lost and lonely cycling alone for weeks on end and questioned what I was doing. Millions of years of geographical isolation without humans resulted in the evolution of rich and distinctive flora and fauna, particularly plants, insects and birds. The introduction of mammals like rats with the arrival of humans caused a wave of extinctions, predominately birds that hadn’t evolved with such predators.
I had a preconception that New Zealand was forward-thinking when it came to environmental issues. I think the reality is the country is blessed with natural beauty which is being destroyed like everywhere else, albeit a little slower thanks to the low population density. Punakaiki Pancake Rocks.
Rain clouds seemed to follow me and I slept in some pretty unpleasant places – under bridges, in public toilets and in this rat-infested culvert.
Remenants of NZ’s gold rush in the 1860’s were still present. I climbed more than three times the elevation of Everest during my trip, such were the undulations in the road. Cycling with heavy panniers was tough, and I soon learned to remove myself from the present, let time pass, and trust that things will get easier, a mental strategy that has come in use since.
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