1 | Timestamp | Your name or non-de-plume | Favourite Brevet food | Best meal | Food you now hate the most | Best wild life encounter | Nicest locals | Most unexpected surprise | Best piece of kit | Things you were glad you didnt omit | Worst bike failure | Best accomodation | Best outside accomodation | Best day | Best part of course | Least enjoyable part of course | Hardest section | Craziest/funnest person to travel with | Things you'd change | Funniest moment | Best Brevet direction: Old or new? | Add anything you like in here : ) |
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2 | 2/19/2012 15:46:17 | El jefe | Pies and chocolate Milk | Pizza and Beer | Muesli bars : ) | Bush Robin on aero bars and bellbird in Waiuta | Ikamatua | Enjoying Port Underwood | Ground Effect baked beanie | Tubless valce core remover | Slow leak in rear tire, minor | Hedgerow Hilton! | Hedgerow Hilton! | Pelorus to Blenheim | Maitai - Mangatapu | Wasp-dale Track in reverse direction | Headwind at end of Molesworth | Thomas Lindup | Take a vest instead of a jacket. | Seeing Thomas walk around wearign his jersey upside down on his legs | Old direction has better flow of course | Thanks to Simon for organising such a cool event that gets us into the Great Outdoors |
3 | 2/20/2012 13:29:00 | Gilby | Nuts | Chicken burger with many beers at flock hill station | Museli bars | Kaka waking me up on the waiuta trail | kieth at the murch camp ground, arrived at 9.30 and he still gave me a cabin | Knocking it off in 6 and 1/2 days | freeload racks!!! they are the bomb | Pain killers | 1 flat tyre | Flock hill | Waiuta track | Flock hill to Waiuta | The whole thing | ? | Maungatapu- port underwood in a day. I grovelled late in that day. | Karen, hard core on a cyclocross bike!!!! | ? | findin out you left a pair ob bike shorts in the lees valley late at night. | I found this direction easier to start with....as i think that A>pass was spilit into two. | writing my blog as I write this. link http://backcountrylive.blogspot.co.nz/ |
4 | 2/20/2012 13:30:02 | Ollie | Sheffield pies | McDonalds breakfast bonanza | Blackball | That I didn't get lonely riding by myself | Gates carbon drive belt | Brake pads | Brake pad wear | Blackball Hilton | St Arnaud | Hurunui to Blackball | Ball Hill block | Maungatapu in a full stomach | Myself | Peoples reaction at cafes when I sat down to scoff $30 of food. | New | http://mountainpedalernz.blogspot.co.nz/ | ||||
5 | 2/20/2012 14:39:54 | Biw | peanut slabs for the first half and almond slabs once i was sick of the peanuts | Roast with a pie (or two) for dessert | OSM candy bars. | Seeing myself in a mirror afterward | Ian and Lorraine at the VOODOO lounge! | No punctures in my wandering street-slicks during Big River downhill | Sprung Brooks saddle | Wool knickers for the tempest I encountered in Port Underwood | Broken derailleur cage | Nelson | Waiuta | Port Underwood | Wharfdale downhill | Gravel track into Springfield | Porika push-up | Rich, Hannah, and Jo trio -- All punk rock stars! | No low-riders! Thanks for the terrible info el J & M! Although, it certainly made for a couple of sweet ueberFlugs on the rutty singtrack. | heli-shitting Big River | new one was great. | Thanks for all the organization! Great event for slow bikers like myself. |
6 | 2/20/2012 18:49:17 | Dave Sharpe | Fresh fruit | Venison steak @ Blackball | Two singlespeeders | Wellington | The pimpin' robes at the Blackball Hilton | Camera | Chamois creme, sense of humour | Err... a dirty chain? | Hanmer Backpackers, Blackball Hilton | Day five | Wharfedale, Waiuta, Porika, Maungatapu | The 600km of tarmac | Maungatapu | STEALTH MODE | Less tarmac, more proper mountain biking | Old - cos I haven't done it yet... | ||||
7 | 2/20/2012 20:29:20 | Tor Meulengracht-Madsen | Anything hot | Lasagne banquet at the Lazy Cow in Murchison | One square meals | A very inquisitive NZ Robin (Toutouwai) on the Big River. | Encouraging yells from the walkers on the Wharfdale | Making it all the way back to Blenheim sort of alive. | Frame bag by La Plodge (no backpack yay) and wheels built by Oli to keep the tank rocking androlling on | Fox jacket (from Selwyn) = 700gram = Bulky and heavy but so warm | Broke chain twice in an hour on the wharfdale, way to hardcore obviously. | Lazy Cow in Murchison | Camping in Lees Valley | From Lees Valley through to Arthurs Pass | The downhill bits and surprisingly going over the