Well, I like it. But then someone was showing pics of the Potomac Valley and I liked the look of that too. And of course, Crazycanuck raised the perennial problem......which is best, Nth Island vs South Island. Weren't they inspired when they named them ?

Anyway, I'm from the South Island (known as the Mainland). Most of my riding, at the moment, is on my daily commute from one side of Christchurch to the other and I have to say that traffic is traffic and drivers here aren't any more courteous than I've seen them described elsewhere.

At Christmas, however, my sister and I are going to do the inaugural "Big O". It's a ride starting from Oamaru to Ophir via the Danseys Pass, Naseby, Oturehua (where we join the Central Otago Rail Trail to Omakau and over the Danial O'Connell suspension bridge to Ophir where we will spend a week at our place there. The return journey will be via the Pig Root to Dunback then over the Humtucker (we usually only walk that from the top down so it will be novel to go upwards) to Otepopo and then back home to Oamaru. It's the part of the country I was born and raised in and it's sort of off the beaten track but it isn't a very "green" ride in that it is mostly thru tussock country so it's more golden but there is something very beautiful about the hills covered with tussocks.

Anyway, I'm sure google will bring up info on most of those places if you want to look at pics .

Anybody want to join us?

Oh, we mostly call ourselves kiwis but we call kiwifruit kiwifruit.