Part One – The Electrical Items.

1. Ensure your name is neither Mike or Jo.

If your name is Mike or Jo then do the following:

2. Lay out all your gear in an organised manner.

3. Discard all cameras which require interchangable lenses (leaving our dslrs in NZ was a good call)

4. Out of the remaining 10 cameras pick your favourite two. (That’s two each right?)

5. Replace two laptops with a netbook

6. Replace books with e-readers (and complementary e-reader holder from airnz)

7. Replace maps with a garmin edge

Stay Tuned for Part Two – The Camping Gear

It’s airport day. Our car broke down. Why does this always happen on airport day?

Halfway over the hill we overtook a clapped out campervan when our car stopped. I’m blaming Mike for not getting it serviced and for his views on speed limiting cars to 100km/hr. Dora obviously took offence (not that she can do more that 100 km/hr anyway but probably just a car alliance thing)

We managed to get Dora going again and crawled the rest of the trip behind the smelly old camper. We have Lord of the Rings to thank for this.

We decided to catch the bus from Thames ‘cos nobody likes to do the airport run. Dad dropped us off after putting our car into storage. (Thanks Dad!)

The bus was chocker full of BO ridden people and there were no seats left for us. With a bit of a defrag we managed to free up some space so we could sit together.

Mike read his book:

We had to wait for a change of bus at Manukau. Manukau is a multicultural experience. It’s like all the foreigners fly into Auckland and don’t get any further than Manukau before deciding to settle there.

Overall the public bus experience wasn’t too bad and we got to sightsee all the nice suburbs of South Auckland. The only downside is getting to the airport 8 hours early. Oh well – guess we will just have to sit in the Koru club and drink free beer.

The air is full of volcanic ash
And the planes wont fly ‘cos they don’t wanna crash
Jo and Mike don’t wanna get stuck
‘Cos having a winter would really SUCK!
Best thing to do is just sit tight
And hope we don’t have to cancel our flight

Someone on this farm is responsible for the theft and brutal mutilation of this corn:

Suspect Number 1 – Colonel Cluck and his Harem of Hens

The Colonels residence is adjacent to the corn so this makes him a suspect. However he has an unfortunate twitch which would prevent him carrying out the task alone. We suspect his harem may also have been involved.

Are The Colonel and his harem of hens really smart enough to carry out a heist of this kind?

Suspect Number 2 – Levi The Arrogant Racehorse

Levi’s paddock is also adjacent to the corn – and he is arrogant enough to carry out a crime such as this.

On closer inspection however – there were no horse prints in the dirt – and the fence was untouched.

We suspect Levi was probably too busy plotting ways to terrorise Farmer Mike.

Suspect Number 3 – The Three Ducks

The ducks have a history of bad behavior which is why they have been placed on the suspect list.

They are always playing in the hen house despite being told repeated not to do this.

They swim in the hens water when they have their own private stream down the bottom of the farm.

They are hungry ALL the time which gives them a motive.

But are these mischevious little ducks really capable of such a brutal crime?

Suspect Number 4 – The Buff Orpingtons – Buffy,Fluffy, and Puffy

We figure the Buffs were probably too busy with their open home that day to bother stealing corn. “Buffy the Corn Slayer?” – I don’t think so.

Suspect Number 5 – Bessie the Dog

Bessie likes to slink around the farm in her black frock and britches.

She is constantly picked on by the other animals – the cats tease her, the cows chase her, the ducks nip her tail and the fences give her shocks.

Bessie was also caught hiding in Grandpa’s car trying to escape the crime scene.

We suspect this may be an act of revenge.

Suspect number 6 – The Australian

The prime suspect for this brutal massacre is The Australian. We haven’t seen him but we know he is out there. We have set the trap and when he is caught he will be interrogated and shot!

Continue reading →

We tried out our new headcam yesterday and had our first swim.

Watch Video

It’s only a couple of weeks now before we head home. In my attempts to get fit enough to run up Paku everyday, I seem to have strained a muscle at the gym yesterday. I didn’t do anything different, so really dunno what has caused it, but found it was agony to walk after my session. Anyway I have been RICEing it so I hope it comes right before we head home. Plus the weather is crap so it looks like a DVD day today.

Here’s a couple of photos from our new fisheye lens for a bit of fun:

Click on any of the photos below for a larger image.

Check here for a slideshow of many images: slideshow gallery

Catching the ferry from Poole to France:

First days riding:

First nights camp after 75 kms riding and Mike cooking us dinner:

Mike is all colour co-ordinated:

And so is Lynda:

We did a boat trip for part of the way:

Alcoholic Drinks:

The view from one of our campsites:

Oh my god, they have Wurfelnatters here?

Cycling through wineries:

View from one of the gasthofs that we stayed at, right on the cycle path.

Castles on hills:

A man blowing his own trumpet:

A little drinks hut in the middle of nowhere. We stopped for coffee while sheltering from the rain:

Last day of cycling. It rained all day and we got wet, cold and lost:

Catching the train back:

Goodbye: