With my itinerant lifestyle, I’ve done very few races in New Zealand my erstwhile home. In 2014 I had planned to ride the Kiwi Brevet, but Tropical Cyclone Ian flattened Ha’apai in Tonga and I had to participate in the rebuild. So I was very pleased when the stars aligned and I found myself able to ride the 1,149 km (with 17,372 m of climbing!) around the top half of the South Island. The 5 days, 10 hours and 35 minutes were slower then I had hoped—but they did require us to take 6 hours off every day.
Chris Bennett's Bikepacking and Triathlon Blog 