VISA Trip To NZ

Well it seems like an eternity ago now but I’ll write up a few things I did while in NZ for about 2 weeks to get my new VISA to enable me to work in the States for a longer period of time. I landed in Auckland at the same time as Matt, early on Saturday morning way back on Sept 19th. Matt had been away in Bolivia and Peru working and it was his first time back in NZ in 2.5 years. It was great to catch-up at Marke and Paula’s place that weekend. Pretty good timing really. They flew in from London via Hong Kong and I from LA and landed within 20 mins of each other.

After being put to work in Marke and Paula’s yard making a retaining wall I biked at Woodhill with Marke and the Auckland MTB Club that afternoon. It was great fun and I always have a good time at Woodhill. After an evening at the Cooper Room in Taka’s drinking Monteith’s and watching the ABs I crashed that night. The next day we all went for a walk at Piha Beach. I love that beach. That evening Marke showed me some of the local technical trails on the North Shore. A little tough on the SS but I can’t complain as Marke also only had one gear but also no suspension.

The next day I caught up with some colleagues in Auckland after getting my VISA at the US Consulate. Yip. I needed to fly halfway across the world to sit in a room for an hour waiting to talk to a US VISA person for 10mins. In this day and age of carbon miles, dwindling oil supplies and global warming this seems a bit off. Anyhow it meant I had an excuse to head home for a while.

I landed in Welly on Monday night and had till Sunday in the capital. As most people were working I rode out at Wainui and Makara on 3 occasions. It was great to ride the wicked Welly Trails again. I forget how different they are to over here in Redlands. I had totally forgotten how to ride Deliverance. I think it is rougher now but geez in the wet and the roots and the rocks I was all over the show. Crickey. They rest of the time was spent hanging out in town, catching up with friends for lunches and hanging out with Bridget.

On the Sunday night after a pretty cold week in Welly I landed next to the sheep paddocks in Timaru to hang out with the parents and Lauren for a few days. I had a good time of course. I ate lots of Mum’s incredible cooking and baking including homemade Licorice Ice Cream. Mmmm... I also did a couple of rides with Dad for the first time in many years on the local Timaru Trails. Good times. I think he got a little idea of what I really get up to on the bikes these days. Bit different than when I was a teenager and most of the riding was in the flat Burwood Plantation in Christchurch. We also went for a drive through Geraldine, Woodbury and up the Rangitata Gorge/Valley. Lovely country and it reminded me how awesome the Southern Alps are. After too short a time I was back onto the big bird destined for LA.

Tioga Pass and Road Biking in Mammoth

Well it’s been a wee while since I last had a post on here. I have just been chilling. Hitting the beach a few times and relaxing after a busy first half of the year focused around racing on two wheels.

Last weekend I headed up to Mammoth, this time with Derek which meant that we had road bikes in tow, not the usual mountain bikes. Anyway we left early and by the time 1pm rolled by we were zooming down the 395 from June Lake towards Tioga Pass. This is the pass you must cross to get to the Eastern Entrance of Yosemite National Park. The climb started on the valley floor at about 7000ft and headed up too just under 10000ft. 9945ft to be exact. We were guttered. Anyway it hurt. The altitude was felt as was the steepness. It was however the most beautiful place I have ever ridden a road bike. Incredible passing by huge avalanche slopes and lovely lakes with huge valleys and peaks all around. The pictures though pretty good do not show the scope of this country side. It was epic.

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Even more epic was the downhill. What took us 1.5hrs to chug up was dealt to in about 15-20 mins of downhill. Man Derek was just ahead of me, we were tucked. He shook his head and I looked at the speedo. Yep. 60.3mph. Dam. Insane. 100 clicks in metric terms. It was awesome though we got out of the tuck position both from excitement and from self preservation and never went faster. We were catching up to traffic real fast. Anyway it was exhilarating. I still cannot believe how stable those bikes are. So light but at speed that carbon is just so stiff.

The rest of this ride was tough. Derek started to drag the anchor, but man he did so well coming out of some surgery not a month before. My legs were wrecked too especially due to the head winds and rolling hills past Grant, Silver and June lakes. The Jacuzzi helped out immeasurably that evening however.

That night we were met by Dave, Kendra and Kerri who had come to spend the weekend up in Mammoth also. They did some great hiking. The two nights we had there were spent playing Apples to Apples. This is the best board game out. Add a bit of booze and it means you have the grumpy neighbor knocking on our door at 10pm saying that she was angry from the night before by all the noise of people having fun the night before. Man. We should have offered her earplugs. She did live in a condo next to another one that is rented out to holidaymakers coming to Mammoth to have FUN.

Another ride Derek and I did was also awesome. It consisted of a round trip down to the Devils Postpile. Awesome extruded hexagonal lava outcrops are the main attraction here. I visited this site the year before. Riding down there was awesome though. Mammoth really is a sweet spot. From Hiking, rock climbing, cross country mountain biking and downhill and also sweet road riding. And that’s just in summer.

Before we hit the long drive home through the desert we visited Mono Lake. What a weird place. 10% salt in that lake. So it’s real salty due to evaporation being the only way the lake loses its water. Also there are real weird limestone formations call Tufa. They grow under the water and when the level of the lake drops they are visible sticking up like little spires round the shoreline. The pics will give you a better idea of what I am talking about.

Yesterday I just did a 100 mile road ride with Derek aswell as Lee and Eric. Their first big big ride. At lunch in Big Bear after 2500m of climbing Eric told us it was his birthday. Pretty sweet doing your first century on your birthday if you ask me.

Anyway this is my last post before I head back to NZ to get a new working VISA and catch-up with all the peps. This time I will take a bike back home so I can remember what riding in mud, on roots and not in 35 degrees is like. The riding is so different to here which is good. Variety is the spice of life after all. After that there is a variety of shenanigans planned so keep posted to see how it goes. I have lots to look forward too and can’t wait.

So till my next post from the road take care,

Kurt