Wow, what an epic, mint weekend. It all kicked off with an awesome, legendary U2 concert on Friday night. The last time I saw U2 was about 10 years ago so I was super stoked about seeing them again after all this time, and man oh man, they sure didn’t disappoint! At first we thought we would be dancing to U2 in the rain but just after Kanye West left the stage, the skies fined up and the moon shone down upon us. It ended up being a surreal night sky for the Irish boys to entertain Auckland. Of course U2 goes all out with their stage set-up but seeing the monstrous stage in person was pretty damn cool. Thousands and thousands of lights lit up a back screen that displayed everything from the Kiwi flag, to Maori art, to political messages and videos. And then Bono incorporated so much “Kiwi” into the show. First, he came on stage wearing a Warriors jacket. The Warriors are the Rugby League team in whose stadium U2 was playing so it was only appropriate for Bono to show it off. And then Bono threw Kiwi lyrics into the songs, like “land of the long white cloud”, “city of sails”, “4 seasons in one day”, and also lyrics from Crowded House. It was all very cool and the crowd went nuts. The crowd was fully amped for this show and it was cool as when Bono would quit singing and the crowd would take over with mighty gusto and fill the stadium with an unequivocal admiration for U2. And then, and THEN, they played “One Tree Hill”. For those of you who don’t know it, One Tree Hill is right here in Auckland. Actually, I can see it from my back porch even. I ran around the park it’s in when I was taking time off the bike. So, when the boys launched into this song, it was really something special for this crowd. Man, did the fans rock the house during this song! It meant a lot to learn that U2 had been rehearsing this song specifically for this show since it is not a song normally on their set list. The entire show was electric and sensational and after two encores, the crowd had gotten what they came for - U2 loving New Zealand and New Zealand loving U2. It was phenomenal and Kiwi as.

Fortunately, Toni and I had a huge adrenaline rush to keep us awake for our 3 hour drive to Rotorua after the show. I drove while Toni kept a steady stream of conversation and music flowing to keep us awake. Finally at 3am we pulled into our hotel and dove into bed without a sound - only to be awoken 1.5 hours later for another hour drive to Taupo. Ben and Aaron drove into Taupo for their 6:45am start for their 160km race around the lake. I must have still had some adrenaline pumping because I didn’t feel all that bad but I knew I would hit the wall soon enough. Anyway, we sent the boys off and then we hopped on our bikes ourselves to ride backwards on the course to find a spot to feed Ben and Aaron. After plowing through a torturous headwind and struggling over a few hills, we finally got to a good feeding spot. Aaron was feeding it with the first group (and eventually finished 3rd) and Ben came by a few minutes later, which was good considering he was feeling crook. Toni and I climbed back on our bikes and rode the last bit with Meshy Holt – we had a nice yarn with Mesh and then left her on her way to the finish. After a solid 3 hour nap it was time to tidy up for dinner and then before I knew it it was time for bed again.

The next day Toni and I had to ride 4 hours so we headed out of Rotorua with the guys for a ticky tour around the blue and green lakes. After dropping the guys off back at the hotel (since they had ridden enough yesterday), we then turned north towards Tauranga. BT had said this route would be rolling but it ended up being much more “rolling” than I expected – we hit full on steep climbs and had a stiff head wind to boot! I was not happy but good thing for BT it was a good ride nonetheless.

Sharing weekends like this one are counting down fast as we only have 3 more weekends in New Zealand, but we will be making the most of them all. This coming weekend we will be going to Hawkes Bay for some riding and wine tasting with about 15 people (it’s another edition of Wherethewhakawe – pronounced like “where the f*** are we). Hawkes Bay is known for its Chardonnay’s and, believe me, we will be tasting plenty of it…oh, and riding a little here and there too. ☺

So, tune in again soon because I am sure I will have plenty to yarn about from the coming weekend.

Cheers
MM

To kick off this weekend, I am headed to the much anticipated U2 concert tonight here in Auckland. The guys were suppose to play here way back in March or April and at that time I wasn’t in the country so couldn’t go, but then they had to cancel the show due to an illness in one of the families. Fortunately for me, they rescheduled to this weekend when I AM here. Unfortunately for some others, it is also the same weekend as the big 160km ride around Lake Taupo so many people have decided to forego the concert for this silly bike ride. For me, the U2 concert is much more of a priority. I can ride 160km anytime I want whereas seeing U2 isn’t something I get a chance to do very often - I’ve only seen them once before. Besides, I have not been to a concert in NZ yet and I want to see if these Kiwis can rock the house.

