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..

Here we go 2nd time lucky

Im off to the airport tomorrow to head out to NZ fingers crossed that all my luggage will get accepted this time and il be off on my travels....

Dont Fly Quantas

Got to the ceck in dest friday morning to go to NZ Quantas wanted £1100 to take my bike to NZ i tried for hours to get it changed but they would't budge.. The BA girls could not belive it as they only charge £30 and Air NZ only £50.. I even put on there website that i was taking my bike and it never said nothing about having to pay £1100.. So il have had to re-book for tuesday with NZ airways il be out in NZ for the 29th Jan.... Im trying to claim back the cost of my flight from Quantas now....

2 Days to go until im off to Oz/Nz

Well the holiday money has been ordered my bike bag weighs about 50Kg and Im well looking forward to the 29hr flight...

Keep a look out for regular updates of my trip as it unfolds..

Descend Hamsterley Winter Series Rnd 1

First i should apologise for the delay in this post as the event was last week but I've had one of those weeks when it feels like you have been busy as hell but when you actually look back on your week you haven't done that much at all.....so sorry for my laziness..

The Descend Hamsterley Winter Series Rnd 1 is the first part of 3rnds downhill mountain biking in witch you can gain points and use to enter the coming NPS (National Points Series) and also to keep you biking during the crappy weather.

I rocked up on the Friday night to a place called frosterley where i would be staying with Jammy a lad who i had met in France this year doing the Megaavalanche, I met his father then the two of us headed to the local pub for a pint and a game of pool to catch up on things, while we were in the pub we got asked if we wanted to enter into a raffle for a mixed grill! we were both up for it until we found out you only won the meat, so that meant cooking the grill yourself!! bollocks to that. We got ourselves loaded up on Noby's peanuts and headed home for an early night.

Saturday morning we headed to Hamsterley where I met Ed and Andy 2 other lads who i had met in France Andy would be staying with us at Jammy's so that was good also i met up again with Rob Young whom i had also met in France through ED , Callum,Bonga and Ross locals on the NPS And SDA scene who i had met through a mate .

 The weather was pretty bleak, it had been pouring don during the night there was grey cloud covering the sky but spirits were high and i was eager to get on the track and start riding. After a few runs i was soaked and covered in mud but was starting to get the hang of the lower section with it's rock garden, drop offs and off camber shoots. After about 3 runs i decided to really let go and see how i felt doing a full run at almost race speed, so off i went pedalling like a maniac on the first section which is like a big freeride section with lots of pedaling some berms, drops, rock sections and massive 28ft table finished off by no brainier road gap and onto the fun stuff (Well the kinda stuff i like) mud, rocks and roots. I came into the Woods fast and made it over the roots no problem then headed onto the rock sections which I was finding pretty grippy and made some good speed on this section i hit a couple of drops and felt good, i tried to take one corner to fast and made a mess of and tried to sort myself out for the next section of drops but came up short and ended up over the handle bars to everyones amusement watching Ha Ha Ha (not!!) I picked the bike up and realised i had bent the axle in my pedal and ended up doing he rest of the track on one pedal.

Although this is a short course due to the landscape  the guys down at Hamsterley need a massive pat on the back as the tracks are great fun and technically challenging, Well done lads.

 

By mid afternoon everyone had done about 4 runs and the weather was very poor it had started raining and people were heading home early as the track and the conditions were worsoning (pussy's) and people were making more mistakes or just sick of not being able to see out there goggles, i took mine off after as i found it was a lot easier to see what was going on although with the first section being fast and pedally and the weather being cold sometimes it made your eye's water and that's not a good thing!!!

I got going again about 13:30 and after damaging my pedal changed from flats to SPD's, my first run down my brakes were making an awful noise but i disregarded it as grit and grime in-between the pads and disc, I had a crap run crashing through a barrier on the track with my mate Callum standing watching, i felt like a wright mincer!! My next couple of runs went OK and i was starting to feel comfortable in my SPD's again.

My brakes were starting to sound even worse and the last run or two i was sure that they weren't stopping me as well as they were in the morning, however the end of the day was upon us as the dark sky's called and early stop to the day due to low light. 

So it was 3pm and time to head home.  While getting ready to leave the weather suddenly changed and turned bitterley cold, then, it started snowing everyone was rushing to get into there vans non  more so than Callum, Ross and bonga 3 mates who were camping the weekend and i had lent my Genny and heater too.

On Saturday night Andy,Jammy and myself  went to the local pub and met up with Bonga and the boys for some grub then us three were heading into Darlington to see the first showing of 3Focus which turned out to be OK but not what i had expected, still good though.

That night the snow lashed down and i was certain the race would be cancelled but Jammy was a bit more optimistic. 

Come the morning the Race was cancelled as the weather was as low as -3 and the roads were covered in snow which made it almost impossible to get someone out safely if they were injured.

Some people stayed and rode the top section which was OK, so a few of us stayed and watched for a bit along with Danny Hart (Team Lappiere) who Callum was winding up to get his bike out and style it on the big table top but his Dad wouldn't let him lol.We were just about to head off went this guy rode down and started puling massive whips no hander's and a superman everyone was buzzing so it was a good way to end a poor day due to the weather.

Oscar de la Hoya vs Manny Pacquiao

GMANews.TV

Oscar de la Hoya threw in the towel before the start of the ninth round, giving the huge upset win to Manny Pacquiao.

Pacquiao's victory was officially a technical knockout. Just a year ago, Pacquiao facing de la Hoya appeared an improbable prospect. Pacquiao's victory over his iconic opponent on Sunday (Saturday, US time) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas could not have been thinkable in a lifetime. In a virtual passing of the torch, Pacquiao seized the mantle as boxing's top draw away from de la Hoya, the acknowledged king of pay-per-view TVNow, meet boxing's new Golden Boy."He deserves all the credit. He was the better man. He deserves all the accolades," de la Hoya said."He's just a great fighter. I have nothing to say bad about him. He prepared well," he added."I'm not shocked. At this stage, it's almost expected. I worked hard. I trained hard. But being here and training at the gym is different.

"In the eighth round, Pacquiao kept de la Hoya bouncing back against the ropes for much of the round. As the commentators put it, Pacquiao has been landing more punches than De la Hoya, who seemed reluctant to let go, as if waiting for his opponent to come and in and expose himself. Both fighters started the World Boxing Council (WBC) bout tentative in their moves as they sized each other up, but De la Hoya was visibly a bit more tense than Pacquiao. Pacquiao managed to sneak in several punches to De la Hoya's face in the first round, putting his fans into a frenzy of cheers. The Golden Boy had some trouble landing his punches on the visibly quicker Pacman.The fighters went through the third round with a slightly slower pace, but with Pacquiao keeping his aim at the Golden Boy's face. Pacman landed a solid jab smack into De la Hoya's face at one point.The fourth to seventh rounds went through in a similar pace, with Pacquiao landing more punches, mostly in De la Hoya's face. Halfway through the round Pacquiao had De la Hoya backed in a corner, attacking him with a flurry of punches. De la Hoya ended the seventh round with a burst of energy, but as the bell rang he was visibly winded, with a swelling under the left eye. - GMANews.TV