It is always frustrating to leave a big town as you cannot go anywhere you want, mainly the motorway and tunnel that bikes are not allowed to ride on. I knew it at the beginning but it was such a stupid idea to take another hilly and long routes to cross the town, so I took a risk to try on the motorway. Of course, I failed. A police car stopped by, telling me it is against the law to ride bicycles on motorway. So I need to waste almost 1.5 hours climbing up a hill and went down at the other end of the motorway.

Today the weather is very nice, wind slows down and the sun is shining in a humble way, and the route is unbelievably flat. I think I can reach my host’s place in Kaitangata before 5pm. However, something will go wrong when everything seems so right… I couldn’t see any public toilets on the way, nowhere to refill my bottles, and nowhere to shit!! That’s a big problem. The road is so boring that there are nothing to be seen, no tourist attractions at all. Finally I have to knock on a door for emergency! Kiwi people are generally so friendly to welcome you anyway!

Then after riding halfway, there is a sudden intense pain in my stomach and it doesn’t want to go away. “God, please take the pain away!” I pray and talk to God on the way. And one question keeps popping up in my mind: “Why am I doing this? It is like punishing myself. I don’t enjoy it at all!” I almost pedal with the pain for an hour, thanks God that the pain finally goes! And my host called me that he could pick me up in Milton, so that I can save 20km riding!

My host is in his 60s, he’s spent more than 28 years backpacking all over the world. Discussing with him about various things is really inspirational, I indeed learn a lot from him on how to live an abundant life with our maximum potential. He challenges me a question, why am I doing this bike trip? And why should it be that rush?

After listening to some of his wonderful stories in India and all sorts of places, doing meditation and be enlightened by various guru and monks, I decide to stay one more day here to figure out:
1. What is the main reason behind this trip?
2. What am I going to achieve in my life?
I will answer these 2 questions in my next post!