This part of the journey ends for me

I finally made it back to good ol' Charlotte. 48hours of travel, 2 red-eye flights, 8 cups of crappy coffee, 4 beers, and 6 hours of sleep later I am greeted at the airport by Jon Tumas and Jon Evans. It was so good to see familiar faces. After some needed sleep catch up, I've had some time to process the events of the trip and have had the strange opportunity to have a moment of clarity. There are so many things that I miss about being in another country, especially NZ. Most of all, though, is the people. The states are filled with people that are not trustworthy. These people are categorized into 3 groups. Those that steal, those that lie, and those that lie to make themselves feel better about themselves. I know that everyone fits into one of these categories at one point or another, but my focus here is the ones that live in any one of those categories. I guess I just need this post to vent about that inconsistency. I've always known that there are people in this world that are liars. And I've always known that those people have the biggest insecurity of all. Why is it that people will tell lies that are clearly not true, or have so little truth to them they are not even checked? I used to be a professional cross country racer in Europe. I have 6 sponsors that payed for my travel and my food while I was there. I raced for a company that does not sponsor riders from the US. That company actually is not distributed in the US. I'm not from Europe and would have no way of getting a sponsorship like that. I am a complete tool. There is no need for any of this monotony. I can't understand why people can't just be themselves. It was my parents that taught me to not give (too much of) a shit what people thought of me. They did this whether they were conscience of it or not. So thanks Mom and Dad for making sure that I'm not too much of a douche. I owe you my life for it, and I believe that I will be rewarded for it in the end. I'm 26 years old now and I want that reward. I've sat in front of so many people that are "Me Monsters" and I want my cake so that I can eat it too. I want to be seen for what I am. I see myself as a good person that tells my stories how they happened, I'm not fake, I don't dye my hair, I don't wear make-up, I don't have any tattoos with lame stories, I don't even have any tattoos at all! I don't make up features of my life that never existed, I don't have anything to hide.  If there is one thing that I wish would go away is those "Me Monsters". I only spent a month in NZ, and I only met hundreds of people. What is strange to me is that of those hundreds of people, none of them fed me a load of BS. I'm friends with Paul Turner, here are the pictures. I own a bike shop, here is the key. I race for Niner, here is my bike. I am married, here is my husband. I won SSWC10, here is my tattoo. If you read this, it will most likely be my last post on here and I must thank you for sticking with us. We're not writers, but my philosophy is that there is no point in having/doing anything cool unless you can share it with someone else. So I've done my best to share this experience because I thought it was super cool. I'd love some feedback on this one to ensure that I'm not crazy or missing the point of life. If I'm the one that is out of line I need to know so that I can realign myself. The next step for me is to start planning a trip to Ireland for SSWC11!

This is all I can do

It's been too long since the last post. I realized that this whole blog thing, is really about everyone else to read what is going on here. At first I was thinking that it was nice to get ideas out and get some closure on the days that pass. I'm getting the understanding that it is a combination of both. I guess we haven't blogged since Bobby got here two weeks ago! I'm so lame. We've been nonstop since he got here, with working at the hotel, schmoozing with locals and riding bikes whenever there is free time. This is really supposed to be zac's turn to write, but I felt the need to talk a bit. The race itself was the most fun i've had on a bike since....since...since, EVER! Dale and the N-Duro crew have put on an amazing event! The costumes were awesome and everything. Most of the photo's are on facebook by now, but I'm sure people will post more shortly. At the event afterparty, we had the luck of meeting Ian, a fellow SS rider that lives in Wellington. He gave the three of us a ride down there so that we could hop on the ferry to Picton in the south island. We then rented a car and proceeded to drive about 3000km in 4 days. We saw it all, as quickly as possible. Everything from the East coast to Christchurch, to Queenstown....from Mt. Cook, to Fox and Franz glaciers. The pictures will speak from themselves, although they will never do this place justice. I have no words, pictures, or recounts that will represent the magnificence that this country holds. Thats all for now. The video at the top there is the 360 degree view from near Mt. Cook.

Did you bring the eggs?

