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The drive north was real good and I saw Mt Cook, and also a pod of Māui dolphin, which are smaller than the dolphins we see in South Africa, and more acrobatic, leaping right out of the water.

I would like to formally distance myself from my comments in my last blog which inferred that our last days of the New Zealand Tour would be easy riding. What a load of old bollocks. The last 2 days have been as tough as any before them. Going forward I will take whatever I write with a huge pinch of salt.

Because the sun gets out of bed late this far south, we started riding out of Franz Josef in the dark. And just 5 minutes into the ride, I was officially miserable. New Zealand’s long white cloud burst right on top of our heads. It was hard, driving rain and we were soaked through in minutes.

This blog is coming to you from the small seaside town of Greymouth. Somehow after climbing 6295 m in the last 4 days, we’ve arrived back at bloody sea level. Seagulls are really starting to annoy.

There was some debate as to whether we should ride New Zealand from top to bottom, or vice versa. But absolutely top to bottom is the way to do it. No disrespect to the North Island but to do it the other way would be anticlimactic. We’ve been riding the South Island for 2 and a half days and already it has delivered up epic in bucket loads.

Shock, horror and expletives. With just 53 sleeps to go, the Old Legs New Zealand 2024 Tour looms larger than an O Level history exam to a kid who has only picked up on rumors about some kind of revolution that happened in France. And New Zealand in March looms especially large if you haven’t…

Dear Friend of ZANE As 2023 draws to a close and we see the world in the turmoil of war, famine and disaster again, it is often difficult to keep in mind the suffering of the ordinary, everyday citizens of Zimbabwe. It is hard to imagine, living as we do in a country which has…

Dear Friend of ZANE, Old Legs Tours and the Anzac Groups, We are very proud and excited to let you know that Eric De Jong, (who has, with his team of intrepid riders famously conquered so many amazing trails in Africa) is heading down under in March 2024 to lead the Old Legs / Anzac…

Cathy Buckle has kindly allowed us to share her letter below with the ZANE readers. Much of ZANE”s work has been with Second World War veterans and, indeed, we helped look after Barbara in her declining years and many of the ZANE carers heard her story first hand. During this period of remembrance we think…

As always, we will ride to raise money and awareness for Zimbabwe’s pensioners with ZANE Australia as our charity of choice. Nicky Passaportis and her team work tirelessly to change and save the lives of those pensioners who lost everything in the hyperinflation. Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to climb Mt Everest. He…