Saturday, March 1

Before the website had photos and journals for the first day in Invercargill, the site had nothing for the first few days due to Mike and John's difficulties finding an internet connection. The following entry was recorded until their first successful upload of information in Queenstown: Mike and John arrived in Auckland on March 1, then flew to Invercargill, the southern most city. After setting out on their long trek northward, their first stop was the town of Tuatapere, approximately 55 miles from Invercargill. Not bad for a first day! The next day, they rode 80 miles (mostly uphill), stopping in Kingston. Tuesday, March 4th, John and Mike rode off to Queenstown. Mike and John's training and preparation for this journey was extensive. Unfortunately, the communications equipment they assembled was missing one important little item, the proper telephone adapter! Otherwise we, updating the site, would be presenting you with detailed updates of their daily progress. The two riders are hoping to purchase the proper adapter once they reach Queenstown. While we are waiting to hear from them, our system administrator sent a message through Usenet (the Internet's message base) to specific newsgroups relating to New Zealand. Below you can read a copy of the message sent. His friend who lives in Invercargill offered to drive to Queenstown (about 2 hours by car) in search of Mike and John. Copy of message sent via Usenet: Some co-workers of mine are bicycling from one end of New Zealand to the other and documenting it on our Web site at: http://www.projectnz.org. The plan was for them to find a payphone each day, upload pics from their digital camera and send/receive email, and provide live updates to the web page as their trip progresses. Unfortunately, they seem to have wound up taking the wrong telephone adapters and cannot upload any information to us! That was the whole point of the trip! Now they need to find individuals with Internet connections, such as local service providers or universities, along the route. There's a map on the Project New Zealand web site which displays their approximate route. They are two American guys on bicycles with ProjectNZ written on their helmets. There are pictures of them on the URL, http://www.projectnz.org, they shouldn't be too hard to spot! =) New Zealand is a very large country and it would be quite a coincidence if anyone who saw this posting were to bump into them. Nevertheless, they could certainly use a hand. It's not life or death, just a disappointment if they can't accomplish their "mission." Today (Tuesday, March 3, San Diego time), they are between Kingston and Queenstown on Highway 6. They would be eternally grateful to anyone who spotted them and could point them toward an Internet connection, or atleast offer some kind words of encouragement. Once they get the proper hardware, we will then be able to provide you with daily updated content, as well as images and stories yet to be received from the beginning of their journey. Stay tuned! See the map for this day