     I've been uttering the title of this blog for the past few days to Zac every time I smell the pungent sulfur waft through the air. I'm starting to get used to it, and it even makes me a little hungry for eggs. This place is Amazing!!! I'm so taken by this whole experience. Rotorua would be the place to move to, if indeed I were to move here. The day we got here it was raining and cold, but even through that, Rotorua has won me over. We rolled into Kiwi Bikes the next day to check out the scene at the sponsering shop and we greeted with a beer and Youtube vids of last year's NZ single speed champs. Then that afternoon we were taken on a "bro-ride" with the guys from BikeCulture (the shop 5 doors down from Kiwi). We got a taste of the local rides as well as some illegal trails that only they know about and cut themselves. Turns out that Culture is the shop owned by Mike, who is Rob's brother. Rob is friends with Andrew that we stayed with outside of Aukland. We somehow have found ourselves in the mix with there coolest people on earth. If we make it down to Christchurch we've already been hooked up with Andrew's friend Paul Turner.  And to make matters worse.....Yesterday at the Whaka 100, Zac was descending a particularly fast section and ran across a few guys yelling "North Carolina!!!! Yea Hail the Pisgah!!!" over and over. It makes an east coast rider weep with tears of happiness. So it seems that we've already made a name for ourselves here. After the awards the three of us headed back to the hotel that we're staying/working to get some sleep, when we hear the unmistakable sound of single speed antics coming from Kiwi Bikes. BTW, both Kiwi and Culture are across the street from where we lay our tired spunout legs. (sidenote, Rotorua is a small town. there are 7 bike shops here and the rest of the businesses here are bars, backpackers, or coffee shops....does it get better?) Investigation must occur. We are again greeted with afterhours beer. Which, by the way, is the best beer Rotorua has to offer. I don't mean to be a snob, but the beer here kind of sucks. It has good flavor but it's not "high gravity" Dad, you'd be right at home. Anyway, we stayed for a while and today we're going back to the shop and Jeff, the owner, is going to give us a small clinic on frame building.  He also is going to try and set us up a tour of the brewery of the best beer in NZ.

To quote John Travolta: They got the same shit over there as we got here, but its just the little differences. You know what they put on fries in Holland? Mayonaise! I seen 'em do it man, they fuckin' drown 'em in that shit.

The point here is that there is no censorship here. Zac and I watched "The Naked Office" the other day, and it was just that. Everyone uses the same language all the time....even children! It's Awesome! and wierd.

unitl we get home

I understand that you might be becoming restless wondering how Tim and I have been occupying our time the past few days with. Well don't worry we will soon fill you in on our exciting, dangerous, daring, and breath taking past week.

For those of you who can not wait here is some rare footage captured around downtown Rotorua.

The Statute of Liberty

The past few days have been a culmination of amazing experiences. I am going to avoid delivering the play by play because no one wants to hear that even from their spouse, even though that’s what we sometimes get .We're usually too tired at that point or simply content having someone willing to share their day with us to do anything about it. So many of us endure the play by play day after day but that’s not what I am going to do. A sequential series of feelings along with a few meaningful images transmitted into each other’s brains would be a far more affective portrait of ones occurrences’, lest drowning the significant moments in the details, hence the need for abstraction in art, poetry over prose or MSG in our food. I hate the play by play.

 We found ourselves invited to stay at quite picturesque farmstead north of Auckland. The family was very warm and surprisingly trusting toward a couple of brambling foreigners several days minus showers and much longer plus beards. Prepared to cook and mind to ourselves we were further invited to dinners of smoked snapper pie, roast lamb over stewed vegetables and rosemary apple pie, don’t forget the ice cream. We cleaned and did what we could to keep karma allied with us, however there was no way around it being a win for traveling team.

We reached Woodhill at last and I must admit I intend to become well versed in this emerging genre of cross-stuntry (CS).Yes there were isolated dirt jump courses and a few big bike only big hits but further out the groomed swoopy packed sand based trail was littered with stunt after stunt to skinny to ladder bridge to totter to gap to berm step up log skinny double double ladder bridge...basically a large scale game of chutes’ and ladders ending in a bike orgasm.. a bikegasm, a bikeogasm, yes! We indulged two days of this ever tempted to go bigger but being on light bikes, Tim and I had to finally admit it was a  ticking time bomb out there and it best not to stick around to see our race wheels go KA-POW.

