Snack Break Chronicles

Snack Break Chronicles Follow along for stories of life on two wheels 🚲✨

Pedalling our way across Aotearoa fuelled by curiosity, a love of the outdoors…and snacks 🥨🍫This is our little corner to share the ride - the scenery, the highs, the lows, and everything in between.

Why I’m bike packing over 3,000km through New Zealand 🚴‍♀️🇳🇿⬇️ Apart from being an amazing and fun way to travel, bikepa...
01/12/2025

Why I’m bike packing over 3,000km through New Zealand 🚴‍♀️🇳🇿⬇️

Apart from being an amazing and fun way to travel, bikepacking affords the freedom of going anywhere on your bike and truly experience a place and its people, culture and landscapes 🚴‍♀️🛤️🗺️🌎

Only having a bicycle to rely on completely to get from A to B and be 100% self sufficient is total freedom and also builds confidence and resilience.
It simplifies life, all you need to worry about every day is where you’ll go, find shelter to sleep, eat food and get water. That’s it! Learning to look after yourself and your equipment, pace yourself, getting to know your strength and your limits is incredibly satisfying and rewarding. You push yourself every day, experience amazing scenery and views, are outside in nature all day and fall asleep fast at night, exhausted from pedalling all day 😴

Shutting out distractions and endless over stimuli allows rare moments of slowing down and going inward and just being present with your thoughts and the everyday little moments that make life great and memorable🥰

For more detailed look at my why, check out my new blog post (link in bio)📝

The days are getting bigger, the views are getting better! 🚴‍♀️🚵‍♀️🏔️🌄Today was our biggest day yet! 1600m in elevation ...
27/10/2025

The days are getting bigger, the views are getting better! 🚴‍♀️🚵‍♀️🏔️🌄

Today was our biggest day yet! 1600m in elevation and 85km! Over Mackenzie pass to Lake Tekapo.
Thank god I had a gel stashed away in my stembag and plenty of snacks ☺️ Headwind was brutal and made the day infinitely longer. We’re pretty over these winds and sometimes I question why we’re doing this (spring is notorious for winds and lots of locals have told us this spring is particularly bad). The amazing scenery makes up for it though. ☀️😍🏔️🌄

What’s worse, riding in headwinds or climbing up steep mountains?

19/10/2025

POV: you’re in New Zealand in lambing season 🐑🐮🇳🇿🥰

What a whirlwind of a start to our Tour Aotearoa! From leaving a puffer jacket on the bus to last minute route changes, ...
18/10/2025

What a whirlwind of a start to our Tour Aotearoa! From leaving a puffer jacket on the bus to last minute route changes, countless roadside snack breaks, dog attacks, beach detours, cold dips and forest camp - it was a truly memorable first few days into the trip.

Read the whole story on the blog at https://snackbreakchronicles.com/blog/ or click the link in bio.

South Island is definitely my favourite 🤫🇳🇿So many amazing things it’s hard to keep track of and document them on here! ...
10/10/2025

South Island is definitely my favourite 🤫🇳🇿

So many amazing things it’s hard to keep track of and document them on here! Took the ferry from Wellington to Picton across cooks strait and ended up in this cute little coastal town of Picton, the gateway to Marlborough sounds and the Queen Charlotte Track. Had lunch on the beach just taking in the views contemplating life and this epic adventure we’re on! Excited to start the Sounds to Sounds bikepacking tour. After a night in Picton at the holiday park with hot tub, we took another boat which dropped us off in paradise (Ships Cove) where we start the ride on the scenic Queen Charlotte Track, a 70km, single track mountain bike ride from Ships Cove to Anawika, then onwards to Blenheim via Picton and over Taylors Pass to start the famous Molesworth trail!

Leave nothing but footprints, collect nothing but memories ✨🏕️🌙✨
02/10/2025

Leave nothing but footprints, collect nothing but memories ✨🏕️🌙✨

1 month into bikepacking the Tour Aotearoa 🇳🇿🚴‍♀️🚵‍♀️Feeling so much more confident on my bike! Also feeling fitter. Can...
24/09/2025

1 month into bikepacking the Tour Aotearoa 🇳🇿🚴‍♀️🚵‍♀️

Feeling so much more confident on my bike! Also feeling fitter. Can basically keep up with Dan now and don’t have to hang out in his slipstream all day 😂 The climbs are getting easier and I don’t have daily tantrums anymore from sheer exhaustion on a long day of riding or not making it to our destination before we run out of daylight 🫠 When initially 40km days felt like a big day, 70+km days are achievable now💪 My bike skills have improved as well and when initially I got nervous on lose gravel and struggled steering through tight corners or getting back on the bike midway through a hill all those things have become easier and almost like second nature now. Amazing what daily practice does towards progress. 😊😎

