Welcome to Gone South, Nick and Carrie's digital diary of our bicycling adventure in New Zealand from Feb. 1, 2007, to May 7, 2007.
This trip has been in the works for about a year and a half, born from the idea that when we got married we'd make sure to have a great honeymoon, which is one of the best reasons to get married in the first place, no? And what a fine test of our commitment to undying love: riding laden bicycles through a hilly country while camping and cooking, sweating and smelling, getting lost and losing all sense of privacy for three straight months. Will we survive? Will we lunge for each other's throats after arguing over the last bite of Snickers? Does New Zealand have Snickers? Anything's possible. It's an adventure after all.
We decided on visiting New Zealand for many reasons that I can't remember now. It's just one of those places you hear great things about from anyone whose ever visited. The cycling is great, the Kiwis are friendly, the landscape is unbelievable. What's not to love?
There are those reading this that might wonder how we're able to skip town for three jobless months. Well first off, we made a savings plan and stuck to it for over a year. By December, we'd saved enough to buy the plane tickets and to travel on a reasonable budget of US$60 a day. I decided to quit my job in January in order to pack away our modest amount of possessions for storage, to create this website and to do a bunch of miscellaneous tasks it takes to leave town for a while. Carrie continued to work and got a leave of absence from her boss. It also helps that we're both cheapskates. We minimized nights out on the town, abused library privileges and limited buying only things that might come in handy on the trip. It's the small steps that really save the most money at the end.
Above all, our only goal while in New Zealand is to have fun. Those hardcore cyclotourists out there may be disappointed in our daily riding distances, but we figure there's no sense in pushing the limits of our bodies every day. This is a chance to explore a beautiful country at a comfortable pace and a real opportunity to spend time together, a lot of time together.
As the great Indiana newspaperman John B. L. Soule may have said, Go South, young newlyweds, and grow up in the country.