Wharfdale, it's a beautiful bit of bush. | The uphill bits and trying to sleep at the Pelorous bridge with the mozzies and rain. Oh and the 4WDers on the Molesworth | Humping up the Maungatapu after a looooong day. | You have to be crazy to do the Brevet in the first place | Lighten 'The Tank' by about 5kgs | Micks rendition of the daytime nighttime game at about 7am-ish on the way out of Murchison. | Mighty fine ride, maybe see what it's like the other way round next time.....errrm yeah maybe....maybe? Sore bum, numb fingers and toes, killer hills, sleep deprivation, ingrained smell of sweat and butt butter, burning knees and all that good shit... we'll see, I've got two years to let it all turn into a blurry memory. | |
8 | 2/21/2012 12:25:46 | Richard Davies | Bacon and Egg pie - consumed cold for dinner | Pasta with chorizo for lunch in Hanmer, day 2. I was rather hungry!! | Any of the greasy, stodgy food between Hanmer and Reefton. A panini that was the texture of rubber in Springs Junction took the cake though. | Heard Kaka and Kakariki in Big River, saw Weka near the Crooked River. | The couple that run Reids store in Maruia were lovely and their muffins were amazing. | Either the muffin at Maruia, or the tourist who had parked in the lane around the blind 15kph hairpin on the descent from Rahu Saddle. He needed to take photos apparently, and if a truck had been coming the other way he could have got one for the coroner. | My bivy bag and my ipod. | Ipod, Butt butter, maps/cue sheets | Bike was fine - broke a bottle cage on Molesworth and replaced at Hanmer. The seat did hurt my botty a little! | Beech glade in Matakitaki valley, or big macrocarpa at Waiuta | As above | Castle Hill to Waiuta. End of. Although, Waiuta to Matakitaki valley was pretty special too. | Probably the road from Jacksons to Stillwater. I love the Coast, and the scenic reserves through there are beautiful. | Probably Wharfdale for me | None of it was too hard in isolation. So I'll plump for getting started every morning, the early starts plus 30mins of initial discomfort until I warmed up were a drag | Hana Black/Jo Smith/Bill Fry were all excellent company. | It was a bit stink to have to stop at 5pm on day 1, so I would have preferred to start earlier on the saturday morning to get through Molesworth without having to risk blowing a gasket. | I needed to take an emergency pit stop in Picton. The toilet on the main street was a flash automated thing, and when I finished I pressed the button to dispense the paper and nothing came out. After some desperate attempts at percussive maintenance, I remembered I had just bought a bacon and egg pie to save for Port Underwood road, I carefully removed it from its brown paper bag and used the bag in lieu of toilet paper then put the pie in a map bag and put it back in my pocket! | This was my first time, and I really enjoyed it except for getting stuck at Molesworth. If we started 1hr earlier that would fix that.... | Thank you to Simon and all the helpers for what was a truly special event. I can't wait for the next adventure!! I have posted an account on facebook and will get some fotos up when I get back to Wgtn |
9 | 2/21/2012 12:41:10 | Alex Revell | Dried fruit | Mediterranean Pizza in Nelson! | muesli bars | Thomas's close encounter with a possum in the dark that lead to Jonty and I both having close encounters with said possum immediately after | Man working in Culverden 4Square who took jonty seriously when he asked for a pack of Marlboro's | 2nd pair of shorts, and aero bars | multiple gashes in rear Stan's tyre that required booting | After the Voodoo Lounge, the Hedgerow with fine bed of pine needles in Sheffield | See above! Definitely outclassed cabins in Murchison and | day 3 - Sheffield to Blackball, great scenery and the smoothest gravel roads ever travelled | Around the back of lake Brunner, a light tailwind and lovely mild evening light | eighty-eight valley just before Wakefield - the slight uphills and headwind just kept on coming, even though I knew we were so close to breaking out on the main road. Also every day at about 5pm, my body just wanted to stop but I still had 5, 6 even 7 hours of riding left most days. Mind over matter. | Port Underwood. My legs were just so limited by tendonitis - seated pedalling was barely manageable, standing was comic in its lopsided cavorting grotesqueness. | Thomas Lindup. Anytime, every time. | Take a light - any light, actually. Except a broken one. | I probably had some of the most fun at night when I had to sandwich myself amidst the others (Jonty, Jeff and Thomas normally) so as to see anything at all. Big shadows and the occasionally bumpy surprise when I became isolated for brief periods. | I liked it this way, but I don't really know it any different. Some bits would be much more convenient in reverse, eg Porika. | |||
