Tag Archives: annual

around home, Aus, bikes, family, NZ

The Christmas Letter 2024

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Selling last summer to the continued Pulpmill cyclone recovery project turned out well – recency bias perhaps, it was the most rewarding, engaging and worthwhile work I can remember doing. Generally fifty hour, five and a half day, weeks didn’t leave a lot of time for much else – but I did manage a bit of gravel riding with a good mate and even-slower parkruns as I nursed a side strain. I was pleased to see pulp just starting to come out of the mill before I returned home at Easter (finally reaching the 100 parkruns milestone). I continued to support the project remotely for the next two months, but the hours decreased as the project neared completion.

Returning home and working less gave the opportunity to catch up with family and friends, get in vital firewood, try to remember how to ambulance, and get out in the hills a little. Some highlights were:

Riding from Macraes to the coast through farmland for a fundraiser.

The new, and excellent, Pike29 trail with a good bunch..

Gravel riding near Lake Brunner with the same group, and half the Heaphy with a subset.

A typical, but easy (to cater for less-fit me), West Coast hike up to Mt Brown Hut.

And the summit, only posted here because I thought I’d better put some of the rare photos of me in. Thanks to Katie for this one.

Back in Naseby, I enjoyed a couple of weekend visits from Hooges and Orlaith – as well as helping with firewood work – they bring enthusiasm for half-baked adventure plans that I never seem to get around to doing solo. In this case, finally climbing up through friends’ farm to see what it’s like at the top of Mt Alexander, near Danseys Pass.

Thanks Orlaith for this pic.

Visits from our parents to Naseby reduce over winter, but while Mum was visiting family and friends in UK and Europe I helped Dad buy an e-bike – so that was brought along during a rare winter visit. It’s been good fun having Dad suggest rides we should do and I look forward to more. A sunny, frosty ride from Oturehua to Omakau on the rail trail particularly memorable.

I successfully did my best to not go straight back to work, partly because I’d long wanted to visit a few friends in Queensland for the first time. September was the month to do so, shouldn’t be too hot. I hastily repacked and left my bike at home, forgoing the easy tour I had planned, when temperatures soared over thirty degrees higher than I was used to in Central Otago. So I had a leisurely trip spending extended time with dear friends and family.

On a Sunshine Coast walk.

I did of course manage to borrow bikes and get some short half-day rides in.

Time on farms was excellent, here having watched a bit of beekeeping, but there were general garden tasks, soap making, and dog walking to get me outside – as well as the riding, general exploring and walking.

Coming home to October snow and a week of rain was a bit much; on the plus side, I’ve never seen Central Otago looking so green! November was much better, especially with a delightful overnight hike with my young nephews and their family.

Back north later that month, there were more small hiking and biking adventures and I got to see my favourite podcast performed live again – which reminds me I also saw my favourite band perform in Auckland one weekend back in February.

Photo credit to Katie again.

And again.

In searching for portraits, I did find a couple of photos I’d forgotten about. This one reminding me that my haemochromatosis is still in maintenance with three-monthly blood donations. I continue to maintain that as far as chronic health conditions go, it’s a pretty good one – no medication, regular blood donations that help unknown others out, and I’m arguably symptom-free.

Also on the health front, I’m surprised and pleased at how good my once-troublesome shoulder now is after last year’s surgery. It certainly doesn’t clunk or stall as it used to – and it’s had a fair workout this year with firewood sawing, chopping and throwing.

Back in Naseby life, when I’m there, I spend a lot of hours on call for the local ambulance. After the long break with surgery and back in Napier, it’s obvious I’m not the medic in the family – but that’s fine, I don’t need to be to help keep our volunteer-staffed ambulance online. Small house building has stalled in the consent process, but the with a lot of help the pad for my garage was laid a few weeks ago – hopefully I can build the garage in January, with more help. It should be a fun and rewarding learning curve.