We made our farewells at the farmstead and headed to a fantastic(perhaps even fantastical) black sand beach for the night. Big surf, sheer cliffs and a deep tidal alcove surrounded our hammocking spot. Now after a sleepy bus ride we are in Rotorua. It’s time to rebuild bikes and get back trailside. Im stoked to see the course and get our bearings. Tim and I are currently entertaining the kick off 100k race on sat, we'll keep posted on that. The egg smell is making me hungry...

If these hills had ears....

As if we needed another reason to ask the question (what were we thinking?) We went for a long ride today. We've estimated total distance to be 60Km. It was one of those rides where before the halfway point, you ask yourself: is this really a good idea. At that halfway point we were talking about bringing Hannah and Sonny some coffee since we fisished it off that morning. It was then that it was realized that neither of us had any money with us and I was carring more camera and tools than food. The energy and power I had in my system was the best french toast that has ever been prepared ever. Ask any grandmother, or even french people and they will agree that whatever slop they make doesn't hold a candle. Man it was really good! Even as I sit here now thinking about it, I have to close my eyes for a minute and recount the joy that was happening on the trusty taste buds.  Then, nearing the point of utter fatigue, my mind was forced to leave the memories of breakfast majesty and settled on the pain and suffering that was going to consume me for the remainder of the ride. There are certain things that run through my mind at a time like that. One of them was jumping a fence, nabbing an unsuspecting sheep, shearing it with the multi-tool in my jersey pocket, and making a sweater with it to help stave off the brutal wind. Another thought was finding something to chew on, maybe an egg from a passing bird, or some leaves. Then we found ourselves sitting on a bench in a small gravesite (after I killed Zac's cows, of course). There were graves there from 1912 and 1886! Somehow after all of the delirium and foul language, we made it back to base. Pizza was calling to us. A much deserved local brew and some ice cream, and now its time for sleep.  Long story longer: If these hills had ears, they would have heard the most foul language known to man. Things that no one has ever heard, things that we made up as we went along, were uttered. Those monster hills also felt our strongest sweat, and our fastest tires. So, here's to you hills, you threw your best at us, and gave our best to you. There is a new mutual respect to be had on this Island of Waiheke. Below are the delicious beers post-ride, as well as the map of the ride we took today.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4093349

Sometimes you have to give way

After last nights celebration with our first Kiwi beer our third day began a bit later than the previous. The morning light illuminated three options. I decided in my sleep last night any action with enough conviction would make our third day a success. Today's probable courses were as follows:
1. Amend yesterdays failure in reaching Woodhill mountain bike park, which is approx fifty kilometers from our spot in Auckland (a little beyond riding range considering knobby tires, one gear and a return trip). We made a contact at a local bike shop with a true blue Kiwi rider named KB. He agreed to take us up there near where he lives as long as it coincides with his schedule. We also considered renting a car for a to-be-determined rate.
2. Make a B line for Rotorua, The mtb capital of New Zealand, less than two weeks out from sswc10 becoming familiar with the trails would be clutch. The train from Auckland is cheap, however final stop would only deliver us about two thirds of the way there to a town called Hamilton. Hitching a ride the rest of the way would be unlikely with all of our bike gear. The prospect of taking the bus was also a crap shoot (bikes tolerated at drivers discretion).
3. We made a Facebook contact once we arrived in Auckland with an old friend from Green Cove. Actually she was Tim's friend, Hannah VanLaanen and I managed to work together for the summers of 2007-08 in the Mondo-Green Cove microcosm and never make acquaintances. I am perplexed as to how this is possible but glad to now have made the acquaintance as I sit in her living room, drinking coffee and enjoying the view of the bay . Hannah met us at our Starbucks Internet port at nine am offering a brief tour around the city and welcomed us a place to stay at she and her partners* Bach out on Waiheke Island*.

Bottom line Waiheke Island is wonderful, About a forty minute ferry ride from Auckland it is bushier than the mainlands with large rolling hills, grassy slopes and panoramic views. Also the home of a bohemian art community we were greeted by an array of sculpture as we walked with Hannah to her place. With good directions were so fortunate to find Whihake islands local mtb trail network, short but a burst of elevation with some very unique rollers and berms. The conclusion of our ride session was followed by homemade chicken soup, several bottles of wine and the most engaging late night conversation. Tomorrow waits promising and undiscovered.

*partner in NZ simply means an adult relationship, unlike the PC same sex connotation in the states.
*Whihake is Maori for falling water.
*Mike Harrington if you read this I just saw my first NZ rainbow.