Vanderpants Oz Tour

Hello fellow readers – it’s been a while hasn’t it. Quickly recapping, In my last post I made my way from Goulburn to Sydney and met a good friend there who let me stay at her place (So bloody nice Of you jay) and also another good and new friend jonathon who I caught up with and did Sydney things with (Botanic gardens, coffee, walked etc etc). and that’s where we left off………ok read on now. I haven’t blogged in a while as i’ve spent most of this time researching, driving, purchasing new mountain bike and bike bags, talking to previous tour riders who have completed the race before, packing, repacking and repacking again. it’s been a whirlwind to be honest. Not only that i’ve had a few accommodation issues and utility bill issues that have taken up a lot of time and caused me to move a lot. I don’t even know where to start haha. As I got to Sydney I met up with a friend who was so nice to allow me to literally take over the house (sorry hehehe) and do my research, just actually hang and sort all my gear out ready to go to NZ. Thanks for that Jay you were so much help – i don’t think I could’ve done it without all your help.

As I got to Sydney to early due to the changed route from the fires, I thought it was a good idea to get to NZ early so i can drive around quickly and get all the things i need. Normally I plan 6-12 months to get all the gear i need And research but in 10 days, I am ready. I’ve had to move three times due to some cancelled accommodation which has taken up a lot of my time (at times waiting 5 hours for an air bnb host that won’t get back to me) and i’m still waiting on the second refund. As I arrived late in NZ i picked up my car and contacted the host and waited and waited…..so the third attempt at 8pm was just the caravan park and I ‘ll sort out the money later. Not air bnb’s fault. On top of that optus have charge me an exorbitant amount for my bill (thousands and thousands) which i am disputing also so there’s been a lot of phone calls and not a nice start to NZ. That on top of software not doing what it’s supposed to and an infected finger that was starting to worry me so I went to the docs and got antibiotics for it – I think it’s getting better hahah I can actually use it now – I tried riding the other day and it was hard to ride with one finger pointing in the air hahahaha.

So The very basic rundown Required to test gear, hang with Gherns and do my race plus get back to Syd IS…..

Get accomm (harder than initially thought) , Get a car, buy the right kind of bike, get all the Right kind of bags that fit the bike, pack my gear in it, store some of my non touring stuff somewhere??, drop bicycle car rack off (somewhere??), return hire car, get back to accomm to pick up my bike, test it for a few days wild camping and doing some hills on the peninsular of Christchurch, come back, pick up some of my gear I need to tour with karina (And do my NZ race with), Pickup bike rack again, take karina to her race (86km ultra – what a legend right), drive 1,500km’s to my race, Karina goes home, finish the race Within 30 days (because I will), Stay at the finish line 1 night, get back to christchurch somehow from the bottom of the south island, come bacK to Christchurch where I stored my Other gear, pack mountain bike up in bike box, stay a day or two, go back to Sydney With bike and gear, change all my gear back to normal touring, Somehow get my mountain bike back to adelaide, off i go again on the Vanderpants oz Tour…….now that list doesn’t include the research…..I don’t even know how to change my disc brakes on my bike yet hahahaha. I have no idea how to mountain bike pack/tour really and i’m just going with it. If I told you i wasn’t a bit overwhelmed I would be lying. I did ask myself WTF did i sign up for because in my head it was just – go over here, buy some shit and start the race hahaha but i should know me, I don’t do things in halves. I wrote a few lists out in date and to do order (me and my lists) and that truly helped even though it was a mud map it def helped my mindset.

For the race prep (starts on March 3) I have GPX files for my garmin (that bloody took 5 hours to load due to a glitch), the book (check out the instructions for the 30 days)………….

Having said all of the above – I am super dedicated to making this work and not letting anything get in the way. This is a once in a lifetime thing here and i’m putting it into perspective because it’s all just hiccups and challenges right?……so far – i’ve smashed them all and well on my way to being ready.

The bike is 14kg’s and I have 13kg’s of gear With no food included (Compared to 40-50 on my other bike hahaha) so i have shaved off a dramatic amount but I have gotten rid of some of my luxuries and this will be lean AF. The only luxury (compared to some i’ve read) are having a small cooker (for a Brew in the morning) and A larger tent (I am not buying a new tent just for a race lol). I spent a lot of time at two places that stuck out to me. As I am old fashioned, I don’t read many google reviews, I like face to face and over the phone to get a gauge on how they interact with customers and the two places I found have been AH-MAYZING. One with the bike and the other just for touring gear. A shop that specialising in touring – I was in heaven hahaha. I think I spent three hours with the guy setting my bike up right.

Rundown of the next couple weeks And my blogging

So i’m in a Top ten holiday park which I normally avoid but I must say this place is like a small town. Bigger than some towns i’ve ridden through and i’m not even joking. Three kitchens, Their own rubbish truck, a drive through for questions, bottlo, laundry – i’ll keep going on hahaha – tbh I am ready to hop on my bike now – so ready – and i’m also super pumped to see karina and share the experience with someone And also see her kickass on her race (and the duties LOL) shhhhh i didn’t say that. It will be a nice change and a different trip all together.

A random thought to take away with you:

Toilet paper: Have you ever entered a public toilet and reached for the toilet paper and see it hanging there all mangey and torn and thought, ‘someones shitty hand has ripped that bit off after they have already wiped their ass’? Think about that until my next post hahahahahah

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Vanderpants OUT!!!!