10 | 2/21/2012 13:28:11 | Darren Tatom 'The Psyclist" | pies | Pasta with beef, chorizo and chilli | OSM's (sorry CT) | Feral denizens of the pub in Reefton | Springs Junction | The quality of the backpackers at Flock Hill | GT Zaskay Carbon 29er | painkillers | Nothing broke | Brightwater Motor Inn | Forest Camp hanmer | Hanmer to flock Hill | Hanmer to Ikamatua | Big River (wet wet wet) | Murchison to St Arnaud | Geof Blance | Do the thing anticlockwise. course should not be changed | Getting a "tour de france' welcome at Cragieburn at 11pm | Old..anticlockwise | |
11 | 2/21/2012 16:21:52 | Jo Smith | Bana & Moro bar for morning tea | The Pizza & beers with Chris & Bob in Nelson | Brusied Banana's... will be a long time before I can stomach another banana | The weka's were nice to see, | The farmer on the tractor just out of murch who stopped us & asked us where we were going... we said Nelson via St A.. with a big 'Ha' he wished us luck - I don't think he believed us? | |||||||||||||||
12 | 2/21/2012 16:30:54 | Jo Smith & 'The Brut' | Bana & Moro bar for morning tea | The Pizza & beers with Chris & Bob in Nelson | Brusied Banana's... will be a long time before I can stomach another banana | The weka's were nice to see, | The farmer on the tractor just out of murch who stopped us & asked us where we were going... we said Nelson via St A.. with a big 'Ha' he wished us luck - I don't think he believed us? I love the reaction you get from people when they find out what you are doing 7 how far you are planning on riding - makes you feel awesome! | A Helicopter with a port a loo hanging under it flying over the Waiuta? | My Down Jacket, so good to put on at the end of the day | Rocktane, | Nothing - my bike is awesome | My Bivvy & sleeping Bag | Waiuta - Full moon = Awesome | Knowing I was going to finish in 6 1/2 days... | Castle Hill Village to Waiuta - tail winds for 205km | Mang - out of nelson - had a small melt down pushing up there - had to scream! - Sorry Hana | Richard davies... just got funnier & funnier... | Staring earlier on day 1 would have been great - would have loved to have gotten to otherside of Molesworth | Nice Christain Boy bessing our water in Ikatmatua Pub | Only know New - loved it - feel like old would have been much harder? | Loves the adventure - not sure what will be next that could top that! Thanks Simon & e/one else fro all the organising | |
13 | 2/22/2012 0:34:24 | Dean Johansson | Roasted salted cashews | Breakfat omelette at Maruia Springs after bivvying by the roadside at Springs Junction. | Nothing. I can't beleive how much I have been eating since the Brevet. | The curios Robins hopping all over the bike on the Waiuta track. | The DOC Ranger at Molesworth who opened the gate early on day two was good value, the "Nelsun Blue Dot Junkies' signs were priceless but the guy who came riding out along the Port Underwood road too offer us encouragement on the last day gave me a great boost. | Getting whacked on the arm by the white haired red faced jogger on the Taylor River track, sounds like he had a go at a few of us! | Surly Cross Check. Schwalbe Marathon Mondial tyres. | Butt Butter | Loose cranks on the Wharfedale and no 8mm allen key. Discovered that a 5 plus a 3 will tighten a crank bolt enough to ride for about 15 minutes at a time. Not really a bike failure but a failure in bike preparation... | (Formerly the) Blackball Hilton | Beside the river out of Springs Junction. | Sprins Junction to Blackball. | Can't decide, there were so many highlights. | Long false flats on highways with trucks bearing down on you. | Finding the start of the Wharfedale. Climbing the Wharfedale, Riding the Wharfedale with a crank coming loose. | We're all a bit crazy aren't we? | I would go anticlockwise. Maybe I'll just do that next time. | Having 6 bumblebees so into the blue top i was wearing that i decided to run 30 m up the road... they followed... so i turned and ran 30m back to my bike with just enough time to whip the shirt off and throw it down for them to inspect while i had a snack. It would have been funny to watch. | so glad i took this on. Great event, great adventure, great people to ride with. Thanks to Simon and all who helped him run it. | |
