“Right after the Berlin Wall fell and the whole communism thing happened, myself and a girlfriend cycled through Czechoslovakia. It felt like we were the first Westerners to be going there,” he said.
During this time Chaplow also did several shorter multi-day bike tours through England.
“That was the start of the bike touring thing,” he said.
“Bike touring is just a nice way of travelling - it’s fast enough that you cover some decent distance, the gear is carried on your bike not on you, and you tend to get way more connection with locals because people are way more interested than if you were in a car.”
Chaplow’s other international trips include Chile and Argentina in 2009, where he cycled the length of Patagonia, and a trip with his wife Lisa in 2013 in Thailand and Laos.
Paul Chaplow and wife during a cycle trip to Laos. Photo / Supplied
Since then Chaplow’s cycling trips have been concentrated on New Zealand trails.
“When [my wife] was pregnant with our first child in 2015 we cycled from Auckland to Wellington just for a trip for our summer holiday. So a lot of our holidays have been on bikes now.
“That was just connecting as many trails and backcountry roads as possible between Auckland and Wellington, which we did over a couple of weeks.
“I carried all of our gear and she carried the baby basically, she was five months pregnant.”
They now have three children aged under 10 who they are trying to pass their love for cycling on to.
“Most recently we’ve just started introducing our kids into it as well, so we did three days on the Hauraki Rail Trail just in the last school holidays,” Chaplow said
“We’re trying to set them up so we can do more of that as a family as well, and they seem to enjoy it.”
While he hoped to do more international trips, Chaplow was focused on staying close to home while his children were young.
“We will start exploring the cycle trails of New Zealand with our kids and doing multi-day rides,” he said.
The family’s cycling wish list includes the West Coast wilderness trail, Otago Central Rail Trail and Lake Dunstan Trail.
Another aspect of Chaplow’s cycling hobby is “bike-packing”.
“Bike-packing is just super light-weight cycle touring in a sense, but also it attaches everything to your bike super securely so you can ride super rough, very steep, technical, rocky terrain, and everything stays on your bike.”
Bike-packing could involve competitive events, but they were also a way of “having a journey”, he said.
“It’s a way of exploring and seeing parts of the country you wouldn’t necessarily get to otherwise.”
Most recently Chaplow took part in the Renegades Muster - an 845km circuit starting and finishing in Whanganui, which he completed in 3.5 days - riding for up to 19 hours a day.
“Those are very absorbing, you just live, breathe riding your bike and figuring out food and figuring out where you might sleep, or not.
“It’s super intense, the trip is only three and a half days but it feels like two weeks, probably because you’re awake for as much as you would be in two weeks.”
Chaplow owns three bikes - a mountain bike, road bike and gravel bike.
“It’s like a road bike that’s beefed up to have slightly bigger tyres, but they’re pretty lightweight compared to a hardtail mountain bike,” he said.
The multiple-terrain gravel bike works well for the Muster, and is also Chaplow’s commuting bike.
Chaplow finds that cycling helps manage stress. The Renegades Muster was an especially stressful time as the future of his job was uncertain due to council restructuring
“It’s the simplicity of it, I like I’m riding my bike and that’s all I’m doing and chatting with people and taking the scenery in,” he said.
“I like the feeling of jumping on your bike and having everything you need.
“You’re self-sufficient, you might need to refuel or get some food but you’ve pretty much got everything you need.
“It’s a simple, freeing kind of thing. It’s uncomplicated.”
Olivia Reid is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.
