This expedition was sponsored by the Aunty Bron Society for WANTON Nieces (nieces who WANT to go ON trips), with support from the Jeph Mathias “You Won’t Regret It” Philosophy, the Kaaren Mathias School of Asking People You Met Once When You Were Seven If You Can Stay With Them For Free and the John and Ann Rhodes Association of Saying Yes to Spontaneous BikePackers. The ABSWN, JMYWRIP, KMSAPYMOWYWSIYCSWTFF and JARASYSBP are thanked for their vital contributions. 

Low-carbon adventures are one of the joys of my life – doing them, planning them. I could actually write a whole post about the definition of low carbon adventures and the purpose of this but it’s actually super simple. It’s the low carbon and loving it principle; there’s a life of joy and abundance and outdoor adventures to be found even when you choose not to have a car. The more alternative transport forms (not cars, planes or helicopters) you use, the better! 

In that vein, with a few days off from work, I decided to have a low carbon adventure in the Wellington region. Here’s how it went – the first of lots of adventure documentation hopefully. 

It’s been one of my new year’s resolutions this year to go on a solo tramp. I got really close to this happening in August but Shreyas decided it wasn’t a good weekend for skiing. Oh well! With a few days of leave, I decided my trip could actually be a bike trip to an area I’ve hardly been despite living in Wellington for four years: the Wairarapa. It helped that Mum knew someone I could stay with there – like all Mathias’s I’m a fiend for free accomodation. 

The first form of transport actually was a car but only for a few kilometres: Greer dropped me off at the Intercity bus stop at SkyCity, and then heroically drove back in Auckland traffic to chuck me her earbuds out the window a minute before the bus left since I left mine at home. Then the most grueling let of the journey commenced: the overnight bus to Wellington. I have done heaps of overnight buses but they don’t really get less horrible, weird dreary dreaming and too much air conditioning. I had a garbled conversation with mum, put my tights underneath my shorts because I was cold, and put a raincoat hood over my face to improve the amount of darkness. Strange glimpses of 2am Taihape, the petrol station where I once slept on the floor, the corners of Rotorua and Levin. 

We got to Wellington early and silent on Sunday morning and I stumbled to the ABSWN offices, where I used to live, and sort of slept for an hour before leaping up, putting on bike shorts, finding a few bits of gear (as previously arranged with the ABSWN) and getting the bike. I walked to the bus terminal and put my bike on the 83 bus rack to go to Petone (since the bus replacements didn’t have bike racks). At Petone, I bought some snacks and the newspaper to read on the train (I was too tired to absorb much), set my bike up – there were a few other bikepackers – and we were off. The Featherston tunnel is so long! 

I got out at Woodside and biked along a lovely wee track to Greytown, which is 5 k away, where I had a cup of tea, unpacked my sleeping bag, and said hi to my hosts. Then I biked back to the Woodside station and up the Waiohine Road. One thing I noticed about being on my own is that it made me quite risk averse. I wanted to go swimming in the glossy green river but having to read some coroner’s reports about drownings for work recently made me reluctant to go on my own. I saw a family about to leave (in their car) and quickly dipped in and out before they were gone. The current was strong and I felt tingly and lovely; probably the best part of the day. 

Initially, I had wanted to walk/run along part of the track to Tutuwai Hut. But here my go with the flow minimal planning approach let me down; it turns out the track is closed long term because of land access issues, which I could have discovered if I poked around in blog posts enough. (This was the only one I had read, and the link is now dead?). So I went up this side path, on what turned out to be private land. It was extremely overgrown but initially clear to follow, but I kept getting poked by gorse. I would walkd a few hundred metres, give up at a thicket and sit down and read my book (on the doomed ereader) for a bit, or an article about Nicky Hager’s influence on the nuclear free movement, or about what is going to happen to the Palestianian project now. Eventually I gave up after not getting very far at all, telling myself it was okay because I was here for fun. I got slightly lost at a turnoff because the path was very hard to make out and had to do a lot of thrashing around and backtracking and climbing over fences and zooming in on the topo map (very good that my phone was charged). I should have gone up the road on the other side of the river where the access is way easier but oh well! 

