Tandem Cycling - A little tandem fun...

Bill McCready removing eleven tightly packed tandems (+ 11 tandem teams and a dozen other amused ferry riders) off the less than sizable Whitianga Ferry. Keep watching, and you can see another six or seven more go on back across the Bay of Plenty. Keep watching even longer, and it repeats a few times until the song ends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCY08x1Gf1Q

That's just good stuff!

I think I would prefer riding to loading in this case!

Bill McCready removing eleven tightly packed tandems ...off the less than sizable Whitianga Ferry....

Did you do the New Zealand tour with Santana / McCready? - or is it happening right now? I'd love to read as much as you're interested in writing and photos you're willing to share?

Bloomington, IN

Did you do the New Zealand tour with Santana / McCready? - or is it happening right now? I'd love to read as much as you're interested in writing and photos you're willing to share?

Bloomington, IN

That is indeed the Santana New Zealand tour. We returned home on Sunday, and I have not had time to write much of anything. Attached is quite possibly the best photograph I have ever taken. It's somewhere on the "flat coastline" between Queenstown and Glenorchy. Here's a link to some of my favorite pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/michael.lasko/Bikeforums#

The order seems to have gotten a little shuffled. I'll try to fix it, and add some labels tomorrow.

Feel free to poke around my other albums; NZ, NZ2, and NZ3 contain the 775 pictures I took over the two weeks.

A brief review of what I can remember:

1) We arrived a day early (for the pre-pre tour), spending an extra night in Wanaka.
2) We took a solo ride around a nearby lake (49k) to try things out. I stopped to take pictures of some sheep.
3) For the first full day of the pre-tour, the group rode from Wanaka over the Crown Range ("The highest paved road in New Zealand" turned out to not be entirely true--some of it is not paved). After the impossibly long descent, we stopped to watch some of the braver members of the group bunjee jump; then on to Queenstown for a couple of days. Summer luging atop some mountain above Queenstown preceded dinner atop the same mountain.
4) 29 mile ride to Glenorchy where we went jet boating, hiked, then road in a 4wd bus through Lord of the Rings territory. It started raining while I tried to shear a sheep. There was an optional ride back along the same route, but it was raining so we all opted for the bus (bikes in a Budget truck). This 29 mile ride seemed more difficult than the previous day's climb.
5) Ride from Queenstown to Arrowtown and back. Then we boarded a 737 to Christchurch for the official start of the tour. We were picked up at the airport by Antarctic exploration vehicles which drove us to dinner at the "South Pole"--the hopping off point for most Antarctic research. Weirdest meal I've ever eaten. We had two courses in a room with a penguin tank (the penguins were not out), then got up and moved to another room where the lights would cycle on and off every few minutes (the other half of the group did this in reverse).
6) Biked around the crater in Christchurch. Took a ferry across the harbor (rather than biking all the way around), and got rained on for the first time. (My wife's notes say we had our 3rd flat tire on this ride). Took guided walking tour of Christchurch in the rain. Christchurch is beautiful even in the rain: very green, and flowers all around. Had dinner at St. Germaine with ChiChi and stoker. 5 courses + 2 bottles of wine in an expensive French restaurant came out to around $50 US per person. I began enjoying the strength of the almighty dollar.
7) Left Christchurch by train. The optional 100 mile ride (leaving from Arthur's Pass) was canceled due to inclement weather. We weren't planning on doing it anyway, but it turned out to be all downhill. I would have regretted not riding had it not been pouring rain. We stayed on the train until the end (forgotten the name of the town), watched the rain come down in sheets all through lunch at Speight's Ale House, then rode 30 (mostly dry) miles to our beach front hotel at Punakaiki. Tired of walking, we checked in and walked the half km to the pancake rocks/blowhole (which was not blowing at low tide). Beautiful sunset over the water followed by dinner which included Bill's "wine buffet".
8) If memory serves today was a wet ride from Punakaiki to a small airport up the coast where we caught a chartered airplane (with propellers) to Picton (or thereabouts). Wine tasting via bus on the way from the airport to Picton.
9) Bicycling through wine country today. I sort of believed the locals when we were told we would have a tail wind for the whole day; when Bill said it I knew it could not be true. Ended up with a headwind most of the day. Took a 2 km detour into Havelock, the green lipped muscle capital of the world. Too early for muscles, we just had coffee (also, muscles are scary). Lunch at Allan Scott Vineyard; surprisingly, no wine served with lunch.
10) Planned non-riding day. We chose the kayaking option (hiking and/or ocean cruise were the other choices). Flew out of Picton on chartered plane to Rotorua (North Island) after dinner at hotel.
11) Opted for the long ride--around whatever lake Rotorua is on, then up to the Buried Village for lunch. The ride back to Rotorua included a near single track dirt path up and then down through redwoods.
12) Raining again. All but 7 bikes skipped the ride to Tauranga and took the bus. Stopped at Rainbow Springs National Park, which is about the only place you can see a Kiwi (bird). Next stopped for a nature walk (in the rain) with New Zealand's own Kiwi Dundee; saw some glow worms, which are less impressive than they sound. Bus ride ended at Puka Park Resort (on the Bay of Plenty). Staying in Puka Park is like living in a tree house.
13) Biking around the Bay of Plenty. I'm pretty sure I'll be buying a farm around here. We opted for the long ride yet again, which included only 2 ferry rides (as seen in the video at the beginning of the thread). This was perhaps 60 miles of the most fabulous cycling we have ever done...and the sun even came out for a while.
14) We opted to take the bike apart instead of going for an early morning ride. Long bus ride to Auckland; walked around Auckland for an hour and a half before dinner at the Sky Tower. Late flight out of Auckland got us home before we left.