14 | 2/22/2012 9:45:51 | Peter McKenzie | scrambled eggs, Ems power cookie-bars | Pasta & salad at Wilsons pub in Reefton | I find it hard to hate any food, but I'm definitely less keen on OSM bars than I used to be! | Having a quail running alone the track in front of me was fun. | Locals at the Ikamatua pub | Graeme knocking on my motel door in Springs Junction | Revelate gas tank - so simple and effective | Spare brake pads, oh wait... | brakes | The Burn in Castle Hill | Bivied 3 nights and all were good. Seeing the moon pop up for a while from Acheron was special. | Castle Hill to Ikamatua was very pleasant | Waiuta to Reefton was a satisfying mission | Had a low spell early on in the Wharfedale | Anything early in the morning | So many great people | Run it every year! | Yet another pie | New was good (apart from not finishing). Keen to try old. | Thanks Simon & co for organising it. |
15 | 2/22/2012 12:09:27 | Hana Black | Pie and a shandy | Pizza and beer with Chris and Bob in Nelson! | Squashed bananas | (unfortunately) Seeing the dead kiwi near Otira. | Just about everyone I talked to. | Banana and choc chip muffins after hours at the Reids store | The feedbags and bento box designs from Scott and Jo. | Insect repellent, bum cream, anti-flamme and Ipod. | Nothing major, though having to adjust my brakes at Lake Rotoroa was an almost fatal mistake due to the sandflies! | Not the backpackers in Nelson – it was the only bed I slept in all week and I got eaten by bedbugs! | My bivvy bag. | 204km from Castle Hill Village to Waiuta including a second breakfast at Arthurs Pass, blasting down the Otira Gorge, still hot muffins at Jacksons, smooth and fast gravel roads thru to Stillwater, chips and shandy at Blackball Hilton, getting my water blessed by an American christian sheep shearer in Ikamatua pub, finishing up with an awesome sunset at Waiuta. | The Otira gorge descent, though next time I think a road closure would be nice so the traffic doesn't slow you down. | It was not looking forward to the Mangatapu but after the Porika it was easy! | The Walkedale mud-fest bike push. | Richard Davies. | I might get a Brooks saddle for next time. Saddle soreness seemed to be a big issue for everyone except Bill who was using one. | Anything involving Rich! | First time so can't comment. | Thanks to everyone I rode with, especially Jo, for the company and good times. |
16 | 2/22/2012 14:30:36 | David K | Pies | filet steak with sausages and chips | One Square Meal bars. They're too sweet | a conspiracy of Kea in Arthurs Pass village | Springfield Hotel, followed closely by Blackball publicans and locals | pushing my bike for 40min up Porika, then 1hr+ up Mangatapu | fork mounted bottle cages and home made feedbag | extra water carrying capacity | puncture descending from Big River to Reefton, sealant didn't work | Blackball Hilton | Anywhere apart from Hanmer Springs Backpackers lawn | Blackball to Murchison, singletrack and great gravel | Waiuta - Big River and Wharfdale Track | All the flat gravel and blacktop | pushing up Mangatapu | The other one, great to surprise each other with random bursts of energy | moar singletrack, moar climbing | spotting a fellow riders paunch escaping from the top of his bib shorts and then pointing it out to my other riding companion :D | I'd say new, I'd rather not tackle Molesworth Station on the final day | Brilliant ride, not much I'd change in the way I approached it, I'll be back with more experience and better legs next time. I hope. Thanks to all those that made this possible. |
17 | 2/22/2012 14:35:45 | Scott E | Fruit when I could find it | Chips from Stillwater Hotel | Sweet muslei bars | The sheep on the secong night were friendly | The geeza riding in just his undies along the gravel road behind Lake Brunner | Not getting sick of my own company | My new bike frame, oh and my saddlebag | Painkillers | None | The day shelter at Lake Rotoroa | See above | Day three, 10km's past Springfield to Ikamatua | Jacksons to Ikamatua (tailwind) | Mangatapu | Mangatapu | My mind | Get a better arse | mmmmmm my disappointment at being caught even though it wasn't a race. That was funny, to me at least. | Only done one, so can't say | I think the start finish town should also move, so every two years it starts somewhere new i.e. next year it starts in Nelson, in an anti clockwise direction, Next year Nelson Clockwise, so on and so forth |
