{"id":198347,"date":"2025-12-23T17:18:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T17:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/198347\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T17:18:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T17:18:12","slug":"on-the-up-tauranga-teen-cyclist-amelia-twiss-takes-on-3000km-tour-aotearoa-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/198347\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Up: Tauranga teen cyclist Amelia Twiss takes on 3000km Tour Aotearoa challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The trip stretches from Cape Reinga to Bluff and follows a combination of cycle trails, tracks, paths and lanes connected by country roads. <\/p>\n

Amelia said she had wanted to do Tour Aotearoa since she was 11 and planned the whole trip herself.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, imagine being crazy enough to do that, and all of a sudden I\u2019m crazy enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

She researched the gear needed, searching online to purchase her kit, including bike bags, tools and her sleep system. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent hours and hours planning because I like to have things organised for me to figure it all out from top to bottom.\u201d <\/p>\n

Amelia was riding with her dad, and they were entirely self-supported.<\/p>\n

She said she discovered spreadsheets in the planning process, using them to map out tide timings, ferry trips, and costs of equipment. <\/p>\n

\"AmeliaAmelia Twiss, after completing the rebel ride, a self-supported, bike-packing adventure from Hamilton to Taupo, in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got some really good spreadsheets with hundreds of little columns of prices, the weights of items, the shipping costs, just everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Day 1, the journey began at Cape Reinga lighthouse<\/a> and headed down 90 Mile Beach, with Amelia timing the trip carefully to match the tides.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is so hard because you only have a seven-hour window to ride along there, but there\u2019s normally a massive headwind that makes people cry sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also planned which ferries to take and will ride five boats, including a special crossing of the Kaipara Harbour made for cyclists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to start with the right tide times to get in at a time where they can still be running the ferry.\u201d <\/p>\n

She carried a tent, a sleeping bag, food, a change of clothes to sleep in, tools and a first aid kit. <\/p>\n

Her bag was about 2kg on the front, and about the same on the back, \u201cplus water, and then food is the big one\u201d.<\/p>\n

She had been most excited about sleeping in a tent before her trip, but had expected that to wear off after a few nights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tent is really good quality, super light and sturdy, waterproof and windproof.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AcrossAcross the 35 days on her bike, she will carry a tent, a sleeping bag, food, a change of clothes to sleep in, tools and a first aid kit.<\/p>\n

Amelia learned from her ride to Parliament in July the importance of fuelling herself with the right food, but said her go-to was a block of hokey pokey Whittaker\u2019s chocolate. <\/p>\n

\u201cI will also have dehydrated meals, lots of rice, cream rice, pasta, electrolytes, and protein bars are pretty good as well.\u201d <\/p>\n

Amelia rides 80km to 100km per day, including over Christmas and New Year\u2019s, marking her first Christmas away from family.<\/p>\n

Mum Toni Twiss said she was inspired by what Amelia had set her mind to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess it\u2019s pushed both me and her dad right out of our comfort zones, but following someone passionate is such a joy, really, because they lead the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twiss said whatever Amelia put into the rides, she and her dad would match.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe puts in the time, we\u2019ll match it. She puts in the work, we\u2019ll match it, and now I think it\u2019s heavily weighted in her favour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really amazing because this is all new to us, but we\u2019re just trying to enable her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Morrell<\/a> is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The trip stretches from Cape Reinga to Bluff and follows a combination of cycle trails, tracks, paths and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[122213,103859,12889,6636,23676,111,43,139,69,90,1120,1227,5163,223,208,122212,810],"class_list":{"0":"post-198347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-3000km","9":"tag-amelia","10":"tag-aotearoa","11":"tag-challenge","12":"tag-cyclist","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-on","18":"tag-takes","19":"tag-tauranga","20":"tag-teen","21":"tag-the","22":"tag-tour","23":"tag-twiss","24":"tag-up"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}