All in all, a very different trip than what you would expect if you've done European trips with Santana. There was not much biking between hotels, few cute little towns along the way, and pretty much nothing flat. The roads are not the friendliest for tires (I lost track of how many flats we suffered), but the drivers are relatively pleasant (not Europe pleasant, but better than the US). The weather was less than ideal, though not horrible. I would call this trip a once in a lifetime experience, but my stoker says we're moving there...

Thanks for the great report.

Great photos & descriptions. We were there 20 years ago and spent about 3 weeks on the South Island and about 1 week on the North Island. We were on a self-directed driving tour and did a lot of the hikes and sites. I do recall that the roads were pretty hilly and being concerned that we would be dealing with a lot of tourists driving on the wrong side of the road.

Our weather was much better than yours - I only recall rain a couple of days. We were there in late February / early March.

I too wanted to move there but reality set in realizing that all of our families would be a long way away. New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places on this planet and the people were friendly and much less materialistic than Americans. Like going back in time 30 years.

Sounds like a great trip. Do you mind if I ask how much the trip cost?

Thanks - John

Sounds like a great trip. Do you mind if I ask how much the trip cost?

Thanks - John

It was pretty expensive, and I'm having trouble remembering exactly how much because we started paying a couple of years ago with little deposits here and there to hold our spot. It probably would have been cheaper, but the US$ was much weaker a year (or more) ago when the prices were set.

I'm going to say $4,800 per person; then we added on the pre-tour (which on most Santana trips is a couple of days of something touristy while you get over jet lag, but on this trip included some grueling bicycling); then we added another day before the pre-tour because the hotel was available for another $99 dollars. Add on another 1k+ each for airfare, and it probably totaled around $13,000.

That being said, everything in country felt like it was half price. Most meals were included, but on the few free nights we had, we would go into the most expensive restaurant we could find, and steaks were $14 US. I spent less than $300 during the 2 weeks. (My wife spent a little more...)

Much as I loved NZ, I doubt that anyone goes there for the cuisine (unless things have changed). We live and do most of our riding in Colorado and are not very accustomed to riding in the rain. On a tour, you don't have much choice. About 1 1/2 years ago on a ride in Canada, we had one day of light rain. Aside from being uncomfortable, the dirty water getting thrown up from the road raises havoc with the drive train.

I was with 72&Sunny on the NZ trip and found the food suprisingly good. The $50.00 per person meal was one of the highlights of the trip, 72&Sunny picked out 2 wines and the Chef built our meals around those wines. We never had a bad cup of coffee dring the entire trip, and it was always servrd in a china cup not a paper cup! Initialy (day 1) the rain was a problem but once we realised it was not cold and there was no traffic to worry about we did not let it bother us.

I was riding a bike we just took delivery of at Christmas on the trip. Spent 5 hours cleaning it and reassembling when we returned, rides just like new.

I'm going to say $4,800 :twitchy: per person..., and it probably totaled around $13,000 :eek: .

Just saying...

Just saying...

I'm with you TG.

Though none of my coworkers would be shocked that I spent that much on a vacation; but if I were to tell any of them that I spent that on a bike*, they would think me insane.

*I didn't spend that much on a bike. We brought our 5 year old Noventa on it's 5th flight. (We only felt a little under-dressed around all the carbon and titanium)

I was with 72&Sunny on the NZ trip and found the food suprisingly good. The $50.00 per person meal was one of the highlights of the trip, 72&Sunny picked out 2 wines and the Chef built our meals around those wines. We never had a bad cup of coffee dring the entire trip, and it was always servrd in a china cup not a paper cup! Initialy (day 1) the rain was a problem but once we realised it was not cold and there was no traffic to worry about we did not let it bother us.

I was riding a bike we just took delivery of at Christmas on the trip. Spent 5 hours cleaning it and reassembling when we returned, rides just like new.

For us too chichi. If we ever eat there again, we'll be needing some rich American tourists to cover us. I have a feeling things will not feel so cheap if I'm being paid in kiwi bucks.

RE bike cleaning/reassembly: I found the trip to be pretty rough on our bike. Between the "sealed" roads, the rain, and the loading/unloading from the budget truck, we are in need of: a couple of new tires, a couple of new chains, and a re-painting.

RE bike cleaning/reassembly: I found the trip to be pretty rough on our bike. Between the "sealed" roads, the rain, and the loading/unloading from the budget truck, we are in need of: a couple of new tires, a couple of new chains, and a re-painting.
Ah, yes. the NZ roads. We went there in 2001 (September 21, one or two days after they re-opened the skies above the US to air travel). Rented a camper-van. Were puzzled as to why the road noise was so loud. Commented to a local who responded that he thought perhaps their road metal was harder than ours. Road metal? Translation to American/Canadian-speak: gravel. This is on the paved roads. I don't think we drove on any un-paved, other than where there was construction.

Beautiful country. Very low crime rate. Relatively narrow spread in income between rich and poor. Back then the NZ dollar was 43 cents US (currently more like 53 cents). If it weren't for existing connections to friends and relatives that would be my first choice of place to live. And as for the food - they've experienced immigration from a wide variety of cultures (mostly Pacific Rim), resulting in lots of choice, and often good quality.

My reference point for the food was 20 years ago. Then, most of it was derivative of British food. Meat pies at gas stations. Not a lot better at resturants.

Also, our limited experience with wet roads is quite different from around here. The grit and water that gets thrown into the drivetrain really accelerates wear on the chain & cogs.

For the amount of logistics involved, trains, planes, automobile & trucks, dinners, lunches and breakfasts arranged on time and preplanning the trip I thought we got our moneys worth. We showed up rode our bike didn't worry about anything, thourly enjoyed ourselves. It seemed pricey going in, but looking back it was a very fair deal.