Product Description

After two months on board a Russian container ship sailing 15,000 miles across the world, Josie finally arrives in New Zealand with her bike. Over the next nine months she cycles 10,000 kilometres all over North and South Islands while experiencing the wettest, windiest and stormiest year on record. During this time Josie was spat at, shouted at, honked at, and both run off and blown off the road. She got soaked, sunburnt, hailed on and snowed on and was alternately starved and over-fed, over-charged and under-charged. Then there was the wildlife: the possums (both dead and alive): exotic birds such as moreporks (with their eerie call) and fantails (who decided to follow); the ostriches, who liked to chase English cyclists and the harriers, who liked to dive bomb them; the more familiar but no less frustrating farm animals, who provided sheep-jams and cow-blocks to slow Josie down. In Long Cloud Ride, Josie brings New Zealand brilliantly to life. Warm, witty and acutely observed as ever, her latest adventure is sure to delight old and new fans alike.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #65628 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
'Charmingly illustrated with line drawings and photos from the trip, this is ideal for all those people who really would like to cycle for 10,000 miles around New Zealand but just don't have the energy right now' - G Travel 'In Long Cloud Ride, Josie brings New Zealand brilliantly to life. Warm, witty and acutely observed as ever, her latest adventure is sure to delight old and new fans alike' - Outdoor Pursuits 'Charmingly illustrated with line drawings and photos from the trip, this is ideal for all those people who really would like to cycle for 10,000 miles around New Zealand but just don't have the energy right now' - G Travel 'In Long Cloud Ride, Josie brings New Zealand brilliantly to life. Warm, witty and acutely observed as ever, her latest adventure is sure to delight old and new fans alike' - Outdoor Pursuits

G Travel
'Charmingly illustrated, this is ideal for all those people who
would like to cycle 10,000 miles around New Zealand but just don't have the
energy right now'

Wanderlust
'Roving cyclists will be pleased to see that Josie Dew is back in the saddle. This time she's dodging possums and whizzing down misty mountains in New Zealand in Long Cloud Ride'

Customer Reviews

Weeping Sky
I've bought all Josie Dew's books and enjoyed reading them very much, although in my view there was a little stutter in form on Saddled a Sea, her latest offering, Long Cloud Ride is right back up there with the others. This one was particularly interesting because my wife and I had visited New Zealand prior to our reading of the book. Josie Dew noticed the same things we did, although we were in a car and not on a bike. She was rude about a place we liked, but apart from that.......!
There are the usual quirky observations and interesting thoughts, I would query the cover comments "A cycling Adventure across New Zealand". Josie does far more than crosses these Islands, she explores them very thoroughly. I also question the TLS comment that Ms Dew is "A female Bill Bryson" she is not! She is Josie Dew, adventurer and wit in her own right. She might at times be slightly mad in what she endures, but she is without doubt her own person. Highly recommended!

More amazing travels from Josie in the saddle
If you've been to or are going to New Zealand, then you must read this book! If you love cycling or travel writing, I think you'll really enjoy reading this too. (If you're already a Josie Dew fan you'll understand that once you've read one of her books, you'll want to read them all.) Josie is very witty and all her observations on NZ ("enn zed") are wonderful and on reading this book, so many memories came alive for me once again. I really can't praise this book highly enough. All the little drawings and maps are great too! Enjoy!

Eventful Trip Down Under.
A well written book, but I think she forgot from time to time that when you're in a different country, you should have the sense to expect a totally different way of life, and attitudes to that life. A constant attempt at wit which at best came across as ridicule, got very tiresome towards the end of the book. New Zealand's worst summer for many years did not help her trip, and the mentality of the country's drivers regarding cyclists and everything in general, really is diabolical, which also would have made things difficult, but the constant jibes at the quirkiness of New Zealand's people and lifestyle was disappointing. Ms. Dew should have had a more open mind to the unusual side of New Zealand, and the fact that she has travelled so extensively should have instilled in her an attitude of curiosity, interest, and respect for all things different that New Zealand had to offer. She was in the country at a bad time weather-wise which would distort anyone's view of a new place, and it would have made New Zealnd look dreary a lot of the time, but all the photos in the book show beautiful weather!! A little less of the under-handed and snidey remarks at things that are different to what she's used to, and a lot more of a healthy interest in what a new country has to offer would have made a better book. A lot of New Zealand towns are still basically cow-towns, but that slow, country-paced way of living is one of the things that makes the country so attractive. Her descriptions of the things that the local people found interesting and was an integral part of their lives, was a lot of the time, just something to be sneered at by the writer, which I found to be in very bad taste. Here's hoping her book on her Trans-American journey, which I'm going to tackle next, is more sensibly written.