NewZealand (all)

I have a confession to make. There are times when I enjoy planning our trips as much as taking them. There is a certain excitement to putting a magic marker on a map knowing that you will be following that zig zag line on your bike. Could it be that the planning process heightens the anticipation of the trip? Is it the beginning of the adrenaline rush? And if it was adrenaline that we were looking for, then why not go to the adrenaline capital of the world, New Zealand!

The tour would begin in Wellington at the southern tip of the North Island. We would take a ferry ride across Cook Sound to Picton. From there we would make our way to the coast and bike along side the Tasman Sea to Haast. At Haast we would turn inland to Lake Wanaka and Queenstown. After taking a week off from biking to hike the Milford Trek, it would be back across the island to the Pacific Ocean and Dunedin. Our trip would end in Dunedin where we take the bus to Christchurch and then the train back to Picton.

This is the website and travelogue of The Project VELAIA. 22 year old velosopher, environmentalist and often minimalistic outdoor adventurer Daniel N. Lang has decided to go around the world by recumbent and upright bicycle after finishing an epic journey of more than 17.000km from Paris to Beijing as a rider of the Beijing to Paris 2007 Carfree Rallye, following coastlines for hundreds of kilometers, crossing deserts during mid summer in the Middle East, Central Asia and China and climbing some of the highest passes of the world under extreme conditions in the starting Tibetan winter.

After Eurasia he cycled Australia, New Zealand and the United States and is now on a tour through the South American Andes, starting in Caracas, Venezuela and cycling his way down to Chile at the time of writing this (beginning of September 2008).

From hiking on glaciers to kayaking with fur seals, our trip to New Zealand was more than just a long bike ride. We spent 3 months cycling on both islands but could have easily spent another 3 months and not run out of amazing places to visit. If you've ever dreamed of cycling in New Zealand, stop dreaming and just go. Pack up your panniers and go.

We are Tim and Cindie Travis.

We left our Arizona, USA home back in March ( 2002), and have been traveling by bicycle throughout the world. We have peddled through Arizona, Mexico, Central and South America. Our future plans include Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe, Russia, Canada, and the USA. Our plans will take us the next several years to complete.

Visit our popular web site that is updated frequently as we travel. You will enjoy thousands of pictures, our daily journal, and the online discussion.

Am Morgen des 01.12.07 landete Mäfju in Auckland. Auf seiner 4 monatigen Reise will er die Nord- und auch die Südinsel erkunden. Er startete entlang der Westküste Richtung Süden und passierte einige Herr der Ringe Drehorte, bevor er in die von Surfern geliebte Gegend um Raglan kam. Dort verließ er die Küste und fuhr quer durchs Land nach Rotoruo, wo er für einige Tage bei einer Familie verbrachte, die ihn schon in Auckland eingeladen hatte. In diesen Tagen erkundete er die sehr aktive Geothermische Gegend mit Vulkanen, Geysiren und vielen blubbernden Tümpeln. Danach ging es weiter an die Ostküste und entlang dieser wieder nach Auckland. Damit war die erste Runde geschafft. Der zweite Abstecher führte ihn in den Norden wo er in Paihia Silvester verbrachte.

Dopo Patagonia, Toascana, Sicilia e Corsica ecco la cigliegina sulla torta: la Nuova Zelanda da Auckland a Christchurch in bicicletta. Due mesi e mezzo e 4500 km (almeno credo, il tour deve ancora finire!) tra laghi, vulcani, alpi e splendidi paesaggi costieri.

Planète D. is our volunteering and filming world tour on the tandem bike. It’s that simple.

We cycle.
We film, edit and share videos.
We volunteer for NGOs.

A world tour on a rather odd bicycle.

Sono rimasto stregato dalla bellezza della Terra durante le lunghe camminate effettuate nelle ``mie'' Alpi o i brevi sentieri percorsi tra le migliaia di cascate del parco di Plitvice in Croazia. Ho avuto la sensazione di poter rallentare lo scorrere del tempo nelle interminabili giornate in sella alla mia amata bicicletta, percorrendo le strade sterrate nel mezzo della pampa patagonica così come salendo e scendendo per le dolci colline toscane e siciliane. Ho anche imparato ad apprezzare la capacità, l'ingegno ed il genio artistico umani, visitando alcune splendide capitali europee, la vivace Rio de Janeiro, le caotiche San Paolo, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, la surreale Las Vegas e la inarrivabile New York.

Tutto questo cerco di raccontare nelle pagine del mio sito web.

