8degrees of vaughan rowsell

Making a NZ long cycleway

March 30, 2009 at 8:36 am In Life, Rants, No Comments

I may have told you, I am cycling the length of New Zealand. Yeah, cool aye? People do ask me, and quite a lot, “why the hell are you doing that?”. They probably ask me that for a couple of reasons, but mainly because they are use to the sedentary, overweight version of me who in recent history is mostly remembered as “that guy who does stuff with computers”. I also get asked “is it because of John Key’s idea for a cycleway” which is usually followed by “you do know its not built yet?”

Here is why. Are you paying attention now? Oh good.

Towards the end of ’08 I listened to a lot of people feeling a bit down and out about things. The world economy was making everyone think about how bad things were going to get for them, and no one seemed to have any positive ideas. I didn’t have any really ground shaking positive ideas either, but I saw the road ahead as a bit of a challenge, and even started throwing one or two ideas around. I was also looking at myself and seeing someone who needed to change what they were doing in order to move forward. I literally just wanted to get off my arse and do something. So I decided quietly, after a few glasses of wine on New Years Eve, that I would do just that. I would remove my arse from the desk chair it usually inhabits and put it on a bike. Why? Because. Because it is doing something.

I don’t seriously think riding a bike the length of the country is a really good way to turn things around for the country but it would at least change me. And who knows what might happen.

Since then I have been called mad, been labelled “mid-life crisisee”, and been flagged for failure by a few. Then John Key announced his idea for the NZ long cycleway, and the knockers quietened down a little. Now I am three weeks away from my first day of full on pedalling and making my own cycleway.

So why am I doing it. For inspiration, for me and others. For fun and to get away from my computer. To meet interesting people and to change things for me. I will probably have a bit of time to think about things too, and we have a few great ideas we are tinkering away at in the Voom Studio office so I will get a lot of quality time to think about them. We are developing a great SaaS product that we will be launching by years end and we are currently taking a whole day a week out of client work to build something new and exciting because it is an investment in the future and now is the best time to do just that.

You see, we can either give up and go hide under a rock, or we can get off our arses and do something new.

So that is why. And chances are I might be passing through a town or city near you during April and May. If you are keen for a catch up and chew the fat a little, I might have some free time on my hands, so drop me a line via email, visit http://nzuphill.8degrees.co.nz or Twitter @rowsell. And hey, if you have a bike I would enjoy some company for a kilometre or ten.