I biked down to this amazing bridge over the Tauwharenīkau river and read my book on the riverbank as the sun set. I also rode over the bridge, which was nice because when I did it the next day it was very miserable. Then I made my way back to Greytown, wandered around the town for a bit so I could look in the windows of the sewing shop and had a nice chat about biking adventures with the couple I was staying with (who have done some amazing biking around different parts of the world!), then happily fell asleep. 

The next day it was rainy. I left a bit before nine, muttering that the weather was hardly going to get worse. It was miserable – rainy and windy on gravel roads. By the time I got to Featherston, 15k away, I was soaked to the skin, had numb fingers and toes and was convinced I should just try to get the train back to Wellington. 

But the train… was a bus? It was hard to tell, the website and train station board were saying different things. While I sat there, shivering, I called my father. 

“It would be totally understandable to stop,” he said. “But you’re not going to be in any danger if you keep going, and I don’t think you’ll regret it.” He was being very reasonable and trying very hard not to tell me what to do. 

I decided my phlanges needed defrosting, so biked to the only open bakery in the town, a very basic cafe. I bought a coffee and a sundried tomato quiche and slowly did a round of New York Times puzzles. Not being rained on for twenty minutes did wonders for my spirit, and it seemed to be raining less, so I decided to keep going. 

From then on it was quiet and lovely and I hardly saw anyone all the way to Upper Hutt train station. It’s about 10 kilometres to Cross Creek, nearly 20 over the Remutaka Rail Trail, and another 6 or 8 to Upper Hutt. The trail is great, I would highly recomment. The railway grading means it is extremely cruisy, you get to go through tunnels and over a slightly scary bridge, there are little history panels if you need a reason to stop. I liked moving my body and being by myself; the mist and rain felt monsoonal nearly, peaceful and interesting. The Featherston side has way more gorgeous native bush while the Hutt side is a bit ugly, but a very gentle downhill gradient, so you’re cycling the whole time but feel like you’re magically going very fast. I did get very muddy, making for some awkward looks on the train, but then I was back at the ABSWN offices and everything went in the washing machine. 

It’s so nice to know what is possible, and especially how much the trains make it easy when they’re running. I’m so glad I did this – here’s to heaps more low carbon adventures, solo and with others, to come!

Gear Notes (this section is dedicated to Shreyas) 

• If it is extremely cold and rainy, having a packet of lollies in your raincoat pocket is good for instant energy
• Always bring bike lights
• If you have to choose between your less waterproof raincoat and your more waterproof raincoat…. choose the more waterproof raincoat
• Having four waterproof backpack covers does you no good if they remain on the floor or your bedroom in Auckland 
• Shreyas and I need to go bike gloves shopping
• $3 eye masks from Kmart make sleeping on the bus much more enjoyable
• old plastic bottles you found on the shelves of the ABSWN’s offices with plastic that keeps disintegrating are not the go 
• Washing your muddy clothing immediatly when you get back is great, washing your ereader by mistake is not
• I want a small and portable pump!
• Nevery buy the leaky pesto jars unless you want oil throughout your backpack

More Low Carbon Adventures – let us know if you’d like to hear more about these!

• Auckland: Coast to Coast, walking + train/bus) (entry level, excellent), Rangitoto +ferry, bikes/bus/train (also entry level), biking to Hobsonville, biking to Oratia, Waiheke +ferry+ bus
• Wellington: Belmont Regional Park half marathon + trains, Matiu-Somes Island overnight + ferry Orongorongo overnight + buses and hitchiking, trains + Paekakariki Escarpment (entry level), buses + South Coast Adventure, buses + Lyall Bay adventure, Skyline Walkway (entry level – also an entry level first date for Shreyas and I(!)
• Christchurch: airport tandems, ferry + bus + hitchhiking over Te Ara Pātaka, Rapaki return half marathon, biking over the Summit Road to Diamond Harbour and Port Levy + getting the ferry/bus back
• Dunedin: Otago Peninsula triathalon, walking/bikes overnight in Silverpeaks
• Other: Intercity bus to Te Anau + biking to control gates + running to Luxmore (we drove to Te Anau actually lol but it would be possible), Fossil Fuel Free Coast to Coast to Coast (actually Shar has donee this and we haven’t)
• Future adventure possibilities, off the top of my head: biking to Piha (with trains?!), biking to Warkworth, biking to Miranda via Hunua Ranges, biking to the Coramandel Pinnacles (?!), bikepacking to Ōtaki, biking to Kapakapanui (?!)