We arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday and everything went really well.  We had a list of things to do like assembling the bikes, getting connected to the internet, grocery shopping etc.  Everything worked out well as we got a Telstra SIM for the phone at the airports, a maxi-taxi dropped us at Josh’s house, the bikes went together fine and the shopping was easily done at the supermarket around the corner.  The list of jobs seemed to disappear with ease.

On Wednesday night Josh and Lesley’s friends David and Joanne came around for dinner and we had a nice time chatting and catching up.  It was a successful though very long day as we were up for 21 hours due to the early flight and late night.

On Thursday Will’s cousin James and his fiancée Merryn picked us up and we drove down to the family holiday home at Somers on the Mornington Peninsular.   Cousin Alice arrived too and we celebrated with champagne then a nice lunch at the local restaurant.  In the afternoon we watched the ANZAC day footy between Essendon and Collingwood (James was pleased because Essendon won), cooked, drank wine and hung out chatting.  It was a fun afternoon evening and great to see the some family

Today we are relaxing and Josh, Lesley and kids will be arriving this afternoon for a couple of nights.

Sitting on the verandah, listening to the birds, surrounded by gum trees on a street called Koala Court all seems very Australian and is the perfect way to start our holiday.

We’re off!!!

The house is tidied and clean and we handed it over to our house-sitters Marilyn and Jan.  We’ve loaded up the car with bikes, gear and curtain material for the Newtons, and we are driving to Christchurch.

Months of planning has gone into this day.  All the buying of gear, bookings, lists, testing and packing is finally over and we are off on our adventure.  It seems like this day would never come and seems surreal to be on the way.

Tomorrow we’ll spend in Christchurch picking up a few odds and ends, dropping off the curtain material, and maybe a wee bit of visiting if we get time.

Early early early on Wednesday we fly to Melbourne.  Originally we booked mid morning flight but the time got changed and we now have 6am flights.  That means checking in at 4am!!!  I told Air NZ I wasn’t impressed by the change of flight time.

Exciting times ahead!

A long day of packing and sorting and getting the house ready for the house sitters. We had to take the bikes apart to get them in bike boxes. That meant removing carriors, mirrors, handle bars etc. We have a little list of things to get for the trip, but in general, we are happy with the big day.

To entertain you all, here is a photo of us in 1990 cycle touring from Christchurch to Picton, aged 21.  No Instagram photo effects here, this is what the pre-digital world really looked like.

Most people thought we were mad cycling to Hanmer Springs, through the Rainbow road to St Arnaud, then down to Picton, when we could have driven to Picton in the car in 4 hours.  Most people still think we are mad cycling from Melbourne to Brisbane.

We leave in 2 weeks and things are super busy getting ready.  We have all our gear ready and the house is ready for the house sitters but there is still a lot of work to get done before we leave.  Websites to finish and parent/teacher meetings for Jen.

Blog posts will come more often now as we pack, depart and start our journey.  Getting excited!!

Cycle touring in 1990