Table of Contents

 

Chapter One: A Dream is Born

Chapter Two: The Team is Born

Chapter Three: Hangovers and Reunions

Chapter Four: Pit of Exploding Fire

Chapter Five: Downhill to Taumaranui

Chapter Six: The Little Boat That Could

Chapter Seven: Cycling With the Wind

Chapter Eight: Paddling a Sleeping Giant

Chapter Nine: The Cyclist’s Paradise

Chapter Ten: Confronting my Fears

Chapter Eleven: A Dicey Descent

Chapter Twelve: Jet Fuel

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Foreword

In our ‘connected’ world we are becoming ever more disconnected from ‘real world’ experiences. Reading this book will make you want to reconnect with the great outdoors, the bountiful always surprising natural world we live in. Not that you need to climb mountains or paddle Cook Straight (or row oceans!), Peak to Peak will open you to the possibility that in pushing your own personal boundary’s you will discover someone you perhaps didn’t know existed, a person more resilient, confident and purposeful than ever before realised.

Fast paced, engaging and at times hilarious Peak to Peak is an enjoyable page turner. Adventure books are more than epic feats of endurance and endeavour. They’re also about the characters and incidents along the way and Peak to Peak has plenty: the fat lady with the skinny husband; the proud Maori woman; the rude Backpackers manager; the ‘video a scene’, the ‘I decided to sulk’ and the tempestuous Cook Straight ‘living the dream’ moments

Amongst all this one comment sticks in my mind: ‘It proved to me that adventure was an attitude, more than a body type.’ All wannabe adventurers will love this book.

Hunter S Thompson said “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely at life’s end in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a ride!”

Grant’s life is a bit like that.

Rob Hamill

Olympian, trans-Atlantic rowing champion and author The Naked Rower