We’ve also gotten a lot better at packing up our gear and tarp set up each morning and we are also learning what foods to get, which ones keep us fuller for longer, which snacks we won’t get sick of when we have to keep grinding before we get to a shop. We are still working through issues with our dry bags slightly leaking and Dans air mattress also leaking but we’ll be experts on all the gear by the end. Follow and subscribe and let me know if you would be interested in learning more about it our setup and gear reviews⛺️🚲

Detour to Hobbiton! 💍🦶🛖🌿👩‍🌾✨🧙‍♂️We went to the rolling green hills of the shire today, straight to Bagshot Show, and eve...
18/09/2025

Detour to Hobbiton! 💍🦶🛖🌿👩‍🌾✨🧙‍♂️

We went to the rolling green hills of the shire today, straight to Bagshot Show, and even went inside a hobbit hole!! 🐑🛖🚪🍄

It was magical and the attention to detail of the film set was truly a sight to see. The lush green hills and over 40 unique hobbit holes each with a different theme and props makes you feel like you’re immersed in the movie 🌿✨

I knit a few rows inside the hobbit hole and had an ale at the Green Dragon Inn and wanted to live as a hobbit forever🍺🐉
But we have to keep moving and adventure awaits - as Bilbo Baggins put it “It’s a dangerous business Frodo going out your door. And if you don’t keep your feet there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to”

Auckland - city of sails! ⛵️Tourist mode activated! ✈️🚲🧳☀️We had a great four days in Auckland just being tourists befor...
11/09/2025

Auckland - city of sails! ⛵️Tourist mode activated! ✈️🚲🧳☀️

We had a great four days in Auckland just being tourists before setting off on our riding adventure cycling across the country from north to south over the next 90 days.

We had lovely weather, sunshine everyday, went to the maritime museum to learn about the rich Māori history of wayfinding and boat building all the way to Americas Cup racing, walked around the marina and viaduct harbour, had craft beer and got our snaps on top of Mount Eden 🏙️📸

Thanks to our amazing hosts and tour guides Michelle and Simo! 🥰

📍Owharoa Falls, North Island 💦
11/09/2025

📍Owharoa Falls, North Island 💦

🇳🇿🚴‍♀️Week 1 - Tour AotearoaCan’t believe it’s been a week of cycling already!!! Absolutely loving every minute of it. I...
05/09/2025

🇳🇿🚴‍♀️Week 1 - Tour Aotearoa

Can’t believe it’s been a week of cycling already!!! Absolutely loving every minute of it. In a week we have cycled 321 km, 4,801 m elevation, camped for five nights and stayed in two cabins. I am so glad we decided to go all the way to the Cape it was a magical place and well worth the effort to get there! Very windy as expected. Seeing the two oceans meet - the Tasman sea and Pacific Ocean. And whitnessing the remoteness and wildness of it, a place so sacred to the Māori people who believe it is the place where our souls go to travel home into the sea after our departure here on earth. The stark white lighthouse perched on the outcrop with the clear deep contrasting blue of the sea and then lush green is a beautiful sight. Then there’s the picture famous sign posts to far flung places indicating just how remote this place is. Despite not having made too much ground this first week of riding has been tough. We’ve had strong winds since day 1 often relentless headwinds, quite a bit of climbing, remoteness (first two days we came across no shops at all), and other close encounters. I got attacked by a dog on day 1 and there were quite a few dogs that came out running at us that weren’t contained which was rather unpleasant.
Then there was the day that I nearly got hit by lightning and we had to seek shelter in someone’s garage for a while which was interesting. Many many green rolly hills, lots of agriculture, a fair bit of roadside rubbish and rural remoteness were the themes for these first few days. We also got to do a little detour on the beach which wasn’t planned but cool to see and ride on the famous 90 mile beach, although glad we didn’t have to do that for 100km! In a lot of ways it feels like we’ve been on the road for ages and everyday we can’t believe it’s only been a day and all the things we are doing and seeing makes it feel way more than that. On the other hand we’re already 1/12 of the way into our trip and in a few more days should be back in Auckland where we started. Posting schedule way out of whack but will try to catch up soon. Phone reception has been very patchy far north and I wanted to soak it all in.

Address

501 Buckland Road
Matamata
3472

Website

https://shakeitupfundraisers.raiselysite.com/tour-aotearoa

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