Somehow I’ve picked up a bit more work in Napier, this time on a casual basis in the sawmill (a different world to pulp), but it’ll be a couple of months before I’m back up there. Besides that and building, nothing much planned for the coming year – lots of ideas, but nothing set. Merry Christmas and all the best for the coming year!

around home, bikepacking, bikes, family, NZ, shoulder

The Christmas Letter 2023

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Time spent riding this year was always going to be down with shoulder surgery scheduled mid-year, less expected is the year drawing to a close with the least distance covered by bike in over ten years. The year started predominantly at home in Naseby around family. I kept pleasantly busy with casual work driving vans carting bikes, baggage and people around the Otago Central Rail Trail (hard to get sick of driving around Central Otago) and volunteering as much as possible on the local ambulance in an attempt to have all the practical skills signed off to complete the first responder qualification.

The remoteness of the region means we see helicopters responding far more than in urban centres.

I did manage to get out for a few small bikepacking adventures, none of which went quite to plan. After one of the best trips I’d done the previous year, I was keen to head back with Andy to the Lindis headwater area. Strange how we forgot that we swore never to return to this area with loaded bikes. Sweltering in summer weather, it was quickly apparent I was not in any sort of condition for such hills. We did manage to complete most of the loop planned and I was particularly pleased to make it along Grandview Ridge.

The every-other-year Great Southern Brevet, one of my favourite bikepacking events, was only two weeks later and I was in about a dozen different minds about whether I’d show up to ride what is now my backyard, especially with Andy’s much-awaited Nine Stations immediately after. I couldn’t face Grandview Ridge, in the more difficult other direction, again so soon – but the course was changed to take it out and instead include some private land – that was enough to entice me back.

While nice to see so many familiar faces again, it took me a good day and a half to get into it and by the third day things were going well enough – that is until I pulled up at the end of the day with very tight achilles tendons. A good rest overnight, I tried to ride away into more mountains – but quickly decided against that. A few days of rest was enough to allow a day’s ride to collect my car and make it to the start of the Nine Stations ride – but the achilles injuries plagued me for quite some time, and they’re still not a hundred.

Route-maker extraordinaire Andy had somehow got permission to ride through many private stations to put the loop together, it was a privilege to ride some new places with a good group.

Got to stay in this restored hut that we’d seen the previous year.

Dropping down to the Rangitata – TTW memories.

Far enough up the river to safely cross the Rangitata.

Unfortunately, a mechanical early on the third day meant I sat the fourth and final day out – but that held less interest for me, so I wasn’t too put out.

Mid-February I watched from afar in disbelief as Cyclone Gabrielle devastated Hawke’s Bay and so many of the places I’d come to know in the six years I spent living in Napier and biking a lot of the backroads. With electricity and comms compromised for a week, information was sparse but the damage over such a wide area was more than I could comprehend.

I’d have never thought the Esk could burst its banks to flood my former workplace with over a metre and a half of water and the accompanying debris and silt.

The end of summer saw me being support crew (at the last minute by myself) for a friend’s team in the ~week-long Godzone adventure race. It was a great week for me around the beauty of Fiordland. All the driving, planning, packing, unpacking, assembling transition zone, team social media updates, washing and drying vast amounts of clothes and gear was enough of an endurance sport for me – I wasn’t even out there doing the hard yards! Pleasing to be able to support others in their mad adventures.

Heading out onto Manapouri.

I did manage to do a little exploring of my own.

Transition zone set-up.

As my own plans to build a small house in Naseby developed, helping my friend Mike replace my parents’ roof one drizzly autumn week was both satisfying and good experience for future building work.

Old and new steel.

The rest of autumn was a flurry of getting firewood for the winter, more Rail Trail work, and completing the ambulance qualification, just, before shoulder surgery. Surgery went very well and I spent most of the six-weeks of sling wearing staying with and being cared for by Mum and Dad in Dunedin. I was surprised that there was far less pain/discomfort and swelling than the keyhole surgery eleven years before. I made the most of the mild weather by going on increasingly long walks exploring Dunedin and surrounding hills.

Out at Portobello for Mothers’ Day.

A week in Auckland near the end of the sling stint was the first time I’d been to the city for at least four years and I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with many dear, and long-neglected, friends – as well more walking and warmer weather. Sling off and it was back home to Naseby, staring at the prospect of a long, cold winter sitting by the fire reading books unable to do much else as my shoulder recovered.

