Today I started the Tour Aotearoa, the 3000km (1800 mile) cycling route linking the northern most point of New Zealand with its southern most point.

To get there has taken about 19 days, and has come with a bit of its own crazy story, which will be retroactively added to. But to summarize, in those 19 days I have traveled from Christchurch, which is about 2/3rds of the way up the South Island, all the way to the tippy top of the north. To do this I first cycled from Christchurch to Picton via the Sounds To Sounds route, another long distance trail connecting the Queen Charlotte in the north to the Milford Sound in the south. From Picton I took a ferry to Wellington, and stayed a few days seeing the town. The ultimate goal, however, was to get to the start of the Tour - no easy feat. In the end, I opted to take a car, and drove (on the wrong side of the road) from Wellington to Auckland. From Auckland I took a bus to a town called Kaitaia, then cycled the 100ish kms (during which I waited out a storm which brought ~4.7 inches of rain) to the Cape Reinga lighthouse, and the start of the trail.

There are, of course, many parts of this story which have been grossly summarized here, but to get something out, I have chosen to skip them in favor of writing about this new natural starting place, with the intention to fill them in later.

So, cut to the tip of the north island, nearing the beginning of the journey.

The journey to get here, as alluded to, had been long and circuitous. It had also been hard in a way I was not expecting. The loneliness of an open road, with only a little bit of a plan, was starting to get to me.

To read the rest, follow the link:

https://alexstrong.design/posts/starting-the-long-road/