My Gear is Falling Apart

January 30, 2015
Hari Hari, South Island, NZ



I've been having a string of gear breakdowns and it's really getting frustrating! I think it started with a leaky air mattress that I patched. Then when I tried to rotate my front tires, I pinched both the tubes trying to get the "too small for the rim" tires off. Didn't even know that could happen, but when they were remounted, they both were flat. Perfectly good tubes now damaged. We can't find our size tubes in NZ, but I stupidly told April not to order some because our tires never go flat and I had a spare as well as patches. And here I damaged 2 perfectly good tubes....badly. And patches aren't holding in this heat...they melt, then leak. So we've been patching a lot of tires. And since I'm tormenting, what's with these plastic or aluminum tire irons? We've broken 3 new ones and bent 3 others. And can't find anything here tests any stronger. It gets back to the tires being smaller than the rims and too hard to get off and on. Bad idea. But they're so much sleeker than the tires too big for the rim. Why can't ICE (the trike manufacturer) and Schwalbe ( the tire manufacturer) make tubes and rims that match???

So what came next? Another leak in my mattress, near the old one. Another patch. Then during a big wind in Queenstown while our tents were up during a zero day, my tent was blown over and a pole snapped. Hoof it to town where they tried to replace the broken pole sections to no avail. But one smart man suggested I just take off the small broken piece (about 2 inches) and live with it. So that's what I'm doing. Another section is cracked and I duct taped it and am hoping it will hold. I contacted the manufacturer in the States, but he's unresponsive. Not good customer service from Big Sky International.



So on we pedal northward over a very long steep climb called the Crown Range. 16% grade in places. 13 kms climb! Didn't start up until 2 pm in this heat. Grind. Grind. Grind. Up and up and up. Got to where we could not make the pedals go round. Didn't think we were going to make the next chain bay just ahead 50 meters! Ugh! 11 kms down. I don't have anything left. It's been 4 hours to get here. Out pops my thumb and the 3rd car in line pulls over! It took him two trips but he took us up to the top. As we drove up those last 2 kms, I knew I'd made the right decision. From there we coasted down to Wanaka stopping to camp at a creek along the way. A lot of people have given us kudos for that climb!












So continuing northward camping by rivers and in pull offs, my next batch of breakages happen. First the strap on my flip flops pulls out:(. Then my headlamp casing falls into my hands:(. Then that night my sir mattress leaks again. So there I sit in my tent raking the 30 minutes to patch it. This leak is 1/2 inch from the other two...all at the head of a glued baffle seam. It's now midnight. Inflate per instructions and crawl into my bag. BANG! Flat! Flip it over and there are two 12 inch long rips on either side of the glued baffle seam. SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!!!! Gonna be done long nights ahead sleeping on the hard earth.



See the few things I have to try and pad myself. It's not working!! Sore, bruised body...getting worse every night. Tonight will be the 4th one:(


I guess I expect everything to last forever. But losing my sure mattresses a big deal! There are no towns we will pass through for the next month that have an outdoor store. I tossed the air mattress because it was useless, but afterwards decided to contact ExPed to see if this may have been a defect and they'd nail me a new one. A kind man wrote to tell me to contact the store where I bought it. I did buy it in NZ when I was here before but that was over a year ago. I assumed it was out of warranty so why would they help me? And I had no receipt nor the defective product. So I went online to see if I could order a replacement to be sent to a town up ahead and read that my sure mattress had a 2 year warranty. I wrote back to ExPed about my predicament and was advised to contact the store for the replacement. He would support me if need be. So this morning I called Bivouac in Tauranga on the North Island and was told to bring in the defective air mattress. I chuckled. Not happening. Don't have it and not near you. But somehow he became convinced to help me against company policy and at a cost to the store. Think you, Bivouac! Amazing customer service! He had it in the mail sending a tracking number back to me 30 minutes after I called!! Tim, you rock!!

And deserve friends in Wellington popped an air mattress they had in the mail to me this morning after hearing of my plight! Now 2 mattresses will be in Greymouth next week:))). Thanks for thinking of me, Prue! I'm so touched! I'll bring it back when I come, or send it back.

So today we stopped early a couple of days south of Hokitika where we're picking up repair parts for April's trike and L'arginine (amino acid pills) for my high blood pressure. Hopefully they'll bring it back into range as they always do. Also decided to get off most dairy since it's the one thing I do show antibodies in the blood to...but I love dairy. This has been hard.

We're set up in a Dept of Conservation campsite for $6 each. Sweet! On a lake for swimming.



Livin' the life!

BagLady