A Cyclist's Lament: Welcome to New Zealand!

Sometimes David and I make things difficult for ourselves. When it comes to great countries to ride a bicycle in, New Zealand is right up there close to the top of the list. The whole country is criss-crossed by rail trails and cycle paths. We have come here to cycle. We are going to start out in Auckland, head north for a few days and then spend a week near Napier in Hawkes Bay.

Auckland is a city of 1.5 million people. You would think it would be a simple thing to organise bike hire for a two week trip in a city that size. Not for us, the easy option. David doesn’t hire bikes. He dislikes the way they are never as comfortable as his own bike and he hates the extortionate cost - often more than renting a car. He much prefers to subject himself, and me, to the enormous hassle and precision planning required to fly our bikes with us across the Tasman Sea from Australia. 

Day One – in the morning: 

We have to find a bike repair shop. Have I told you airlines do not look after bikes very well? (Click here for our previous bike flying disaster story.) The chain on David’s bike has been twisted in transit. So far it has resisted all our, increasingly desperate, efforts to untangle it. We removed the wheels to pack the bikes up and with a twisted chain can’t re-attach the rear wheel. Until the chain is fixed we have a bike with only one wheel.

Google says other cyclists, who were also perhaps mad enough to entrust their bicycles to an airline, have had the same issue, and it requires nothing more than a five-minute fix. Google gives us a list of nearby bike shops. How did anyone ever do anything before the internet was invented? The first bike shop looks like it closed last century – not a good start. We can’t find the second, but the third turns out to be a Torpedo 7 outlet. The bags we pack the bikes in to fly them came from Torpedo 7. No doubt Torpedo 7 staff are used to dealing with airline damage.

We walk in. David is carrying the front wheel and frame of his bike. I am carrying the rear wheel. The girl at the front counter frowns. They are extra busy right now and there is a three-week wait for repairs and servicing, she explains. We throw ourselves on her mercy. We tell her we’re sure this is no more than a five-minute fix. She takes pity on us and directs us to the service area at the back of the shop.

The service guy is young, enthusiastic and eager to help. He grabs the bike chain in both hands, completely oblivious to the layer of black grease it leaves on his fingers, - and twists. I am impressed - he clearly knows what he is doing. Nothing happens. He twists again, this time with more force. Nothing happens – again. I wonder how much a new chain will cost. This one has no desire to straighten itself out. The bike guy is perplexed. He gives the chain another yank – this time with as much force as he can muster. Nothing happens - so much for the five-minute fix!

I wonder how much a new bike will cost. We can’t have a cycling holiday with only one bicycle. I have a sense of déjà vu. This will not be the first time we have wrecked an entire bike in transit. Click here for the sad story and amusing, in hindsight, story. The bike guy changes tack.

‘They usually untwist easily’ he says. ‘What if I break the chain and put in a new link?’

Yes! This sounds so much cheaper than a whole new bike. Half an hour after walking into the shop we roll the bike out the door with the chain untwisted and both wheels firmly attached. Cycling holiday here we come!

Renting bikes would be so much easier!

Day One – in the afternoon: 

I am cycling on a flat tyre. Both tyres should be inflated to between 60 and 75 pounds per square inch (psi). I am not nearly as technically minded as this sounds - the psi range is stamped on each tyre. My back tyre can’t be much more than half what it should be. We had to let most of the air out in order to fly the bikes. Apparently the tyres will burst if you don’t deflate them, although I have often wondered whether this is an urban myth. Foolishly, we have only brought a small hand pump with us. It just isn’t up to the job – either that or David needs to go to the gym more! We really need a floor pump. In case you are wondering, a floor pump works by pushing a plunger into a tube held upright on a stand. It is far more efficient than a hand pump.

With all the hassle over David's bike this morning I don’t want to mention the problem, but cycling on under-inflated tyres is hard work. It’s like riding through mud. We are on a beautiful path winding around the foreshores of Auckland Harbour - the sun is shining, and the topography is flat. I ought to be in cycling heaven. Instead my leg muscles are screaming and I’m wishing I was at home curled up on the couch with a good book, doing absolutely nothing!

David finally notices I have an issue. I am not sure what tips him off. Is it the squashy looking tyre, the fact that I am lagging way behind, or my increasingly unhappy mood? Like most husbands, David can be really dense at times. He suggests we keep an eye out for a petrol station. I have been hoping we would pass one for the last couple of hours. Even though we are on a path running beside a main road, service stations are strangely absent. Do they hide them in New Zealand? Finally we find one – on the other side of the road. It is now the afternoon peak hour and dodging through four lanes of commuter traffic is an exercise in survival of the fittest. The gauge on the petrol station pump doesn’t work – why would it – nothing else has gone right today! The pump itself splutters into life and David gives all four bike tyres a much needed hit of air. He has no choice but to guess how much they need. We are at our turn around point. The ride back to our rental car is a lot easier!

Cycling in Auckland

Day Eleven – How can this happen? 

We have been in New Zealand for almost two weeks and we are still cycling on under-inflated tyres. To be fair we have not done nearly as much cycling as we expected. After a couple of beautiful, fine days in Auckland we have been plagued by rain. David and I are not wet weather cyclists! It just isn’t fun to ride in the rain.

We spend the morning going from one petrol station to another looking for a working pump. At home in Sydney, the place to go for air, whether you need it for car tyres or your bike, is a petrol station. Australia and New Zealand are about as close as two countries can be. There are very few cultural differences, but clearly the practice of pumping up tyres is one of them. With the weather finally clearing and our final four or five day’s cycling ahead of us, David thought he would check the bike tyres. They still look a bit under-inflated. After petrol station number 7 or 8 – they all look the same after a while – all we have managed to do is let more air out of both back tyres. Not a single pump works properly. Most don’t work at all, some just let more air out. David’s back tyre is well on it’s way to being unrideable. Finally we give up and go cycling anyway. 

It is if your tyres are flat!

Day Twelve – We have a new plan. 

If we can’t find a petrol station with a working pump we will find a bike shop and ask to borrow a floor pump. We could buy one, but we already have two at home and we are right on the edge with our airline baggage allowance.

Success – at last! The very helpful sales lady at Revolution Bikes has a floor pump which works and she is happy to let us use it. She says she often has cyclists call in to check their tyres.

As it turns out all four of our tyres are significantly under-inflated. No wonder the cycling has been exhausting so far.  The good news is that the sun has come out and we have two days left in Hawkes Bay, one of the best places in the world for leisure cycling. Keep an eye out for next my post on the Hawkes Bay trails.


Other blog posts from our two weeks in New Zealand:

• Searching for Kiwi at Kiwi North, Northland

• Wai-O-Tapu: Geothermal Wonders in New Zealand

• From Disaster to Art Deco in Napier: How an earthquake shaped the city

• Cycling in Auckland: Was it worth all the hassle?

• Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans, Napier

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