New Zealand 2025

Jan 15 – 17th = Travel Day(s)

The lead up to this race was the most chaotic and stressful one yet! Even though I knew months ago and had plenty of time to plan and pack, it once again came down to the very last minute! It is either my curse or my superpower, but either way, I wish it was not a key part of my personality!

A bit of backstory on the why we are heading to NZ again. During this past summer, I was asked by Olga of team Fragile Flowers if I’d like to join her for an expedition race in New Zealand. This was a new race that was coming from part Bend Racing and Part FEAR society as a partnership between the Magness twins. Knowing that I was free from the shackles of school, I jumped on the chance to join! The original plan was to field and all female team but we couldn’t find a fourth lady to join Olga, Jen, and I. It was December before we let Steve know for certain that he’d be joining us!

We had a weekly Zoom chat in order to get to know each other better. Jen and Olga had just finished racing Expedition Alaska together, so I joined Olga for The Longest Day race in NY to make sure I was a good fit. That race went really well and I felt like I was up for the challenge! The next month was the USARA Nationals and that was when the wheels fell off for me and I questioned if I ever wanted to race again. Having already committed, I knew something had to change for the NZ race was going to an awful experience for me. I reached out to Jen Segger and signed up for her race training program. For the last three months I’ve been training like it is my job, doing whatever Jen says, and spending way more time on a bike trainer than I ever thought I would!

Back to today… If you asked me if I’d rather pack for an overseas expedition race or ride a century on a bike trainer, I’d do the ride all day long! (For those that don’t know, I really don’t like biking all that much…) I did semi-start to think about packing a few weeks ago, ordering items I knew we’d need. I drug the tables up to the library to lay out items in a secure location since Gremlin (the cat) likes to run off with things. I looked at my lists, knew what I needed and yet still just didn’t pack! It was Monday of this week (I’m writing this in the air on Wednesday) that we finally started putting things in boxes and bags! The original plan was a bike box and a bin each but it was quickly apparent that the bins would not hold everything we had to bring. Break out the the good old hockey duffles one again! Each container could only weigh 50 lbs and we had to pack for racing and adventuring before. I think this is the least amount of clothes I’ve ever brought for an overseas adventure, not even sure I have any “street clothes” and it’s either race shoes or crocs for footwear!

Stuffed into various places we have

2 bikes, 1 double pack raft, 2 kayak paddles, 2 life jackets, 2 wet suits, 2 helmets, 6 pairs of race shoes, a tent, 2 sleeping bags and liners, 2 sleeping pads, various comfort items, and ZERO cats!

We arrived at the airport in Indy, dropped our gear, and made our way to flight number 1 of 3 to get to New Zealand. First up was Indy to Denver, then Denver to San Fran, then finally San Fran to Christchurch. It was all typical flying, nothing exciting or out of the ordinary. We did try out our priority pass for the Virgin Records Lounge in San Fran. I guess the experience we had in the lounge in Rome colored my view of what lounge life could be and set the bar a bit too high! The free tomato soup was very good though, and the cider price was cheaper than in the airport bars. Arriving in Christchurch we declared ALL THE THINGS since we had so much gear with us and better to declare it than risk the fine. Pro tip – if you are traveling to NZ with outdoor gear, give it a really good wash before, scrub off all the dirt, and pack you bags to you can easily show all the things. We overwhelmed our agent I think, at one point he said “I’m good, I don’t need to see anymore shoes!” As for food, don’t bring any items that contain honey or pork. I was able to bring in some backpacking meals but another traveler lost his since they had pork in them. Clearing bio security we next set up our eSIMs for the phones. Steve found Airalo when we went to Iceland this summer and it seems to be the cheapest option. We each got 3GB for 30 days for $12. The only thing to be aware of is that this is only data, you cannot make a phone call. Best option for that is to use WhatsApp, which is what we ended up having to do to contact our rental car company. NüCar is a small family place that is not onsite but was the only place I could find that would guarantee that we could get a minivan or similar sized car. With the bike boxes, a compact car was not an option! Even then the 2 bike boxes had to go on their sides across the laid down back seats.

Car loaded, we began the fun game of Tight Left, Wide Right that Josh and Ashish shared with us when we all toured NZ together. Basically, all passengers are required to say “tight left, wide right” anytime the driver is making a turn! This ensures that my 33 years of driving experience doesn’t just go on auto pilot and send us into the wrong lane! At least this time I went to the correct side of the car to be the driver, and it only took me a few stops to quit reaching for the gear shift with my right hand when I wanted to park! We made a few stops around town to get camping food, lunch, and a neat store called the Eco Shop to buy used bowls and spoons that I’d forgotten to pack. This store had one of everything, from household items, sports equipment, luggage, car parts, and aisles of speakers and monitors! I wish we had thought to buy a bathroom scale there since that would make the bin and bag packing for the race much easier.

We finally left the Christchurch area around 3:30 pm, more than a little behind schedule. The drive down the our lodging for the night was about 6 1/2 hrs and we still needed to stop for dinner along the way. It was a struggle at the end but we finally rolled into the Southland Organic Farmstay around 11:15pm (original estimate of arrival was 7 pm). The host was lovely and showed us our room and asked what time we needed breakfast. I felt awful asking for a 7:15 am meal but we had to make the next flight! One awesome shower later, we closed our eyes and went horizontal for the first time in I don’t even know how many hours, saying goodnight to our f@cking ferry day that didn’t actually have a ferry!