A well-timed check-in call from a mate (a former colleague) detailed just how much work there was to recover from the flooding in the Pulp Mill and gave the idea that I might go up for a few months and help out. I thought three months would be good, but it was five I was needed for – so less than two weeks later I was back in Napier amongst too many people telling me it was like I never left. Things had certainly changed in two years and I still struggle to believe the amount of recovery work that has already been done and how much is left to get the place running again.

It was odd returning, as Napier isn’t home any more, I’m not living alone in my own house and everyone’s lives have understandably moved on. My shoulder recovery, with some physio, continued to pleasantly surprise me and I was able to get on a bike sooner than I expected. I’d not brought a bike with me, so it was an opportunity to give a gravel bike a try buying a secondhand one. I thought I might sell it if I didn’t like it, but I’ve decided it’s a glorified, but useful, road bike and I’ll keep it for some different exploring when I return home.

There used to be a bridge there.

Getting back to parkrun, a large part of my previous Napier life, was good to try and get some fitness back; I managed to cut the gap to my 5 km personal best in half before picking up a side strain which has halted further progress. As it happens, the work in the Pulp Mill is nowhere near complete (which rather hinders my role as Completions Manager – yeah, I’d never heard of such a thing either) so I was asked to stay through summer until pulp should be coming out of the mill again – something I’d really like to see.

We managed to agree on what another four months, and summer, away from home and family was worth – but equally I’m sticking around to see a place that was good to me and is the livelihood of many workmates and an important part of Hawke’s Bay on its feet again. Pleasingly, the work is engaging, keeps developing and very satisfying. The second half of this video gives a better idea of what’s been going on.

I’m down south in Dunedin for a week and Christmas with my parents, and an overdue venesection (haemochromatosis seems to be nicely under control now, blood letting only required every few months), before returning to Naseby for a week at home doing little – maybe some biking and ambulance cover. All the best for yours and the new year!

around home, bikepacking, bikes, MTB, shoulder

The Christmas Letter 2022

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After all the changes that 2021 brought, this year has very much been about settling into a new life in a very quiet part of the world. But constant that it is in life, there have plenty more changes – just not on the scale of diagnosis of chronic genetic conditions, quitting permanent full-time work, selling house and moving to the bottom of the country.

The start of the year saw me bouncing between spending time with and helping family in both Naseby and Waikouaiti as Adele and James awaited the arrival of their second and our parents prepared their house for sale and a move into Dunedin. There was a bit of biking, hiking and running involved too. Amongst that, weekly blood-lettings stretched out a little but I was pleased than my iron levels were down to normal levels by February (thirteen venesections) and my haemochromatosis was under control enough to lengthen the period between blood bank trips to three-months and allow my blood to be used as donor blood (silver lining).

Shortly before heading to the top of the South Island for the start of a ride, I decided I wanted to be in Naseby for the rest of the year to be closer to Adele, James and my niblings. That meant finding somewhere to live, fortunately I was able to find a suitable long-term rental (as in many holidays spots, most rentals here are short-term holiday ones). With a couple of days up my sleeve before the start of the Sounds2Sounds bikepacking event, I went exploring – and managed to fall down a bank, dislocating my shoulder again. On a remote track, I was very pleased my beacon worked and very relieved and fascinated with an impressive and fun (besides the dislocation agony) helicopter winch retrieval. That and a night in hospital changed the immediate future a fair bit, thankfully I was well looked after by members of the bikepacking community with accommodation and transport home.

With help, I still managed to move and settle into the far-too-cute-for-me cottage. Much smaller than my Napier house, it suits me well and has been useful in confirming that I could live in a lot less space. Stanley arrived a couple of weeks later, it’s been great to be so close to spend much time with Adele, James and their young sons – plenty of nephew amusing, and a few chores too. Through the year I have enjoyed some casual work in new-to-me industries – helping the usually-short staffed local pub when needed and helping a local cycle trail operator driving around beautiful Central Otago (don’t get tired of it) moving bikes, people, bags and vehicles.



