some reflection

Well for the past week or so, I have been staying at a hotel in Auckland New Zealand. It is a huge city (2 mil). I have been riding my bike all around usually into the town center. I have never ridden my bike in a city nor have I ridden much in mountainous areas. The city has lots of traffic and lots of hills. To add to the equation they drive on the left here. And to top it off it is compulsory (law) that you wear a helmet. Needless to say the first time out I was very nervous and felt very out of place. It is amazing how big a difference it is from riding around Wilmington. I have since gotten used to all of the differences and have had a blast riding around the city. I have found a really cool bike shop that let me tinker with my bike. Super nice guys that let me have some old used parts and let me use their tools and work stand. (Much thanks to Ian). In case you were wondering what I had to to my bike; I took off my big chain ring and replaced it with my middle chain ring and then put a smaller chain ring in the middle. Its actually not much smaller and looks funny as hell but it works. I had put a 22 tooth chain ring on the smallest of my triple. this caused my big chain ring (52 tooth bio pace) to rub my derailleur. Just too much of a range. So now much to my delight I have no rubbing and a most absurd crank setup. A 42 tooth bio pace, a 39 tooth and a 22 tooth. Its so awesome. But it gets me up the hills and I am in no race anytime soon.
Yesterday I went out and gathered some goodies for the trip. Some fingerless gloves (ruby chewed mine up), gas for my stove, and some climbing shoes. The climbing shoes were a bit random but it leads me to my next topic. I want to have no regrets on the trip. New Zealand is place where there are lots of different things to do. Tons and tons of outdoor activities. I want to try as many things as possible. I want to experience as many new things as possible. I have done a lot of different things in my life and have loved some and have not been interested in some. Its a trip to step outside of my box. To do things I would never have done before. I want to rock climb, to go white water rafting, to skydive, to bungy jump, to zorb, to go canyoning, to go sledging, do some more amazing hikes etc. I want to do as much as I possibly can. Who knows I might not like any of these things, but I want to be able to say I tried them out. I want to experience as many firsts as I can. I am far beyond my normal comfort zone and it feels awesome.