A three month bicycle journey through both islands of New Zealand. It begins in Christchurch in January 2008 (south island) and ends in auckland (north island) in April 2008. This is a Live-blog that already contains a lot of information...and during the trip you can track my route and read fascinating reports with amazing pictures!

Our trip began in Wellington at the southern tip of the North Island. After a day to adjust to the time and date differences, we took a ferry across Cook Sound to Picton. From there we made our way to the coast and biked along side the Tasman Sea to Haast. At Haast we turned inland to Lake Wanaka and Queenstown, the adrenaline capitol of the world. After taking a week off from biking to hike the Milford Trek, it was back across the island to the Pacific Ocean and Dunedin, where we stopped cycling and used wonderful New Zealand public transportation to make our way back to Wellington.

We are Sarah Erck and James Welle, two 27 year old ex-Microsoft employees who decided to get married, quit our jobs, sell all of our material possessions, and travel around the world on our bicycles for one year...or more!

It all began innocently enough in 2005 when Sarah's mom gave James the book Miles from Nowhere on his birthday. Sarah, being the bookworm that she is, read the book immediately and fell in love with the idea of riding a bicycle around the world. James was a little more reluctant at first; he was an avid cyclist but was worried about quitting his job and spending a lot of money on a trip like this. Sarah persisted and in the end she was able to convice James to take the plunge and in September of 2006 they decided to officially do the trip after James finished his work on Windows Vista. The fall of 2006 was spent furiously planning and preparing for our departure date of January 2007!

On the road, we stopped at a fruit and vegetable stand owned by Maoris natives, the first peoples to inhabit New Zealand. They gave us a warm welcome and soon the whole family, aunts, uncles, and children, was buzzing around us. They showed us their craft centre and took some pictures. Thinking we were missing something, they made us a Baby on Board sign. We fastened the sign to Marjolaine's bike, over-thanked our hosts, and were back on the road an hour and a half later with 3 tomatoes, 1 avocado, and 10 kiwis.

We are now in Cambodia, after 10 months of cycling thru New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand. Our site is bilingual.

Our web site is about the trip that we are now realizing. We have gone across the world to go back to Canada. We already crossed 5 different countries in 10 months. We will keep biking for around 2 more years. The subject treated by the web page is mostly about our trip (story, pictures, organisation) but we added a lot of other stuff like recipes, rock climbing, and small articles. We are French-Canadian, so our web site is belingual.

``The Great Heart Travelers'' promote the blood donation riding around the world. They made a Europe tour of 5400 km in 2004, and a tour in New Zealand in 2005.

In 2001 vanuit Nederland vertrokken en nu okt 2005 meer dan 65.000 km en al meer dan 40 landen doorgefietst.

Ja, hebben jullie het al gezien, we zijn meer dan 4 jaar onderweg. Wat een tijd en toch.... we genieten er nog elke dag van. Nu zijn we in Jujuy, noord Argentinië. Via Chili gaan we binnenkort naar Bolivia, waar we een tijdlang niet zullen kunnen internetten. We zullen op grote hoogte gaan fietsen, hoogtes waar we nog niet eerder waren. Of dat prettig is.. jullie zullen het later lezen.

In March 1996, I sold my home to fulfil a dream I'd had since my childhood. At age 46, I'd always wondered if one day I might realise my ambition to ride horseback the length of the beautiful country in which I live - New Zealand. So I did it.

It took almost a year but my trip was complete, and this is the story of my journey. It's not just my story, though. The journey was more than a physical one - it became a mental, emotional and spiritual journey as well. And not only for me, it affected (I hope all positively!) the lives of so many other people.

I hope you enjoy my story as much as I enjoyed living it!

A site filled with tours all over Europe, Africa, Asia, and America.

[The author travels around the world and reviews hostels, and has built up a large hostel directory.]

What are hostels?

The quickest answer I can give to you is that hostels are budget accommodations where you share a room with other travelers. To be more specific though and to give you a better idea of what to expect I will say that a hostel room is like a hotel room but instead of being just one bed there are a couple (or a few) bunk beds. There are also (gasp!) other people. People you do not know! These other people are travelers who are most likely very much like you in the sense that they are exploring and traveling and doing it as absolutely cheaply as possible. Hostels have been around a long long time. There are over 20,000 of them around the world. Hostels are very much a part of the culture of Europe, and are starting to be known in the USA as well. Hostels are a cheaper way of staying in a city where you do not live.