Its been a while but im back

I have not posted much since my return trip from NZ. I had a great time met great people and the mountain biking was great.

I'm heading off to Alp d Huez, France today to take part in the Megaavalanche race which is a moutnain bike enduro epic with approx 1600 riders covering 32km of some of the best terrain you could imagine and add that with some of the best scenery its a winner.

Steve Deas, Martin "Bart" Nairn and myself are heading off from peebles,Scotalnd at around midnight tonight and we excpect to get to Alp d Huez about 11pm sunday night. First thing monday morning it will busy busy!! collecting lift passes and sorting all the gear out for the following weeks riding.

On the the wedensday we have the Sprint Avalanche in Oz en Oisans its a timed DH race seperate from the Megaavalanche there will be some big names there so it will be a tough race. I think there will be around 300 riders and only the top 50 go through so fingers crossed

Keep posted through the week or better still subscribe to my posts and keep an eye on how we are getting on..

Christchurch

My last 2 days thursday 12th and friday 13th in Christchurch were wet ones so no biking got done as they don't let you on the tracks when it rains as it wrecks them so i met up with the marco and andre on the thursday and we just hung out around town. We ended up going to the local leisure centre and going for a swim, jacuzzi, sauna etc and that passed the afternoon, That night they left for Mt cook via Lake Tekapo were they would stay till friday morning. I stayed in Christchurch for one more night hoping to get 1 last days biking in before i left but i woke on te friday morning to the sound of rain smashing of the tin roof of my camper van..Not to worry though as i had a plan B and it was to go to the Antarctic centre and take a look around. I payed $48 to get in which i tried to haggle down cause i thought that was a bit of a rip off but it was either pay it or piss off so i payed it. Once in i thought the place seemed pretty cool i reached the penguin enclosure at feeding time so i was buzzing to see what a penguin was like ( for no real reason i was just wondering how big they were as i had been told they are as big as 5ft) when i saw the penguins they were about 1ft high i was well gutted and they fedding bit was crap so that was a waste of time. I headed of to the storm room, every 30min for about 4min storm conditions are re-created in this room and if your brave enough you can go in and feel what its like to be in a wind and snow storm at -18 this place was ace i had good fun in there everyone else took off when it started getting to cold. After that there was just a few boards up around the place and some musem bits but for $48 i wont do that again. When i came out it was still raining so i decided to head to Mt cook.

Rotorua

Arrived in rotorua on Friday at 17:30 the place stinks a bit with all the sulphur in the air but I'm used to the smell from work.

I camped up at the top 10 campsite for the last 3days i was planning on roughing it here but the serviced campsites are only $18 which is about £8, you get spa, hot pool, swimming pool, washing facilities and my favourite outdoor barby's. I was in town today and some of the local newsagents have tunes blasting out it was funny watching the Pakistani man who owned the shop bopping about to Bob Marley's could you be loved.... The locals are dead nice and helpful the bike shop Bike Vegas is a good place to go if you need anything for the bike the guys are sound. At the weekend there is a shuttle service for the mountain biking its $30 for 6 runs so today(Sunday) i took the option after a hard day yesterday and payed for the uplift. It was well worth it i rode the national DH track a few times and then hit the single track trails at the end of the day taking about 25min to get to the bottom it was a perfect way to end the day. The weather over the last 3 days has been unreal its so hot and long may it last..

I'm off to the Luge then the geysers and the volcanic pools tomorrow then I'm off to Napier which is on the east coast to get some beach action Napier is about about 2hrs drive from here.

Trails

There are over 100km of trails in the forest and as soon as you get in from the car park there are trail start points everywhere. All the trails are graded in colours 5 different colours, White(easiest), green, red, blue, black and a black 6 the (hardest) and they also have a number system that works in conjunction with the colour boards to let you know how severe it is. The trails themselves are hardpack, very loose/dusty very fast, tight and great fun. Most climbs involve the fire roads but there are a couple which you get in the woods for.

The hill's that the Forrest is situated on is not that big in terms of height but the trail builders have done an amazing job for what they have all the trails are flowing you are required to pedal in some bits but its well worth it. Anything from a hard tail to a light 6' travel bike would be ideal for here..one of the best trails in the forest is rated green its called corners and it is exactly that if you can carry your sped well then the speed you get is unreal.

DH track

The National Dh track is very different to the rest of the trails in the forest it is steep rutted loose and has some big drops doubles and step downs. There are a few different lines down but i chose to stay with the National track as i only had 6 uplifts(1 afternoon) to try it out if you can keep the bike pumping along the track its class the amount of speed you can carry and the corners are surprisingly grippy with the odd one that will just give out there are 2 step downs one that's about 12ft and the other just after the fire road is about 20ft in length and drops down about 12ft so you need to carry a good bit of speed over it or your mince meat, the final jump at the end is about 50ft, I never tried it partly because i never had any armour and secondly cause I never wanted to spangle myself (which is what probably would of happened) or my bike after only being here 3 days.

NZ I'm Here

I touched down in Auckland This morning at 06:20 and the temperature was 16'C the flight over was real good with a stop in L.A. to re-fuel, we flew over Las Vegas and you could make out the MGM grand and a few other buildings the place looks mint from the air.
Once into LA you have to enter the country and then get put in a holding pen while the plane re-fuels!! It's a bit of a farce as you have to fill in immigration forms in just to transit but at least the passport get's stamped, so that's another one for the collection.

I got a Shuttle bus from Auckland airport to my sisters which is in the C.B.D (Central Business district) or the city centre, the place where she stays is amazing its basicaly a 5*hotel that have the odd apartments bought out in it, Its well smart, has amazing views and only 2min walk to the main shopping bit. So on that note im gonna grab a shower and head in to see what's on the go..