Shall I muse silently upon the deeds of recent past, or shall I recount them for you dear Reader?My saddle time has been curtailed with a journey to the South Island to visit the place of my spawning and the bosom of my parents. It was also a chance for the co-habitating one point three metres of punching testosterone to spend some time with animals and pasture in a gentle environment.
As always it is an interesting experience to visit somewhere familiar and compare it to where I now live. Christchurch is flat, but butted up to the city are the Port Hills, and an hours drive away across the plains are the foothills of the ranges.Bike riding is pretty easy, apart from when it's a howling Norwest wind, or the temperature takes one of those almighty plunges that it can down that way as a front comes through.What is interesting is that there are a huge number of quiet country roads that are pancake flat, close to the city and as boring as Coronation Street, but also close by are the Port Hills and Lyttleton Harbour. 
While not riddled with roads, they do have a mix of terrain and climbs (and vistas) to make any rider swoon. The Summit Road is magnificent, only real drawback is that it's hellishly exposed to the wind on the tops and is very narrow, so the odd bad driver can be a pretty unpleasant surprise.Great roads, and I wished I'd had my bike with me.We did also venture inland to visit a relative who manages a large station, this place is a working station, with several thousand head of merino sheep and a few hundred head of deer. My loin fruit was thrilled to run wild, talk to animals, ride things and be involved in a bit of sheep saving when the weather turned savage. For a city kid like him it was heaven.The station is also well set up as a tourist operation with a lodge and gardens. It's spectacular country and is riddled with farm tracks, spectacular trout fishing and some MTB trails. It's just begging to be explored by bike. And soon it should be. The local runholders have become very active in campaigning to establish a bike trail as part of the new National Cycleway.
From near Arthurs Pass down to Christchurch, off road, using a mix of existing farm tracks, rail corridor and a few new trails. The trail will run through a lot of the Waimakariri Gorge and pass through magnificent scenery. The thinking will be to use some of the existing working huts and provide infrastructure to enable these to be provisioned for cycling visitors in a fashion similar to the Central Otago Railtrail. Brilliant thinking, allows the masses to see country that has remained unreachable up until now and provides another potential revenue stream for the local economy.From a purely selfish point of view my real interest in the area lies with my relative. Some of it I went through as a child, going fishing or similar, but only on the margins. Now, through him there is a door that has been opened for me to go and ride some truly big country, true expedition riding. That, to me, is just pure, unalloyed gold.
This morning, on Chris Laidlaw's regular Radio New Zealand National Sunday show, was this interesting piece on Cycle Friendly Cities. The fifty two minute piece covers three sections, a cycle culture expert on Copenhagen, a Wellington City Councillor and developments in Wellington and then Kieran Turner, CEO of BikeNZ. It's aimed more around commuting cycling and leisure, than recreation, but does provide food for thought and is certainly worth a listen.The audio can be found here
Back to my knitting and away from recent diversions. I'm guessing that most of you didn't read the blurb I wrote about the National Cycleway when it was buried in the back of a post where I railed at Jorge the Insipid. This is damn important for us all as cyclists, so I repeat the meat of the article again.
Interestingly, only two readers have followed either of the links, and one was from Manchester, England! It is important to understand what we are getting with the National Cycleway, and what it means, so at risk of sounding like a nag, here it is again-
The new National Cycleway announcements are indeed exciting, and are neatly summarised with maps and overviews here:-http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/0907/NewZealandCyclewayQuickStartTracks.pdf
I do commend the Government for this initiative and the vision that is behind it, but I think there is currently a great deal of misunderstanding in the wider cycling community as to the form that these cycle paths will take. From reading the summary of the Quick Start Tracks all of the tracks will be metal and unsuitable for road bike use.
The aim appears to be to establish a network of trails similar to the Central Otago Rail Trail and the Christchurch to Little River Rail Trail. These trails are important and will provide new exercise and recreational opportunities, but may not provide a feasible, safe alternative to existing roads that are too dangerous to currently ride. A good example is the proposed track from Paeroa to Waihi. Currently SH2, running through the Karangahake Gorge, is far too narrow and busy to consider riding comfortably, but it is the only road that runs across the bottom of the Coromandel Peninsula. A good sealed track should be mandatory here, so as to allow safe passage through the Karangahake Gorge.
Additionally, at the stage of writing, no formal research has been published by the Ministry of Tourism. Currently they are undertaking research, but how, with whom and where they are conducting this research is not obvious.
To assist with getting the tracks you would like, become active with suggestions to the relevant parties.
Here is one option:-
http://www.tourism.govt.nz/Our-Work/New-Zealand-Cycleway-Project/Keeping-Informed/
Speak up, share your thoughts.
If we don't speak up, then we may lose a great opportunity to have a world class cycle network.
Recently I was asked if Jorge the Fibber, who is a follower of mine, was my alter-ego. I was mortified, not only did some of his impure suggestions offend, his picture looks like a bad cross between The Worm fitting a tight tyre and Boy George.This prompted me to set off on a trail of discovery. What I did discover is that Jorge is from the USA. Not just any part of Amerika, but from the place of Dualies, Gun Racks and Stetsons, in other words, Texas. He is the proud waver of Hook'em Horns and has a picture of Bevo tattooed on his body.All okay so far, except I understand that he has recently acquired a tenure with the Department of Defence, he and his wife have taken out a part share in a retired ICBM complex and he is closely related to Vernon Howell.On to brighter matters. The new National Cycleway announcements are indeed exciting, and are neatly summarised with maps and overviews here:-http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/0907/NewZealandCyclewayQuickStartTracks.pdf
I do commend the Government for this initiative and the vision that is behind it, but I think there is currently a great deal of misunderstanding in the wider cycling community as to the form that these cycle paths will take. From reading the summary of the Quick Start Tracks all of the tracks will be metal and unsuitable for road bike use.
The aim appears to be to establish a network of trails similar to the Central Otago Rail Trail and the Christchurch to Little River Rail Trail. These trails are important and will provide new exercise and recreational opportunities, but may not provide a feasible, safe alternative to existing roads that are too dangerous to currently ride. A good example is the proposed track from Paeroa to Waihi. Currently SH2, running through the Karangahake Gorge, is far too narrow and busy to consider riding comfortably, but it is the only road that runs across the bottom of the Coromandel Peninsula. A good sealed track should be mandatory here, so as to allow safe passage through the Karangahake Gorge.
Additionally, at the stage of writing, no formal research has been published by the Ministry of Tourism. Currently they are undertaking research, but how, with whom and where they are conducting this research is not obvious.
To assist with getting the tracks you would like, become active with suggestions to the relevant parties.
Here is one option:-
http://www.tourism.govt.nz/Our-Work/New-Zealand-Cycleway-Project/Keeping-Informed/
Speak up, share your thoughts.
If we don't speak up, then we may lose a great opportunity to have a world class cycle network.
While not riddled with roads, they do have a mix of terrain and climbs (and vistas) to make any rider swoon. The Summit Road is magnificent, only real drawback is that it's hellishly exposed to the wind on the tops and is very narrow, so the odd bad driver can be a pretty unpleasant surprise.
