After my Kiwi Brevet 2015 experience I was calorie, sleep and relaxation deficient – so I popped over Cook Strait on the ferry with my bike to address such issues and spend a week with close friends.

Wellington was a bit of a revelation – I’ve not much spent much time in our nation’s capital before. I was pleased to have such a great week in a fantastic little city. Time was spent with good friends, riding bikes, going on a couple of easy walks, visiting family, eating well, sleeping a lot, writing, watching Cricket World Cup matches, even a little baby-sitting, and going on an easy bikepacking trip to Martinborough and Waikanae.

My biggest surprise about Wellington was the biking – particularly how easy it is to bike to all parts of the city (despite the notorious hills and wind) and the quality of the MTB trails through stunning native bush seemingly in the middle of the city & suburbs.  Now that I look back at my riding diary, maybe I wasn’t tired enough from the Brevet – I rode seven days in a row clocking up over three hundred kilometres, oops.  But the scenery was great, I had a fantastic guide for singletrack riding around the city and the trails were so much more fun that most of my recent riding. If only there were more of my sorts of jobs in Wellington…

I really didn’t take enough photos around Wellington…

Wellington is renowned for its cafe culture, but surely this is not normal.

Prime native forest – I couldn’t believe we were riding such nice trail from the inner suburbs.

The view from my window in Karori for the week – I spent many hours distracted from my writing staring out this watching the planes and weather glide past.

Thanks for having me, Elizabeth and Nigel – I hope I didn’t eat you out of house and home.