After many months of planning and waiting, the build of my first new mountain bike in seven years came together. Autumn conditions were great on the local trails, and with them only being hundreds of metres from home I was out a lot enjoying the new bike and slowly understanding the maze of techy, hand-built trails – often with James’s help. Much fun and great to have them so close. With mountain-biking so close, there was little running this year as I’d far rather be on a bike!

A trip to the lower North Island with Mum and Dad for my uncle’s eightieth was much appreciated for being able to spend time with a lot of family and friends. Parents’ house sold, shortly after it was time for their move into the city – a big week of packing, moving and starting to unpack. They are now settling in well to a far more convenient location in a house they enjoy for its warmth, smaller section, garden and views. I visit sporadically as various things take me to the city; not two hours’ drive away, Mum and Dad also stay regularly at mine – a move to Naseby has certainly been a boon for spending time with family.

As for many places around NZ, winter was a lot wetter than normal this year – plans of exploring the Maniototo gravel roads on crisp, frosty mornings fell by the wayside. Much time snuggled by the fireplace with cups of tea reading instead. A week of Covid-lite (my first cold in three years was far worse a month beforehand, no long-term effects) isolation was surprisingly enjoyable. We had one really good snow fall which was thoroughly enjoyable; the temperatures dropped after the snow fell, turning it into a snow week. For the first time in a few winters, it was consistently cold enough to be able to skate on the pond up at Adele and James’s section – enjoyable relearning that skill.

Now having so much time for myself, I’m bemused that this year I’ve biked the least distance since 2014. But quality over quantity – bike-commuting (3000-5000 km/year that was only tolerable) was traded for far more time having a lot of fun mountain-biking. I also didn’t finish the only two bikepacking events I entered, so there was another couple of thousand kilometres gone. But the bikepacking trips I did take were some of the best I’ve ever been on – probably no coincidence that those were more off-road and mountain-bikey than the bikepacking I was used to in the North Island.

Honourable mentions go to Andy’s Southern Special (a week-long affair of which the highlights were Percy Saddle, taking it easy to and from Mavora Lakes, and the southern end of the Pisa Range; Andy’s video here); also Andy’s Four Peak and Orari Gorge weekend (the new trail bike proving capable on such a bikepacking trip – we didn’t have to carry much), Nina organising a return to Mt White Station (more trail bike fun – no overnight gear carried); low key riding with Eileen and Andy to the Big Finish Line Party in Naseby; and Pete’s stunningly well-timed trip (no real rain!) up the big three West Coast mountain-bike(able) trails over nine days – it was brilliant being able to spend multiple nights on the trails and not be in any rush, a fantastic way to mark my fortieth.

 

Easily the exceptional trip of the year, and one of the best I’ve ever done, was another of Andy’s – four days linking old farm tracks through conservation areas in the Lindis, Hawea, Dunstan and Oteake hills. I’ll just leave this video here – you may get an idea of the silly amount of fun I was having on a slightly unsuitable bike (arguable point, it was the bike I had). I had to replace the now-cracked rear rim after this, and soon replaced the rigid fork with a suspension one.

November driving around the North Island with both bikes in the car was far wetter than expected, somehow I managed to avoid getting very wet at all with still a decent amount of riding. The trip was mostly about taking the time to visit as many friends as I practically could and it was lovely to see so many familiar faces – it’s a long way to Naseby so it was good to make the effort. That trip ran straight into ten days of St John courses over the first three weekends of December (Adele convinced me the local ambulance needs more volunteers – jury is still out as to if I’ll enjoy it or be any good, it’s a steep and interesting learning curve but). I’m very pleased to be home for a while after six weeks away, our Pheasant Christmas is in Naseby with parents and Mum’s siblings from Sydney (first time seeing them in some time).

