Auckland - Home

This journey doesn’t seem to want to end.

Firstly we had to wait in the plane in Bali for 20 minutes so we wouldn’t arrive in Sydney before the 6am opening time. 

We were expecting to land in Sydney in a few minutes when the captain informs us there has been a major malfunction with air traffic control and the landing time scheduled for us is outside the window of fuel remaining on board. So we diverted to Canberra for more fuel and a new flight plan to return to Sydney. 

We arrived in Sydney 3 hours late and someone had parked their plane in our space! 

Of course we missed our connection to Auckland. 

We are booked on an afternoon flight, it could have been worse. 

We had a lovely day with Paddy and Jules in Auckland with a nice brunch followed by a walk on a local walkway. Very relaxing in the warm sunshine.

On Monday we collected the bike with no fuss, it was great to be reunited. 

 We then had a miserable  ride to Cambridge in torrential rain. Clive greeted us warmly however and we chatted away the afternoon comparing notes on our respective trips. Ruth arrived home from work and Clive cooked up a storm for dinner. 

Tuesday dawned crisp but clear. This is it. The day has finally come for us to ride home. Tomtom guided us through rural Waikato, lovely countryside and very quiet on the road. What’s going on NZ or have I just got used to different driving, everyone more or less sticking to the speed limit, drivers being courteous! This will take some getting used to. 

We stopped for a coffee in Taupo, it wasn’t getting any warmer so with the desert road coming up and the wind rising we added more layers. 

We had a lovely surprise at Ohingaiti, a biker on the roadside waved us down, none other than Shane O’Brien, very appropriate that he should ride the last few kms together as we have talked together about this trip for years. 

Signing the top box. 

By the time we got to Cheltenham we were leaned right over into the wind so we knew home was not far away. 

A lovely welcome home sign from the grandchildren greeted us when we opened the door. 

We didn’t have long to wait until Riley and Ruby were squealing  with delight as they crashed through our front door. 

So that’s that. 

 It’s over OVAH.