18 | 2/22/2012 21:49:11 | Peter Maindonald | Rasin Bread/Choc milk | Filet steak Blackball | Muesli bars | Large bull guarding a Molesworth gate | Owner and bar manger Springfield Pub | Condition of Maungatapu | Ground Effect Exocet shorts/Brooks B17 | Aero Bars | Rear puncture + slow leak | Blackball Hilton | Botom of Maungatapu, Pelorus side | Blackball to Murchison, Waiuta/Big River/Maruia fantastic West Coast riding | see best day | Wharfedale, from hut to saddle [I like riding my bike] | see previous | Thomas L | Maybe go Rainbow/St James instead of Molesworth | Trying to sleep beside the Maungatapu track with riders trying to sneak past | Hard to say, Maungatapu was in real good condition, maybe Wharfedale would be easier south to north | A big thanks to Simon and the others for making it hapen. Cheers. |
19 | 2/23/2012 13:53:15 | revster (senior) | pies | gormet lasagne + beer at Murchison | OSMs | wild pig, wild cat and wild deer all joined me in the space of a few minutes going down Maungatapu in the dusk | Blackball people | The guy the returned my sunglases in the middle of the Maruia saddle | two pairs of reading glasses | two energy gels (helped recover from a bonk on Upcot saddle | bent teeth on middle ring | Big river hut | Pelorous campground | Arthurs Pass to Big river hut | Fantastic bush and lighly gravelled road round the back of lake Brunner | Grovelling up the Porika and Maungatapu | Climb from Wharfedale hut to saddle | Great to spend time with Tor, Mick and Owen | More handlebar options - to avoid bashing the nerves in my hands to numbness | Nor for me, but when Owen produced my reading glasses an hour or so after I dropped them. This wqas about the third item of equipment I had lost that was recovered by some one else. My second set of reading glasses (left in Murchison were retuned by Craig yesterday Feb 22nd!) | Only done it clockwise | Great adventure - thanks Simon and helpers. |
20 | 2/23/2012 18:12:48 | Geof b | ||||||||||||||||||||
21 | 2/23/2012 18:27:22 | Geof B | Pies with sauce | Reefton Pub (sorry Darren) | Muesli Bars | Two Wekas on way to Blackball | Reefton | Hot Dinner at Reefton | LG Bib Shorts | GPS | None | Road Shelter Porters Pass | As Above | Reefton to Nelson 285km | Jackson to Blackball | Driving Home | Warfdale in the wet | Mr Tattom | Nothing really | McDee's drive through.... | Have to try old next time.. | A big thanks to Simon |
22 | 2/24/2012 21:47:32 | Karin | Cashew+Raisins+Chocolate buttons+Salt on top of that | Might have been a bacon & egg pie that had travelled with me for 24 hrs (...am a vegetarian, I thought) | Sheffield pies, never again! | Lots of birds along Waiuta track, have no idea what they were | Maruia | That I thoroughly enjoyed it, even the hardest parts. In some way. | Hex key | Butt butter | Lost a bottle cage bolt (had spares surprisingly enough). No punctures on my skinny tyres! | Flock hill | Waiuta. The most amazingly bright full moon and a beautiful starry sky. | Arthurs Pass to Stillwater, awesome descends and the scenic reserves were really scenic. | The first half of Wharfedale, enhanced by sandflies en masse. And my skinny tyres did not enjoythe the last part of Big River. | See above. | Met heaps of crazy cyclists out there, and they all seemed to head the same direction. | Pave Big River? | When a tramper told me, when I was 2/3 through Wharfedale, "Oh...you'll have a hard time going down on that" Ha ha! I had a bloody hard time pushing my beloved CX up, going down the last bit was nothing. | Only done this, but think that the other way might be harder. | Thanks heaps! Awesome experience, will definitely do it again. | |
23 | 3/3/2012 16:19:48 | Jimmy F | Hot cross buns | rice rissotto | Tame Robbins | garage workers in reefton | cones comming lose on front wheel | tent fly | flat spannetrs | |||||||||||||
24 | 3/3/2012 16:25:02 | Jimmy F | Hot cross buns | rice rissotto | Tame Robbins | garage workers in reefton | cones comming lose on front wheel | tent fly | flat spanners | Cones coming lose on front wheel | Fly over picnic table at Rotoroa Camp site | Day 5 from rotoroa to aussie bay | Big River | none | personal day three between porters and arthurs nothing to do with terrain though | travel a bit lighter |