This all started when one of my mates introduced me to Komoot, a route planning software that lets you create rides on almost every walking or biking track in New Zealand. Soon my “Planned Rides” folder started to fill with day missions and overnighters that became increasingly long, hard, and more stupid.
You see, the one problem with apps like this is their ability to take steep hills, unrideable walking tracks and extremely long, straight gravel roads and turn them onto a two-dimensional map making it all look simple and rideable. One ride in particular was a basic overnighter from the View Hill Carpark, through the Wharfdale Track, before turning off and pushing up to the Black Hill Hut to stay the night, then out via the Wharfdale Track to Lees Valley.
This would have been a good first attempt at bike packing without the parents and a relatively simple, short
