The sky is full of stars, more than I ever knew and they radiate like light bulbs on the blackest canvas. No light pollution affects these skies – they are as endless as eternity. I can feel the mountains around me, their silhouettes outlined by a full moon.
My night-time superpowers come into action; my senses are firing. I hear every sound from the animals I do not know, the earth I cannot see and the river that gently cascades over the rocks and down the valley – I can feel it all around.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY BEATE KUBITZ
I take deep cavernous breaths. I fill my lungs to the brim with the sweet smell of eucalyptus trees. I’ve become in tune with nature and can now tell when midday arrives, for that is when the sweet smell crescendos.
The Tour Aotearoa is a 3,000km mountain bike adventure the length of New Zealand. Billed as a tour, not a race, the inevitable debate soon begins. My opinion is that an event like this will be many things to many people, but in the end the goal is the same: ride the length of a country, experience the landscape and seek adventure. My aim is to go as hard and efficiently as I can. I’m against myself. I respect everyone whether they race or not; we all deserve the freedom to chose our own destiny and experience the journey as we see fit.
And so I began my journey with gusto…
An echelon of bikepackers working in unison to conquer 90 Mile Beach must have been quite a sight. From the saddle it hurt and I hovered dangerously close to the red zone, but to be dropped from the bunch would mean being lost in a painful no man’s land fighting a vicious wind. Clearly Mother Nature would be our biggest opponent. Dismounting ungracefully to stumble up the final section of beach reminded me that I must look after these legs.