TWO WHEELS AROUND NEW ZEALAND
A Bicycle Journey on Friendly Roads
From the book's cover: Scott Bischke and Katie Gibson have done what many of us dream. They quit their jobs and traded in their possessions for a year of travel and simplicity. During the course of their journey, the biked more than 8,000 kilometers and experienced much of New Zealand's culture and beauty. The couple's freewheeling adventure took them from biking, hiking, and canoeing to fly-fishing for monster trout and picking kiwi fruit as transient laborers. TWO WHEELS is a light-hearted adventure story; but above all it is a celebration of the people, landscape, and lifestyle of New Zealand.
MountainWorks Press expects to republish TWO WHEELS soon. For now, we can get you a copy directly, just click here and let us know your interest through the Contact page.
Available from Amazon (Kindle or paperback) or direct from Scott , just click!
Author comments
This book, my first, resulted from a lifelong (OK, true, I was only just into my 20s) desire to put pencil to paper and see what came out. Kate and I had quit our jobs to spend a year on a bicycle back in the late 80s, meeting all manner of intriguing people and having all sorts of wonderful adventures. So the book idea got legs about half way through our year in New Zealand, coincident with my ever increasing pile of journals.
But truth is, the book and perhaps indeed my career as an author—both science and popular press—might have remained a musing of the mind had not my most wonderful wife, Katie Gibson, provided support. "You need to try to do this, you've always wanted to write a book so instead of talking about it, let's see what happens. I can support us and we'll be fine." We set a goal for me to write a book about our Kiwi times in under a year. And importantly, we both agreed that if the book never got published, well that would be OK. The effort, the journey of discovery to create the book, could be enough. Anything more would be gravy.
Happily, nine months later when I finished the book there *was* more. I toyed with the idea of an agent, then went out into the world blissfully alone. Of ten query letters, a half dozen publishers said no, four were interested, one—Pruett Publishing of Boulder CO—said yes. We negotiated the book deal over a nice dinner at a swanky Boulder restaurant. I recall only two things about that meeting. The first was the realization that being an author might be a poor financial substitute for following through on a career based on my MS Chemical Engineering degree. The second was something my soon-to-be editor, Jerry Keenan, said: "People always come to me and ask, 'Jerry what should I write about?' and I always tell them the same thing: When you have something to write about, you will come to see me.' We love your story, Scott, and it is clear you had something to write about."
Jerry and Pruett Publishing created a beautiful work, hardback with color plates. The book enjoyed some success until years later the book rights reverted to me. Soon another publisher, Ecopress, bought the rights for the paperback edition. That was almost 20 years back, and then in 2013 I reclaimed full rights to TWO WHEELS.
Special notes
Kate and I have been back to New Zealand three other times, with the longest trip of two months, since the late 1980s. Much in New Zealand, like everywhere, has changed. The story of TWO WHEELS AROUND NEW ZEALAND is now emblematic of an earlier times, before you could find Starbucks Down Under, heck before you could find coffee. Hmmm...perhaps a retrospective is in order?!
Reviews
"...Bischke offers insights into the pleasures of biking, fly-fishing, and just living."
— BOOKLIST
Here is an engrossing tale. Scott writes entertainingly and perceptively of the idiosyncrasies of the population and areas he and Katie passed through. If you have ever wanted to go cycling in New Zealand, you could do far worse than to read this book first. If you never want to go there, don’t read it; it will probably change your mind!
— AUSTRALIAN CYCLIST
"I did enjoy the book....the tone was nice, there were good illustrations, the descriptions of the difficulties encountered added to the story without resorting to the whining all too common in literature these days."
— BACKROADS CYCLING
"Bischke has a fluid, chatty style..."
— BILLINGS GAZETTE
Today I have the pleasure of reviewing a marvelous book for you. The avid bike rider will be thrilled with the detailed and fascinating descriptions This book, however, contains much more than a simple travel log. There are, of course, the very helpful maps to help the arm-chair adventurer find his and her way. Then we start learning so much about New Zealand: their motivations for ecological survival, their needs to be out in natural surroundings, their friendliness towards foreigners, and for me I loved the descriptions of the beautiful areas, ...TWO WHEELS AROUND NEW ZEALAND reads as if you were sharing travel yarns with old friends. Scott Bischke has a very informal tone, and he really brought me into his confidences as he shared his moods, fears, and hopes before and during this incredible year. Wouldn’t this book make a great film!
— Carolyn Spector, Book Reviewer for KLCC Public Radio Eugene, Oregon