About

Bruce & I live in Auckland, New Zealand and have been happily married for nearly 40 years. We’re in our mid 60’s having met at art school. Bruce is in animation and I’m a graphic designer. 

The love of cycling began in a memorable moment, back in 1985, racing downhill in Auckland on an old rusty bike, to pick up our passports with newly acquired visas for India. I was so excited about the upcoming trip and it felt like I was flying,  the wind in my hair and a song in my heart. It was the beginning of a fixation for cycling. En route to London, there were rental bikes in Japan, bikes that we owned for the few years we lived in London and rode every day, and rental bikes in France. Some years later we moved to Sydney and bought bikes. I would cycle over the Sydney harbour bridge to take my son to school and find any opportunity to go for a bike ride. There were a couple of great rail trails in Australia that we did, rental bikes in Rome, a short bike tour in the Loire, followed by another short bike tour on the Burgundy canal in a heat wave, and some hairy trails in New Zealand. Great stories that we laugh about with my son, but as an adult now, he refuses to get on a bike. Ha! 

Five years ago our old bikes were abandoned when we bought E-Bikes and we haven't looked back. I went from a once a week ride in very hilly Auckland, to using my E-Bike to go absolutely everywhere, the car seldom gets used. And it was getting these that suddenly opened up a world of possibilites of being able to go anywhere—and wouldn't it be great to go cycle touring in Europe with them? Which led to the first trip in 2019 when we did a couple of short tours in Puglia & Andalucia with rental E-Bikes. Since then three more longer tours. I know there is a lot of discussion about E-bikes and the word we often hear is cheating!? Our response is to ask what competition is it we're playing in?  Not only are the assisted bikes fun, but for these aging legs, they take the edge off head winds and mountains. With the electrical assistance we still have the option to challenge ourselves and we put in enough ‘grunt’ to justify the daily gorging of pâtisseries and gelato. We come home feeling fitter, stronger and with one notch less in the belt. 

With my heart on fire about Cycle Touring in Europe we decided it is to be a big part of our retirement plan; to be done as long as possible annually (taking into account the Schengen restraints). However, we're still working full time and restricted to shorter tours. This year it fortunately extended to 6 weeks. Hopefully in the next couple of years we’ll be looking at longer. It’s certainly become a bit of an obsession and not a day goes by that I’m not dreaming about it, reading journals on CycleBlaze or planning the next tour. 

I have huge respect and awe for all of you that cycle those steep mountains with heavy panniers unassisted. I puff my way up some of those gradients wondering how you do it. 

What I enjoy about CycleBlaze is the inclusive and encouraging vibe of the community with a common passion to share adventures and stories without any judgement.