Wednesday October 10, 2012

Jocelyn arrived right on time after a 13 hour flight from San Francisco followed by another quick flight from Auckland. I purchased a surprise upgrade to “Premium Economy”. She really enjoyed that and I didn’t realize there was quite a service difference on Air New Zealand. For the round trip it was only an additional $600 which is well worth it since you are spending 13 hours on the flight. We will both fly that home. It was a quick taxi ride to Natural High Bike Shop. Sandra sized Jocelyn on a Cannondale touring bike while I will use a Specialized which comes with straight bars instead of the drops as I like to ride more upright. We unloaded our panniers, aerobars, saddles and other gear that Natural High will install along with mud-flaps, mirrors, and bike computers. We also made a map selection and discussed at length our planned route. Sandra has ridden most of the South Island and was very excited for us. She has been a great help with our planning. A camping outfit delivered our camping gear. After that we went to an outdoors store where I purchased wind/rain pants along with new studier sandals for water use. Across the street was Speight’s Ale House where we split a fish and chips lunch. We found the Metro bus nearby and returned to Brighton Beach. We are both raring to go. We moved up our departure date to Friday.

http://www.natural-high.co.nz/