Oh hey there! Can I just say how AMAZING it is to have a Saturday with nothing to do?! I feel so free and alive – and not just because I got to SLEEP IN (unheard of).

Yeah, okay, woe is me there’s so much awesome shit to do that I don’t get to sleep in. But honestly, it was so nice yesterday to know that I had absolutely nothing to do today. Freedom.

Alright, so let’s jump right into the last two weekends here.

Weekend numero uno: Feb 15th – 17th

Ever since I rode Skyline Queenstown waaay back in November, I’ve been dying to go and ride more of QT. And with the recent purchase of my beloved Brendan (and after finally recouping the funds it took to buy him), we headed on over to Coronet Peak in Arrowtown to ride Rude Rock.

The original plan was to shuttle up to Rude Rock and ride a few laps. Sweet, no pedalling. But after we dropped off the first car at the bottom and drove to the base, we discovered that you can pedal up to the very top of the ski hill and then do an extra long lap down from there. Which is great… but also, pedalling. Ugh.

It was a slog for sure, about forty-five minutes worth of pedalling. And Lachy and Charlotte were hauling ass – both are pretty fast on the climbs. So yeah, I definitely earned this view at the top.

After this, we headed down. Holy shit, I think Rude Rock might be my favourite trail ever. It was just the right amount of tech, flow and features. Definitely going to have to get back there ASAP.

The next day, Vic invited me to go out with her and some friends on a buddy’s ski boat. This is the same guy who owned the motorcycles from my last post. Vic’s sister Jamie was visiting so she joined as well. We spent the sunny day cruising around Ruby Island, wake-surfing (which I did not partake in, given my history of wake-surfing. Shout-out to the worst coach ever) and drinking champagne.

 

Weekend numero duo: Feb 22nd – 24th

Vic and Jamie invited me to down to the south coast with them to explore the Catlins and visit Dunedin. At first, I was really hesitant to go. As I mentioned before, money has been a bit of a stress since I bought Brendan. But as Mazy pointed out, what was the purpose of buying him? To get out of Wanaka. So after work on Friday, I headed down to meet the girls in the Catlins.

At first, I wasn’t really looking forward to three and a half hours of driving by myself. But the cool thing about NZ is that driving around is never boring. There’s always so many beautiful things to see and the single lane roads twist and curve through the mountain ranges, keeping you alert and interested. And because I drove down in the evening, I got some really gorgeous golden hour views, plus when I finally got to the coast, driving next to the ocean was really amazing.

Vic had booked this cute little cabin on a holiday campground. When I arrived, the girls were having dinner and had ordered a bunch of food for all of us. We had a few drinks and then went out to the lookout to try and catch some light for photos. Unfortunately, we missed the best time, but Vic was still able to capture a couple gems.

After, we headed back to the cabin to cozy in with wine and dice games while it rained outside. It was honestly the most content I’ve been in a while.

The next day, we woke up in our own time and had breakfast before making our way down to the road to the Cathedral Caves in the rain. Jamie had forgotten her rain jacket and my hand-me-down from Rachel had long-since lost its waterproof coating, so we both donned plastic ponchos from the campground gift shop. Such tourists.

The walk down to the caves through the jungle was really beautiful and quiet. Vic joked that it felt like we were in Jurassic Park.

The tide was out at the beach and although it was raining, it was a really nice walk. When we got to the caves, I couldn’t believe how big they were. We turned on the flashlights on our phones and went in, trying to find out how far back it went before it got too dark for even the flashlights. We then weaved our way through and popped out the other side.

The really cool thing about this whole weekend was that we didn’t have a plan. We knew where we were staying each night, but other than that, the road was ours and we basically just followed the map to wherever we wanted to go next.

After the caves, we stopped in at what we thought was just a cafe called Gypsy Gallery. What we didn’t realize was that it was a sort of museum, with all these toys and games and oddities. The whole place was like an “I Spy” book. Everywhere you looked there was something hidden or some clever joke.

After the gallery, we headed to Nugget Point, hoping to see some sea lions or sharks. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any of those, but the rain clouds did break and we finally got some sun. Which really brought out the colours of the point. These photos look insane, but they’re actually pretty unedited. The below were shot by Victoria.

After Nugget Point, we went and had some lunch at a beachside bar and then laid out on the sand for a bit. Jamie collected some shells for her kids (she has four!) and then we went on to Dunedin.

So I’d say that Dunedin is like the Halifax of NZ. It’s a huge university town and it’s O-Week here (Orientation Week, because they start school in February instead of September). Jamie really wanted to have a big night out, so Vic and I were definitely mentally preparing ourselves to be surrounded by 18-year-olds.

We got checked in at the hotel and then headed to the Octagon – which sounds a lot more intense than it is. Basically it’s an octagon in the middle of the town centre with all kinds of bars and restaurants around the outside. We settled on this cool restaurant with one of the most amazing menus I’ve seen – I had the hardest time deciding what to get. After chatting with our waiter, we found out that the restaurant turned into a club after dinner service and he said we should come back to avoid the university students because they charge a cover for anyone who looks really young – bit discriminate, but who cares!

In the meantime, we went to an Irish pub and had some Guinness and then moved on to a little corner cocktail bar. While at the cocktail bar, we ran into two American guys from Utah who were travelling around NZ filming a bike movie. They were pretty rad and we ended up spending the whole night with them. Eventually the five of us went back to the original restaurant and spent the whole night dancing. It was such a fun night and I woke up hangover-less the next day. Win.

That morning, we went and met Mike, Vic’s friend from Ohau (I talked about him in my last post) and went out for a coffee on the waterfront. Dunedin reminded me a lot of Halifax actually. Lots of old buildings and cobblestone walks right on the ocean. I really liked it.

After coffee with Mike, we headed down to Sandfly Bay to finally see some sea lions. The sand on this beach was incredible, it felt like walking on icing sugar. And we saw sea lions!

After Sandfly Bay, the rain started to move in again, so we had lunch back in Dunedin and then made our way home.

The weekend was really incredible and although I put a serious dent in my credit card, it was totally worth it. And now I’m just going to buckle down and lay low until Crankworx Rotorua in two weeks.

Which reminds me…

I got to go out this week and help shoot the series of films we’re making in the lead-up to Crankworx. We shot at Skyline and Dream Track – which are the largest public bike jumps in the world. The Mons riders seriously have a death wish because these jumps are massive. I can’t wait to see how the edits turn out and I’m pretty stoked to be getting out in the field with content production – even if I was just assisting on the second camera.

• JB