Cycling the Length of New Zealand

Rob Howard / 08.01.2010

Two British adventurers, Maria Leijerstam and Tori James, have set off to ride the length of New Zealand. Their route will take them from Cape Regina at the northern tip of North Island, to the Southern tip of South Island, and in between they plan to paddle the Cook Strait (and take part in the famous Speights Coast to Coast race).

The two met after Leijerstam advertised to find adventurous women for expeditions, and both have given up London jobs to follow their passion for travel and adventure full time. Leijerstam regularly takes part in UK adventure races, completed the Open Adventure C2C last year, had finished the Marathon des Sables, and took part in the recent Adventure Racing World Championships in Portugal. James was in the first British all-female team to race to the Magnetic North Pole, and in 2007 became the youngest British women to scale Mount Everest.

The pair undertook the long journey to New Zealand over New Year, flying from the bitter winter conditions in the UK to hot summer conditions and made their way to Cape Regina yesterday to start their ride, where Leijerstam reported that ‘90 mile beach’ was only 66 miles long!

You can follow their progress on <a href="#" onClick="javascript:newsitewindow('http://www.girlsbikenewzealand.com')" class="main">www.girlsbikenewzealand.com</a> and SleepMonsters will be carrying weekly diary extracts as the pair make their way south through ‘the land of the long white cloud’.