"Man, Colleen couldn't you have picked a place farther up the hill?" I'm doing the paper boy up the super steep street in Cat Ba Town, to the hotel Colleen picked which is like five feet below the very very top. "You're being super dramatic," she says. "No, I'm just telling you, please pick the … Continue reading Vietnam: Ha Long Bay to Cao Bang
Tag: cycle touring
Vietnam: Hanoi to Ha Long Bay
"Try, try it, this for you," says an old lady with a cone hat. She pushes a little donut into my hand before I know what's happening. Colleen and I were just walking down some busy side street in Hanoi, scooter horns and buzzy exhausts. "Oh, thank you," I say. I try the donut, not … Continue reading Vietnam: Hanoi to Ha Long Bay
Napier to Wellington
“They's all meat sheep now,” says Will. He's a pot bellied bloke with a stubbly face, and is wearing a t-shirt with a screaming, flaming, ghastly ghost skull on it. Spooky! We're sitting at the Wimbledon Tavern, an old little pub at the bottom of a steep green valley. “Meat sheep?” I think of the … Continue reading Napier to Wellington
Georgia
A little black and tan chihuahua sprints flat out down the hillside. "Ahrahrahrah!" he yells at us. We're on a nice quiet road outside of Athens, Georgia. "Look at this little guy," I say. He keeps coming, hits the raised shoulder of the road with those tiny little legs, trips, plants his face in the … Continue reading Georgia
Railroad Tracks and Raccoon Trails Across America: South Carolina
"I can see a trail down there. We should turn around," says Colleen. We're 20 feet above the swamp, balancing our bikes on a railroad trestle that's being rebuilt as a bike bridge, but isn't quite done. It has some real janky boards to walk across, which makes me feel like we're some old timey … Continue reading Railroad Tracks and Raccoon Trails Across America: South Carolina
To Christchurch
“Now, we enter the Plains of Despair!” I say. We’ve left the mountains and are have to cross about a hundred miles of very flat farm country before Christchurch. “I really wish you would stop calling it the Plains of Despair,” Colleen says. “Los Llanos de Triste.” “God,” Colleen grunts. “You’re depressing me.” “But I … Continue reading To Christchurch
Dunedin to Mt. Cook
We ride into Dunedin on a sunny afternoon, then a cold rain moves in. We pay to camp at a hostel, which is a nice option sometimes— sleep in the yard instead of in a smelly, snore filled dorm, hang out in the house if it’s raining. And at the rate we drink coffee, it … Continue reading Dunedin to Mt. Cook
Southland
Milford, Doubtful Sound and Fiordland were out— we came to a pretty easy consensus on that. The last couple weeks in high and dry Otago had been so nice. No sandflies, fewer camper vans, almost no tour buses. And going back over to the fjords would be diving back into the wet, itchy, selfie-stick nightmare. … Continue reading Southland