Jinji Sadan

OK , long time without writing here , I was too busy cycling and sometimes you need to wait for the right time before you write something.

The north island of new zealand is not as “famous” as his southern brother, less tourists and more locals and maybe because of that we were enjoying so much from this part of the country. The locals are really friendly (even more then the southern brothers) and every day we asked to camp in farms and we had the chance to see how this farmers live: one is having cattle of ships and the other making cheese from water buffalo, they like to be self suffusion as much as they can they making there own meat and there own beer(much more important for some people…).

even the pigs here like beer!!!

There is more traffic then in the south island but we took side roads and we felt alone with the amazing nature, the weather is unstable and we got days with a lot of rain like an old women told me after she looked at the sky : “it seems like you going to have a wet pans today!” sometimes we took shelters in barns and make a hot and strong coffee while we were waiting for the rain from the sky to stop.

wet and ugly feet

One road took as to a villages name Athens and after that to London but we were surprised to see even a village called Jerusalem! 20Km from this village and out of it we had dirt road with many climbs so its funny to think that even the new zealand Jerusalem will taste your limits and nothing come easy …

even in the end of the world-jerusalem

to enter to Auckland city was pretty “interesting”,its the biggest city in new zealand with trucks and heavy traffic and like everywhere in the world there is many road signs of the “new best thing in life” or “what kind of cream you need to take to look as good as the model on the sign” and of course I got to have the I phone 4 to have much better life then before. Searching for the imposicle

Every where in the world people think that they need to wait in a Que for there dream.

Sad but true and I will wait to the I phone 10.

thats the way to wake up!

one of the tools that I got in the journey is a bigger perspective of life and I could understand that the people that told me that entering to Auckland city will be hell never enter Istanbul or Nairobi on a bicycle…

with josh and billy

in Auckland we meet David, a young cyclist that we meet in the south island and it was nice to see the city with him ,Auckland is nice city very green and they even have a mountain with the name of Eden (like my sponsors) and the sunset from this hill was great with good colors with the skyline of the city was magic moment.

mount Eden

David wrote an article about me in the local paper with a lot of passion for the dream and for the road that only guys that have been on the road can understand .

keep on keep on paddling

I sorted out my visa back to Australia and payed my way to my last visa in this journey and me and etamat were happy to be again on the road and to earn our rice with meet (different sauce every day), believe me that after a long day of cycling everything is much taster and we had amazing dinner together.

We started out last leg of the journey in new zealand and worked our way up on the beautiful Bay of Island a place with great beaches and small islands everywhere but again even in this gorgeous place you can see that the locals will be prettier then the landscape.

bay of island

The next chapter will be getting to the top of new zealand to cape brienga where the Tasmanian sea meets the pacific ocean and where we will finish our journey in this country .

It will be a magic time.

Love you all

roei “jinji” sadan

close to the top of far north

new zealand

The world

The world is full of surprises and mama nature always give us a reminder how small we are is this world.
You can plan your life years and years and then an earthquake come to shake everything is your life.
Its weird to writ now on my journey, my challenges and dilemmas of my life when people lost there life 100km from me. Many people lost everything that they had, not having a shelter so how can write that I broke my wheel and need to change my tent???

if we will start to complain what the people with hard life will say?

So I will write some and always remember to put some perspective on life.

As you might know I am cycling with great guy Etamar from Israel and together we crossing new zealand. The last 2 weeks was easy, some good climbs and the landscape is always great. It doesn’t matter witch route you take her, you cant go wrong and everywhere that the bike will lead you it will be nice.

Green hills,farms and ship.
We crossed the “big” mountains(more hills) from the west coast to the east coast it the road was amazing, I start to remember the rout #1 in California when we cycled next to the ocean in one side and hills on the other.
The sound (and smell ) of the seals that climbing on the rocks are something that give you smiles on the road.

I am really enjoying Etamar and we have good time, camping and cooking amazing dishes in the wild. Nature is amazing spice to the food and every meal in the wild is much more better then the same dish in the kitchen.

My mom will not believe what I can cook and to think that 3 years ago I eat most of the times instant noodles…
but its all about learning and developing as a human being and as an adventurer.

We were scheduled to be in the city of Christchurch on our way but my schedule in the last part of the journey its not that flexible and I decided to skip it.
When I just got to 57000km on the journey I sound (and felt) a bad sound from the whelk,Bike problems are part of the journey but I don’t like to break the hub of the wheel because its mean that I need to find a someone that he could built a new wheel with my old rim so I thought maybe to get to caristruch because its big but I could push myself and the wheel another 200km and to do that I wellington.

We were 120km from where the earthquake happened and we didn’t feel something.
No buildings were we have been and I found out after I open my phone and heard the messages from my friends in new zealand.
I don’t want to think what have happen if I took the short way and the easy way…
it always better to cycle then standing in the place.

We finished the south island in new zealand and were happy to take the ferry to the city of wellington and to start the north island.

In wellington I suppose to have meeting with the mayor and to work with the embassy but the earthquake changed everything and they have bigger things then me.
6 days after the quake and there is many people still missing and its not look good.
In wellington I meet my friend, Susana, a girl the I meet 2 and half years ago in Peru and we said that one day we will meet again.

with susan, "its small world after all"

I was late in 2 months but she understood the circumstances… she took me and Eta to meet her friends and we had amazing weekend on the coast, full of good music and good loughs with the locals.
Its always better to see a place from the eye of the local then through they eye of the “tourist”
we had amazing time and we might see each other one day, its a small world after all.

And about the broken wheel I fixed it, I just hope its the last one that I changing…
it cost me 300$ (NZ) and its all about the money her.
Its an expensive place and I feel the “hardens ” of new zeland in my wallet then in my mind or my legs.
We will try to make it a little more challenging in the future maybe in the small island in Australia.

Look at me I am complaining that I needed more challenge when I just finish half of an amazing country. And believe me that in one week her on a bike you get enough challenges for a years for the “normal” person.

“if we will complain what the people with hard life will say?”

hope to that we will hear only good news and thank you for the concern of my health.
Love you all

Roei “JINJI” Sadan
wellington
the north island
new zealand