There’s a few trips around the South Island planned for the rest of the summer and I was planning to go bikepacking abroad mid-2023 – but that’s out the window, as I’ll likely take the opportunity to have surgery on my shoulder again, hopefully that’ll fix it better. The downtime should be used to move my plan to build a small house on Adele & James’s land from concept to something much further on. So next year is already looking unusual – but hopefully good and worthwhile taking that time out. All the best for yours.

around home, bikepacking, bikes, event, family, friends, running

Christmas Letter 2021

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Another pandemic-dominated year almost done, which save for three weeks of lockdown at the end of winter, had – compared to many parts of the world – mercifully little impact on the small part I inhabit. It did at least serve as a regular reminder to make the most of opportunities, as one never really knows when they may disappear. On a personal note, I seemed to have taken an unexpected, sometimes trying, route to get to where I planned to be in some years time. That is, resigning from a good job, selling my house in Napier and moving south to Otago to be closer to family.

Entering the new year with my arm in a sling, yet again, more surgery on my shoulder seemed a possibility. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to ride the two bikepacking events of the summer. But the shoulder settled and I enjoyed going a bit slower on the excellent Great Southern Brevet as a test of my capability to tackle Tour Te Waipounamu two weeks later. As good as the GSB was, being flown to and from Tekapo by Guy in his Cessna rates as one of the biggest highlights of the year. The light plane travel and views it afforded of the country were endlessly fascinating.

A bit of aerial Tour Te Waipounamu scouting.

The relaxed pace of what was last-ditch effort of TTW preparation made for a very social ride – with much time spent with, both, other riders, and visiting friends and family en route. Most enjoyable and nowhere near as challenging as the 2019 edition, with its traverses of mountain ranges in gale force winds.

The late evening climb to the Garston Ski Hut bordered on majestical.

The following morning wasn’t too shabby either.

Knobby Range was one of the few parts of the course new to me, and with a lovely morning (before the cruel southerly change) to enjoy it – one of my favourite parts.

The two weeks before Tour Te Waipounamu were a blur of GSB recovery, last minute preparation, work, little sleep and much writing. I kept telling myself that being underdone physically in preparing for what I expected to be the toughest bikepacking event I’d attempted was a good idea – although I was sceptical. In its first year, fifty riders were selected to race from the top to bottom of the South Island – with much of the course going through private land in the high country. There would be much pushing and carrying of bikes through the middle section – not exactly my forte.

It went as well as I could have hoped – I saw so much new country and many tremendous sights, the weather was exceedingly kind, the course provided the challenge I expected and I was able to finish a couple of days faster than planned. Sure, I could have gone a bit faster – but would have involved more night-riding, which I’m seldom keen to sacrifice seeing things for. There’s a comprehensive film of the race, which naturally I think is worth the fee.

Photo from hikebikecake.com

After averaging 200 km/day for the first two, the third of moving all day only netted sixty-four. A bit of a shock with all the pushing and carrying, but we made it over the toughest part of the course – the mostly-trackless Dampier Range.

A glorious warm evening pushing solo through the expanses of Mesopotamia Station was the stand-out moment of the race for me. Perhaps helped by having studied this area from the air three weeks before.

Another sixty-odd kilometre day involved much more rocky pushing and carrying to the high point of the course.

Things didn’t let up from there, with two hot and dry days into the heart of Otago.

A beautiful start to the last, and interestingly, easiest day of riding.

Made it! Well pleased with that week and completing the inaugural event.

Starting with a dislocated shoulder, I was thrilled how the first few months played out – it took some time to come off those highs. This was useful as I was already starting to wonder how I was going to make it through another year or so of process safety engineering – having recently realised my house had increased in value so much over five years (bonkers, disturbingly and ultimately bad news for NZ), that I’d be where I wanted to be financially five years earlier than expected. Unusually for me, around this time a relationship suddenly flourished and showed potential. Alas, I was mistaken and it ended as inexplicably as it began, taking a fair bit of dealing with.

