The trip started as an idea that I brought up to Brett pretty randomly…lets bike to Dunedin as I wanted to visit Hayley and Brett and I could use the exercise and could be fun right?

The day before ………April 20^th, 04

Squeezed in a morning 3mile run with drills before the shopping frenzy.

Well I’ve always felt that to do a sport seriously you need the right gears…so Brett and I headed into the local cycle shop and bought some pretty high end body suits….straight out of the tour de France…(.is that Tyler Hamilton oh wait its just Brett..ricies)…Brett had to out due me with his helmet and socks…fine then I bought some slicks for my mtn bike so I would be able to keep up to Brett a little better on his rd bike. I was bit nervous about getting flat tires so I bought like 4 spare inner tubes…pegs not get flat tires in the middle of a good ride. When we were in the bike shop a local hardcore comes up to us and says “you guys aren’t serious athletes as you have hair on your legs”  well before I got defensive I looked down at my legs and thought they would look a lot better without that peach fuzz on them.

Dropped Brett off at home then polished a nice 11mile run in Hagley Park. Picked Kangers up from work as I have been driving his car. Get home..and about those legs???

So one min monkeys and then next bitch legs…what about those rashes that came from the razor…..martha!  Took me a good 45mins to shave them!!!

Brett and Matt Fuller picked me up in his hippie fan and waved Willow and the family good bye..

So legs shaved legs, gears, and what about getting those slicks on my bike for the next day…I couldn’t manage, Peter had his fair go and then finally Brett after a good hr got them to go…some tires these days geeezz!   What about laundry at 1am and sleeping in Lana’s sparkly bed!

Day 1 (April 21, 04)

6am snuck up on us fast….polished some muesli & Weet-Bix and not to mention some of Peter’s yogurt….whoops!!

 Headed out on the rd at 7am with our bags full of clothes and snacks, the morning was quite cool first stepping outside but after riding for like 10 mins we were all ready quite hot and wanted to stop and strip down and put on some butter on our skin aka sunscreen.

We got the pace moving for a bit and it felt good to be biking so early in the morning, it made you feel really alive and in touch with yourself…just as my head was starting to buzz…  Brett has to go and get a flat tire…pull over and change flats.. What about those road side Cosbies like 5mins from a real bathroom in Rolleston…Brett has to!

Bike in to Rolleston and pull up to this little park area with 2 soccer fields side by side…perfect spot for a morning run…park the bikes and get into my AM 3miles with drills, as I’m running  I glance over to see Brett getting into some random push-ups and sit-ups..pretty funny but good on ya Brett!  Have a quick stretch once finished and then head into town and get a quick bite to eat not to mention a quick leg elevation at the local park right in the middle of the town..pretty funny…(2 skinny guys in spandex with their legs up against trees in the middle of the town)  Got back on the rd and ripped of probably about 40kms with the sun beating down on us at quite a fierce pace. When we stopped for water, Brett needed to change his tire on his bike… I had a little nap in the shade…the sun was starting to get to us a bit. Got back on the Saddle for a good 1.5hrs and then stopped in Ashburton for my 10mile run…at this point I was starting to feel a bit run down and exhausted, I started the run at quite a decent pace but got through about 30mins of the run and I was practically walking (Well Nolan maybe trying and biking over 100kms and running 13miles in 1 day isn’t the best Idea….shibas) packed in the run at about 4miles and told Brett that the sun, biking and running had gotten to me and I needed to rest before anymore biking…we called it a day, not the biggest day of biking… but what about tomorrow????…hang on I’m getting there. We rode around looking for somewhere to stay and found a backpackers after asking numerous people where to find it…get a backpackers and then hide it at the rear of the city so no one can find it..makes sense right? Finally we check into the packbackers…Nolan realizes it isn’t a 5 star resort and starts to get uncomfortable. The rooms looked more like a scene from an old horror movie…was it?  Some of the locals seemed to live there? Drunken Pete…Luke’s mates

Play paper, scissors, rock who has to pull the pin on the lady….we cut it quite close as she was coming down the hall with our ghetto blankets…best out of 3…hahaha  So were back on the saddles…find a hotel, and check in…then head to the local Countdown and buy the hell feed!!  I didn’t know New Zealand had a King….Let alone 2 of them…ricies

Feeds…...lots of yans and finally hit the sack and snored like babies!!!

Day 2 (April 22, 04)

Woke up @ 9: 30am and polished a beautiful breakfast of muesli and yogurt and fruit. Not bad ya! Mucked around packing and showered…well Nolan did and Brett waited.

Checked out of hotel @ 10:30am …about those early starts….oh wait we hadn’t planned on one….never mind. Realize its raining and pretty cold outside so pop on tights over top of bike gears and were on our way. We cruise out of Ashburton and find ourselves with a blocked road and take advantage of it by biking in the middle and spinning some good yans. (yans….That means talking by the way) it worked out quite nice ya! After biking for a good 1hr 30 we had a stop on the side of the road and had lunch right by a farmer’s field. Tuna sandwiches and bananas didn’t go astray …that’s for sure. Saw a little Japanese man pass us on his bike with his whole house attached…..he was biking at like 12km’s an hr, so we knew we would catch up to him pretty quickly once back on the saddles. Started to get cold so packed up and polished another 1hr 30 on the saddle…this time coming through to Timaru. As we were entering Timaru…Brett decides he wants to race cars, so flips in high gears and takes off passing a car on the road and weaves right through the traffic. Nolan’s bike can’t really keep up so he’s left watching behind. Hoping to visit Jack Lovelock’s museum but get ricied again and have to just see the statue and wait another couple years till I’m in New Zealand again to see the medals and video footage. Our clothes are quite wet now and were feeling pretty cold and hungry so we pop into a laundry mat and strip down into as little as we can and chuck everything into the dryer…..while waiting we ate our tuna sandwiches and were entertained by a 6 year old who was there with her Grandpa….it was quite hysterical ..Brett and I being stupid with here and Her grandpa a bit embarrassed with everything…ya we loved it!

