The Adventures of Maisie Mason

I’m Kirsten and these are some blogs about my recent bikepacking and cycling adventures on my Mason Raw.

Last December I quit my job as a Physiotherapist to travel and cycle for a year. Initially I headed to the Canary Islands to join a sailboat and bikepack the islands for a few weeks. I returned briefly to Scotland to pack up my life. I left my wee flat in Glasgow behind and headed to Chamonix, France to ski tour for the season with friends. After overcoming some visa issues and doing some serious cross training (but not a whole lot of cycling) I returned to Scotland for the Highland Trail 550 MTB race in May. Five days of relentless climbing, numerous falls, wet weather, midges and trench foot ensued, not to mention a peat bog swallowing my phone! Two weeks later (but not a whole lot of recovery later) I was on a plane to Calgary ahead of the Tour Divide grand depart. In early July, after just over 22 days elatedly I reached the Mexican border. Some down time in the US followed. I travelled on to Vancouver to stay with relatives and pick up a bag of belongings I’d sent ahead. I then flew on to Christchurch at the end of July, where I am now 🙂

Maisie is my sensor blue Mason Raw which I bought second hand in April for my upcoming adventures, after it was spied on Marketplace by my friend (and also trusted bike mechanic), Robin of Roll Right Bikes. Since then I’ve developed a great relationship with Dom at Mason Cycles.

I cannot wait to explore NZ by bike and have already got a spreadsheet and Gantt chart on the go with possible routes and ideas! I would like to share these as a way of documenting my adventures and hope it will be of interest to others.

Enjoy reading! Please get in touch if you have any questions, of would like to know more.