Author: neil

Four weeks of sleeping in the same bed opened up a space in which we could relax and reset in this new country, but now it’s time to resume our forward motion. This time we had a helpful assist to break the sticky force of inertia; weeks ago Rett had mentioned to our hosts in…

Week 3 The big excursion this week was a bike ride over the Waitakere Ranges to Piha Beach. And even with our bikes unloaded and an assist from a train, it was still one of the toughest rides we’ve done, with over a mile of climbing! I mean, generally when we’re touring with our full…

Week 2 Halloween is relatively-uncelebrated here. The grocery stores have a tiny cardboard kiosk with a few bits of “Halloween” candy, and maybe a decoration or two available near the checkout, but clearly nothing like the aisle full of candy in the US or the elaborate yard displays. It sounds like there are occasional city…

Four days in Auckland was not nearly enough time to get us to be ready to hit the road in this new country, so, we booked a month at a new, bigger AirBNB. A month?! That’s probably more time than we need to plot a route and get our bikes in full working order. But,…

Bagels come in 4-packs instead of 6-packs. They call it a “rubbish bin” instead of a “garbage can”. Every electrical outlet has an on/off switch integrated into it, in addition to the plugs being a different shape. And obviously traffic drives on the wrong side of the road. But beyond that, cultural differences between the…