Into and through winter was tough as I quickly realised just how unchallenged and disengaged I’d become at work, most unexpected from both my normal working self and a role that had challenged me for over five years. Energy levels were low and I struggled to get motivated to get out and about exploring in my usual way out of work – let alone working well. Maybe it was the lack of sleep – which had started with trying to sleep with an arm in a sling again. Something was wrong, but I no idea what was cause and what was effect. Stumbling over this article, at work unsurprisingly, ticked so many boxes it wasn’t funny – who knew boreout is even a thing? How did I get there?! Most things has always been interesting to me on some level…

About the only thing that was going well through this time, counter-intuitively, was running. Still regularly turning up at the local parkrun (free timed 5 km run around a local park every Saturday morning), I had a staggering run of personal bests. I’d not come remotely close to my PB of just over nineteen minutes in eighteen months. Perhaps with a bit more conditioning from TTW and a small foray into trail running (finally), five PBs over seven parkruns both surprised and pleased me no end. Almost a minute off and down close to eighteen minutes (didn’t quite make it before lockdown… parkrun has still not restarted) was astonishing.

Having on a whim signed up for a very hilly, mid-winter Central Otago trail half-marathon was the motivation to spend a bit more time running in the local hills. One of my few minor regrets from six years in Hawke’s Bay is not having spent more time running and hiking in the Kawekas – much more to explore there when I make it back. It was good to get out there a bit for some training. The race went unexpectedly well, keeping a fair pace for the first eighteen kilometres – but fading in the last five when going downhill was slowed markedly to something of a hobble. Still, forty-five minutes faster than hoped and in some good company. A long weekend with the family and taking the balance bike I’d overhauled and resprayed bright green for my nephew were added bonuses of that trip.

Still not feeling myself, despite some excellent support, I finally went to the doctor with something non-shoulder related – can’t remember the last time, another thing to be grateful for – and a long list of rather vague complaints. Blood test results later and the first steps to an eventual haemochromatosis diagnosis were made (I’ll try not to go on, having mentioned it previously). Having not heard of it – either in my family, or indeed, at all – it was surprising, and also confronting. At least there was some reason many of my vague symptoms, there seems to be no organ damage so far and treatment is straightforward – even if it means getting used to regular insertion of needles larger than I’d prefer. The venesection took a frustratingly long time to get started, considering how simple it is, but once underway my iron levels have dropped nicely to be only just above what is normal – still some way to go to get them to the low side of normal, but some improvement in symptoms is apparent.

Unfortunately I didn’t have the inspiration, energy or motivation to run a Hawke’s Bay Anniversary Tour this year. Pleasingly Andrew managed to organise access through a lot of private farmland to realise his long-held desire to ride from Napier to Wellington following the coast. I was fortunate to ride on two of the trips which showed me a lot of the lower North Island shore that I’d have never seen otherwise.

Work eventually became untenable with the disengagement and iron-overload fatigue, so I resigned, served out a three-month notice period, sold my house (going to market the morning the country suddenly goes into lockdown not recommended) and prepared to move south to spend the summer with family – plenty of big changes for all approaching, so it made sense to be around while also having a bit of a break. The last two months in Hawke’s Bay were spent with various trips to say goodbye to people in the central North Island, plenty of small adventures (I was pleased to finally paddle down the Whanganui River, that quintessential NZ trip) – including some local favourites, selling or packing belongings, ordering a new mountain bike and unfortunately retiring the old one early, one bikepacking event, much blood-letting (actual) and final goodbyes.

Finally skiing in the North Island – first day of not-working.

Some favourite local gravel roads and hills.

Absolute favourite Hawke’s Bay viewpoint with a great crew to share it with.

Down the Whanganui.

The Renegades Muster was a fabulous inaugural bikepacking event in the Whanganui and Taranaki regions.

After two weeks driving south with plenty of visits to extended family and close friends, and small running/biking/hiking outings, I’m pleased to be down south with my family for Christmas and into the New Year. This year certainly has been one of much change for me, unfortunately a bit light on the bike with the bike-commute ending – only 9000 km, but I’ve enjoyed the extra running I’ve done – 500 km my biggest year yet, just. As for next year, who knows? Surely it can’t have as many big changes as this year; but just what it will hold is both exciting and daunting in the opportunities that may present and be taken. Hopefully the energy for more adventures and new sights…

Best wishes to all, thanks to all that have been along for the ride (literal and figurative) and offered support along the way.  Well done if you’ve managed to read so much of my writing – thank you.