Rotorua cycle-way

i went for a great road ride a couple of days ago. i love heading out on the road bike but i don't like busy roads and i like some nice scenery to look at, yes i know i am not that easy to please! lucky for me there are places close by where i find all this! so i headed out towards Waikiti to scope out a new loop, i find it  exciting to ride new routs as you never know what you will see and the landscape is just stunning around there with rolling hill, lakes, cliffs, boulders and some cool houses. 

my legs were not feeling that fresh to start off with so the first few hills where a bit hard going but i the legs slowly warmed up. i was expecting to get some rain but instead i got sunshine which was such a great surprise! there were some big thunderclouds building up looking like the weather could change any minute but i just got to admire them rather then feel the effect of them, very cool and lucky! 

to finish my ride i decided to check out a part of the new cycle way called Te Ara O Ahi (the pathway of fire)  that goes from Rotorua to Orakei Korako. the part i was doing follows state highway 5 from Waipa Rotorua (mountain bike car park) towards Taupo ending at Tumunui road. i was going to ride it the other way so i headed up Tumunui rd which is a killer on a good day as there seems to be climb after climb after climb but it is even more testing when you have tired legs and on top of that some lovely headwind! yeah i loved it! hm maybe not quite but it feels good once i made it out the other side. from there i jumped on the new cycle way and this one took me all the way back to Rotorua without having to fight the cars and you could even stop for a picnic if you were so inclines, awesome!

Te Ara Ahi cyclists 'rest area'. photo & bike Dave Donaldson

so a great road ride: stunning scenery, sunshine and hardly no cars, can't ask for more really!

frozen lakes, not in Rotorua

i thought i share these images on here, even though they are of random people and are not from where i live these days but they are from where i grew up and it reminds me of how much fun you can have in the cold.

this is what happens when it has been very cold for some time (it has been minus 15 to minus 10 in Zurich lately!) so the lakes freeze over and people can play on them.

 keen cyclists??

party time, why not bring your furniture out on to the lake for the occasion?

Lake Zurich, Rapperswil

long weekend...

and the trails are dusty and mint so there was nothing to stop us from riding them over and over again and making the most of our long weekend! but how could we not aye? and there is no excuse with the forest full of trails right next to us.
every so often i have to pinch myself to make sure i am not dreaming as we are just so lucky to be living here in Rotorua next to this very large forest covered with wicked trails!
it's funny we have so many options but then we still then to ride some trails quite a lot more then others and a few we ride pretty much every ride, but then some other trails we forget they even exist . but everyone is always going to have favourites no matter the number of trails there are. we have been mixing it up a little more again lately and it's nice to ride some different trails again, it's like you are riding in a different place.
and i also had a few rides down the rock garden, which is probably the key feature of the Oceania cross country course in March. it's a nice little challenge to ride down it for the first time, it gets your heart pumping a bit quicker, which is quite nice.
below is what it looks like but it doesn't quite do it justice.

February 2012

i cannot believe it's February already! i guess part of it is because it doesn't feel like it. we are half way through summer and i have only just been for my first swim! and this isn't because i don't like going for a refreshing dip, it just hasn't been hot enough, or maybe i am just a bit soft.
the weather has been good lately which is so nice after we had a few too many days of rain leading into summer. the trails are in great condition where they are getting nice and dry and a little slidey on top. it will be getting to the point soon  (but maybe i am just too hopeful) where you will either need to stick really closely to the wheel in front or keep quite a distance, anything in between and you will be in a cloud of dust and won't be able to see where you are going. it is actually good fun!

we have been meaning to go back to our 'dear old friend' the Moerangi track for a while but the weather let us hang for quite some time so it was only the other weekend that we finally made it there. it was great to be back there surrounded by this stunning bush and wild life. the trail was unfortunately quite overgrown so it made it a little hard to ride in places. DoC promised us to get it cleared, so i will be back there soon, maybe even for a double crossing.

there is a new trail up in the native section at the top of Tawa rd, it's called Te Tihi o Tawa, a fantastic trail in magnificent bush leading back into Billy T. a must ride! :)

and... big Congratulations to Dirk Peters, Karen Hanlen and Anton Cooper for winning their individual XC National Championship Titels