
I got a bit preoccupied with organising my electric bike creation last weekend so I put off writing up the Queens Birthday Coromandel trip until now – pretty slack, I know! The trip started off quite unpromisingly as we decided to go the scenic route and got snarled up in the most horrendous traffic jam. […]

I have learnt many thing on my course this week. For instance, I now know that using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) ‘bicycle’ is spelt like this: /ˈbaɪsɪkəl/ That’s so cool! It looks a bit Russian to me. /oʊld grin ˈbaɪsɪkəl/ Any ideas what these means? (The picture should give you a clue)

A friend alerted me to this video the other day. It is about some people touring in the Netherlands at Easter, and interestingly one of them has the same Brompton/Radical trailer set up we are intending to use. The accompanying post also mentions the freezing weather with days hovering around 0C and the nights at -5C. It’s […]

Hamilton is excellent! …. which was quite a surprise because the general response to our travel plans was “why?”, or “oh dear” closely followed by “why?”. To answer this question I have been explaining about the gear shake down and the availability of a train plus hotel plus campground. However, I can now also add […]

This week circumstances have encouraged me to turn my attention to cerebral preparation for the trip. I am now officially ‘unemployed’. Having made the symbolic and real move of resigning from my permanent employment back in July last year when the Trip idea crystallised into a plan, I was then fortunate to have steady contract […]

Last weekend we went to Leigh for three days to break in the new stove and cooking pots. We hired a car to get there and to battle Auckland’s nasty 16 lane highway monstrosities that lie between us and the countryside. This was a rare and fraught mission as our usual stomping ground is the relatively simple 6 […]