About those sandals in the dryer…not the best idea and Brett’s insoles as well!  Changed in Burger King and were ready to hit the rd again.  We popped on our mp3 players and put our heads down and ripped off some serious miles here, we took turns leading and trailing…had a good buzz with trance going and really driving the legs hard. If there was ever a stage of the trip that we changed from boys to Men this was it…. Or was it the hills into Dunedin?….averaging 35km’s or faster for a good 1.5hrs we were starting to feel hungry and tired once again, so decide to coast for a bit…it was growing dark quickly and we weren’t really close to anything as far as cities or towns so decide to pop on lights and make the big push to Omarau. Nolan wasn’t so keen but he didn’t really have a choice. Where else were you going to stay Nolan? This is true... so biked on another hr….some of those cars were getting really close to us and could barely see us if at all! But made it into Omarau in one piece (the biking in the dark was pretty scary and dodgy as roads in New Zealand don’t really have a shoulder on them at all). Pulled up to Brett’s cousins house the “Lemming’s” and it was just like the video game…they kept popping out of everywhere! They have something like 11 family members (sound of music what?)

Enjoyed a hot shower and some eggs and toast and then chilled out for a bit but realized we had another big day in front of us tomorrow and should probably hit the sack….so passed out at about 10”30pm after some journaling. Got woken up from some of the partying “Lemming’s” that came in late.

Day 3 April 23, 05

Woke up @ 7:30am and ate and packed up and were on our way. Thanks to the Lemming’s for their kind hospitality.

My stomach was feeling a bit weird and unsettled today? Big day of biking in front of us 150km’s with a big portion of it in the hills! So we were off for the final leg. It started off as quite a nice day leaving Omarau. The hills didn’t wait and started to sneak up as we were leaving Omarau. Biked for a good 1.5hrs and then stopped in a small town and ate Tuna and Bread at some Picnic table at the top of a hill…pretty nice scenery. Cooled off a lot stopping again (well what do you expect Nolan…your all wet with sweat and your pores are open….did you think you were going to warm up stopping in the wind at the top of a hill…thanks tips…no problem) Jumped back on the saddles starting to feel excited as we were closing in on Dunedin like nobodies business, we knew we still had a fair way to go….got into a nice stretch of biking along the coast. I learned of Brett’s past romance’s and Kate...but nothing really developed with her..or did it? What really happened in the dark room at badger? Why does Brett talk about that room so fondly? Nolan filled Brett in on Meggan, Kenna, and Hayley and about all his racing from High School…lets just say there were some good yans spun. Brett got run off the road by some rude truck driver that made Brett go off the road..he got some nice scratches on his quad with some fresh blood…just to add some drama into the trip….(I didn’t know the Cosbie’s were coming out with a thriller) We stopped at some truck stop and finished off most of our food and had some pretty good laughs….what was with that hippie van and those people…but actually who looked funnier us or them?…what about us trying to pee with our body suits on …can be a bit of a hassle ya!  Packed up and got into some nice hills and descents! On the downhill’s my bike was struggling to keep with Brett’s again…my gears wouldn’t go high enough and Brett would out pedal me…Pretty choice descending a hill at like 65km’s an hr or faster, gets pretty cold after sweating for awhile! Mizone’s and PowerAde’s got their fair share of action throughout the ride…

WE had some challenging climbs before we arrived into Dunedin. Two of the climbs I remember as being really testing…you had your bike on the lowest gear and had to constantly pedal just to keep the bike going…not a bad old test for the quads….( what about that trucker that honked at us just after getting to the top of a big climb…it was foggy which added to the whole feeling of climbing in the mtns or were they hills? Anyway, had a nice final descent into Dunedin. I remember when we arrived we felt like Kings and were ready for a welcoming…we  sure got it…waited in a park and started to freeze our asses off so while waiting for Hayley we sunk into some Tomato soup all you can eat style…”are you sure that’s not tomato paste?” 

Finally got a hold of Hayley and the rest is history…….

What about that 2hr run I did in a park about the size of a 300m track..abit monotonous ya!   Then there were the flat jokes…”Ok its Sunday, lets look on the fridge here,  Brett’s on garbage’s and Nolan is on Dishes”   the funny thing is they really did have schedules like that….Brett had some good yans with the roomies…ricies   “where’s all the salsa? Did Hayley put in for that?” and then there was Killers in the middle of the day in the middle of the house, chin-ups on the balcony. Hayley’s training runs that Brett and I tag along for..I didn’t know Hayley’s coach was Einstein …turned into another Cosbie mission for Brett…whats with this guy? Then running into Poo Finger on a random run…wtf?  What about The Sunday night pizza and wedge’s @ Philadelphia’s …pretty bawling feed and yans ya….the laundry mat after having wine Sat night hahah