end of the revolutions

… and so the revolutions have stopped …

… at least for now … and I thought some ‘top-trumps’ type statistics, more thorts and a little perspective might be in order, just to round this adventure off and to respond to some of the questions I’ve been getting of late.

top trumps

it’s difficult to know what to include for top trumps … they’re harder to make than they seem! Here’s my best shot …

… and the organisers of Tour Aotearoa asked us to complete a wrap-up questionnaire; here’re my responses :

HF TA Questionnaire 20160403

further thorts

I’ve been doing some more of that thinking stuff since returning to Wellington, trying to decide if anything has changed, or if it’s just business as usual. here’s where i got to :

THORT 01 – this blog thing :

i have to say i got the shock of my life when i realised how many people were reading this blog. it started out as a means to sort-of ‘publicise’ the fund-raising aspect of this adventure, then grew into something like a ‘how-to’ record when i realised just how little i knew about the world of proper cycling. then, once i started on the tour it was a way of trying to give the generous people who had pledged some entertainment and some idea of how much of their ‘per km’ pledge they’d committed themselves to! I bet there were a few out there thinking they’d save a few pennies more than once or twice … and if there weren’t, let me tell you there probably should have been!!

BUT, after not very long at all, writing the blog became very surprisingly quite personal, and quite a necessary thing for me to be able to calm my mind and order my thoughts through the exhaustion at the end of each day. So when I got to Wellington halfway through I got my first true appreciation of the blog from ‘the other side’, and just how much the satellite link could pinpoint my location … and often activities. I can tell you that some of you were quite right when you guessed I was having a pee-stop, or when I took a corner a bit too fast!

I hope the blogs weren’t too weird, but unfortunately that is sort-of just my mind most of the time (and these days most of the time unspoken because the weirdness has got me in trouble a few times too many!)… so if you end up quickly crossing the road the next time we pass each other, I won’t be offended!

 

THORT 02 – focusing on the basics :

i now realise how much i have enjoyed clearing out all of the unnecessary worries we fill our minds with day-to-day, and simply focusing on making sure the basics are covered : nutrition, hydration, hygiene and rest. The important ‘fifth element’ for me is to remember to be confident in my decisions, or in my ability to find a solution … and that often all I need to do is give it a bit more time and not stress when a solution doesn’t immediately present itself.

But just on the basics, I’ve had a think about what I consume in my week-day life and my weekend life, to see just how much more fuel i needed for this cycling adventure even than my normal fairly active weekends. here’re the results … i couldn’t always get all these items, but this was about the amount i ate every day :

 

THORT 03 – recovering economies :

after reviewing what i ate it dawned on me that the economies of the ivory coast must have been struggling somewhat for a month, as my normal chocolate addiction had been greatly reduced. it turns out chocolate isn’t what my body shouts for when it really needs either instant energy or is pre-empting a big-day-out. quite surprising!

Not to worry, though : the fortuitous timing of easter being at the end of the tour meant that i have more than compensated the global cocoa-bean-growing economies, and have luckily got rid of my unsightly six-pack … this was my first time to have a proper six-pack, and i was jolly glad to see it go as i was feeling this growing social responsibility to have to maintain it, which i knew would impinge on my future confectionery consumption … and we couldn’t have that!!!

 

THORT 04 – what the best bit was :

this has been a very popular question so far, and i’m finding it the hardest to answer. in a month of a thousand new experiences, how can one possibly choose a single moment over all the others?? so here’s a few :

:  the best bit was getting to the end and just wanting to keep on going. Especially when i had recently been passed by several people who started later than me, all of whom said some variation on “i just can’t wait to get this finished now; this is getting boring”. i’m so glad i never reached a stage when it felt tedious, and i’m actually struggling to understand how they could have felt that! There was so much variety of landscape, track-type, people, weather and all sorts that i couldn’t say i was stuck in the duldrums for very long for any of the stages.

:  the best bit was meeting the people from wave one who i kept a rough pace with, especially over the latter half of the adventure. the cameraderie, smiles, understanding nods, familiar expressions of pain and tiredness and just the fact that on the whole they were a really great bunch kept me going and kept me smiling.

:  the best bit was the rain on the west coast and the rain through the haast pass. though this made for very cold and sometimes frustrating progress, these wild places are just made all-the-more spectacular when you’re covered in mud and are fighting the weather too, and the waterfalls are roaring.

:  the best bit was the timber trail on the north island. we’d just come from the centre-point of the island, marked unceremoniously with a concrete lump, and climbed quite a way, to then have a whole afternoon of swooshing down these windy tracks through thick forest and over gorgeous gorges. Fellow riders’ Grant and Carol’s words were ringing in my ears to start with, saying ‘speed is your friend on switchbacks’, and though i didn’t believe them on the waikato river trails, i was starting to get into it good’n’proper!

:  the best bit was meeting up with a whole bunch of great people in the middle of the ride on my one evening in wellington. it was fantastic to see so many familiar faces after such a tough start to the tour, and i was only sorry i couldn’t have spent more time talking with everyone.

:  the best bit was coming away with a feeling of somehow better ‘knowing’ the land on which i currently live. i’ve felt and sweated the rises, whizzed or gingerly crawled down the drops, smelt the weather coming, smashed into hard and soft things, slid down squidgy and sharp things, bounced over juddery things, joined in with the birdsong with my uke,  shouted ‘good morning’ to the cows, sheep and some startled humans, danced with the rain to keep the blood flowing, sung out loud with the warm tailwinds, and screamed “is that the best you’ve got?!” (and then a little late “that’s quite enough now!”) at the chilly headwinds. i like new zealand … new zealand can be home for a little while longer!

 

… and there’s a whole bunch more best bits too!

 

THORT 05 – what’s next :

“what’s next?” is probably the number one question to date! Tour Aotearoa 2016 has been a massive adventure for me and I didn’t see it coming, so I’m expecting the next thing could be anything at all! But as it’s about the 13th mid-life crisis i’ve had … and i’ve still not quite reached ‘mid-life’ … i’m starting to wonder whether this is just a whole-life in crisis … whatever it is, i highly recommend it! i’m currently scheming a winter full of snowy mountain activities, and am still hoping for a serious mountain expedition to south america (Patagonia? Bolivia?) in 2017. For the time-being i’m enjoying carrying out some aesthetic experiments on my house (risky!), and getting stuck into life back in wellington.

But “what’s next?” is an exciting question for me just now for several reasons, and I feel refreshed and re-set to be a proper ‘henry’ once again :

tenei au! tenei au!

te hapai nei; te tiri nei; te poupou nei!

i toku reo; i toku mana; i toku ihi!

he mapihi maurea!

kia mau! kia ita!

haumi e! hui e! taiki e!

 

THORT 06 – Kaibosh Food Rescue :

I’ve saved the most important thort until last : thanks so much all of you for joining me on this tour aotearoa, for your cheery comments and for your incredible pledges to donate to Kaibosh Food Rescue. According to Kaibosh’s website, the pledge total of

$4,114.00

… translates to providing more than …

6,705 meals for the needy in Wellington

so give yourselves and each other a massive pat on the back … oh hey! why not a whopping smooch on the cheek too!!

And if you’re still wanting to donate, click here to go to the give-a-little page.

Thanks again, everyone, and I look forward to catching up with you all very soon!  hf