Now, Taupo is quite a highly anticipated event as well. I don’t know how many years it has been going but it draws over 10,000 people! For NZ that has got to be some kind of earth shattering record. You know this is a big event when the number of people on road bikes triples; then, poof, as soon as Taupo is over, the roads become relatively deserted. The past 2 years I have been part of the race - this group goes off first on the day and there is actually prize money for the first 3 men and women. And this group goes blocks - bang, from the gun it is fast and furious…and straight up hill and undulating and climbing and windy and cold and possibly raining for the next 160 k’s. Crazy, crazy. This year I decided that I didn’t want to do the race since I seem to have bad luck at this event but I also didn’t want to ride among 9,900 other jokers who may or may not really know how to draft, ride a straight line, etc. Besides, the roads aren’t closed so there really aren’t many bail out options when you’ve got to skirt around some fred doing something stupid. So, my friend Toni and I are going to the U2 show tonight and then driving the few hours down to Rotorua (or lovingly referred to as RotoVegas - the place where Mtn Bike Worlds was held) only to get up again a few hours later for the last hour drive to Taupo to see the guys off at 7am. Our plan is to ride backwards to set up to feed the guys when they come through but we’re not sure yet if we will actually be able to make it far enough to feed them before it’s not worth feeding anymore. The lead group of guys finished the ride in just under 4 hours last year, so depending on the weather, they are really flying. Toni’s fiance, Aaron, is riding super strong right now after wearing the leader’s jersey for a few days at the Tour of Southland so I really hope to see him get up there for a big win! Ben hasn’t had the luxury of proper training the last 4 weeks or so with all the traveling he’s done but hopefully he will score himself a good ride, too, since he really enjoys this event (he gave up his U2 ticket to me - thanks but I think he’s nuts).

Hopefully the weather will be kind and give us a good weekend for the show and the bike ride!

It’s a beautiful day!!!!
Meredith

For those of you who are looking to pass an hour or two on the trainer, I have a musical suggestion called Bonnaroo. It’s a 4-day, multistage music festival held on a 700 acre farm in Tennessee that features mostly jam bands but there is some hip hop, electronica, and other alternative music to boot. It started in 2002 and brought in over 80,000 people to the show this year. Now, I know you are thinking that lycra clad cyclists probably wouldn’t fit in too well among all the hippies and free love at this sort of event, so I am talking about buying the DVD. Any of the year’s will do because they are all great. Fantastic musicians like moe., Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Damien Rice, Les Claypool (from Primus), The String Cheese Incident, Steve Winwood, The Dead, My Morning Jacket, Jack Johnson and Widespread Panic have all been part of the event over the years - and most of these bands seem to be regulars each year so good luck trying to fit them all in!

Anyway, it’s great music that helps you tick over the pedals during those dreadful hours on the trainer. Plus, there is some close-up footage of the bands doing what they do best and also of the crowd doing what they do best - dancing around in butterfly costumes and such.

Check it out and you’ll be amazed at how fast the time will fly by…

Meredith

I am referring to the movie “Little Miss Sunshine”. It’s probably been out in the US for awhile but we’ve just seen it here and it is hilarious! Good, good flick. A good diversion from the lack of sunshine here in NZ. If we have to ride in the rain one more day, I will start to go crazy. Most of the ride today wasn’t bad but we did have to pull over for a short spell while the rain came and went. Otherwise, today’s route was one that I had never done before and it was quite beautiful. We started by going west and then north to end up on the north shore, real complicated. Actually, not really. And then we took the ferry back across to “our side” and rode the rest of the way home for an overall nice 4 hour ride. Of course, we topped off with a coffee (or hot chocolate in my case since I don’t drink coffee) before rolling home.

Anyone want to buy a fridge or washing machine? Well, unless you are in NZ you can’t use it anyway so it doesn’t matter but we are selling our’s. We are selling lots of things that we can’t take with us to the US and it is a bit stressful trying to time it right so that we don’t sell too early but don’t wait too late and not be able to sell at all. Man, moving is stressful. I really hope that this move to Colorado is going to be THE ONE AND ONLY for a long time to come.

Someone, please send sunshine our way!!

Meredith

I mean, riding in strong wind really blows - it sucks!! In the early hours of the morning I had to get up to close the windows because the wind was howling so hard it was rattling the windows. It made me start thinking that there was no way I was riding outside today because I didn’t want to get blown off the road! Seriously. For any of you who kept up with the Tour of Southland here in NZ, you’ll have read that there was a day when several guys literally got blown off the road into the ditch, so I am not making up how strong the wind here can be!!

Ok, so it wasn’t so bad when it was time to kit up and head out but it wasn’t too much fun either. Add rain on top of it, and it was one shitty day on the bike. I really don’t want to complain but the weather here is just about getting to everyone, not just the cyclists. We were are a stop light today (yes, I actually stop for them) and this pedestrian crossing the street was cursing, too, so it’s not just us cyclists who are whinging (although we are pretty damn good at it, at least I am).

I just hope that we get a few days of sunshine and warm weather here before we leave for Colorado and true winter!!

Over and out
Meredith