New Zealand & Australia (Sydney) - Total Down Under Tour 2004
Friday, 07 July 2006
Preparations.
So back I am from down under! And in on piece just as well!
Did not do as many kilometres as planned but still had lot of fun and saw fantastic and very different part of the world. I figured out that since I am not running a marathon of any kind I can just concentrate on things I wish to do and not only think about the distance covered.
Whatever you do it must be fun....
so let's start the diary boys and girls!
I've always wanted to visit NZ, and finally decided to do so. Before even in my dreams I would not have thought that I would be doing it on the bike. But what the hell, why not.
Once decision was made things started to roll. Original plan was January, but then I moved it March. Again lot's of reading and research. Got some books and could start planning the route.
Good thing about Europe, is that you do not need visa almost anywhere (this will change soon). But as soon as you leave our old land you start to have obstacles. But here I must say that New Zealand Embassy in London was very helpful. Originally I started to look around in Vienna, but quickly been directed to London. I called, and 1st problem, guys would need my passport for period 2-6 weeks! Since my job requires some travelling I could not afford to part with my passport for so long. At the end of the day I sent only copy of my document and it was sufficient. I think 2 or 3 weeks later I picked my visa from NZ Embassy in London (then I could provide original passport :-) ). Thanks to NZ Embassy in London.
Destination: New Zealand (South Island)
Planned dates: March 5 - 29, 2004. Looking at ~1.000 km to cover. Draft route - Christchurch - Queenstown - Wanaka - Haast - Greymouth - Christchurch
Now 2nd problem, since I will be coming back via Sydney, I had to do visa for Australia as well. (wierd). But what was bad turned round to be quite fortunate - Australian transit visa allows to stay for 3 days in the country. So I changed my ticket to be able to cycle around Sydney for 3 days!!!
As to the rack I had some problems finding one in Austria. Since I have fork with suspension, you are quite limited as what you can mount. Actually you do not have much choice in Europe (mainland). Having read tons of pages on the web I found shops offerring racks I needed, but 99% did not ship to Europe, and if you find shops in UK, they do not ship outside of UK or Ireland. Well, finally I found shop in Edinburgh that was able to deliver the rack to Austria(£29,99 + £5 delivery)
The route. I would higly recommend Nigel Rushton's "Pedallers' Paradise". Booklet packed with concise information including gradients, route options, and accommodation details is simply invaluable.
I also had a map but this was just an addition. I have found the link to Nigel on the web, and from him got a contact to a bookshop in Germany where from I have obtained my copy.
