Made it....

So, the theory was that a 14 hour direct flight YVR-AKL in economy would surely not be full and was, therefore, manageable. Double HAH!

However, have now viewed both Lion and La La Land and am hoping a few more good ones will still be on the list for the return but that is then.

The Dangerous Brothers were at the gate in full DB gear and advised that I could "get over being tired as it was a new day with Things to Do!" So relieved to find nothing changed there!

Was given yesterday to acclimate (and ride on the most amazing train ever - goggle Driving Creek Railway) and this afternoon find myself in new friends' lounge with a selection of just-picked-off-their-trees citrus in my tum and a view of several different kinds of palm trees flittering in the wind. There is a clear blue sky and wine chilling for our dinner of fresh "he was in the pasture last week" lamb.  I am in shorts, t-shirt, and bare feet.

Tomorrow is either bike sorting (long story with lots of DrahMah, currently using a car the inside of which looked as if it had been used as the local hazmat dump.  TP wields an excellent vacuum cleaner and fury proved useful for beating filth out of car mats) or camping on a bach site (yes, autocorrect, "bach" short for bachelor/baching ) up the coast on our way to kauri forests. We will head to 90 Mile Beach (really more like 90km but I'm not measuring with a stick), Cape Reinga, and Waitangi followed by classic bike racing on the weekend (watching not riding).  I was promised I wouldn't be bored!  So far so good.

Still breathing.

ps: did I mention shorts, t-shirt and bare feet???

And why now?

This started out as a record of travels and withered as the travelling of daily life seemed somehow not worthy of notice.  After all, how often can one make having tea with a friend sound as interesting as, say, the Sistine Chapel (no, I haven't been there but you get the idea).  Now this is from a person who used the phrase "Comparisons are odious" so often that the now-adult children have been known to murmur it in their sleep.  A daily life is worthy of notice if not of record and quite a lot of life has happened.  Some of it I might write about at some point:  selling the house, the birth of WonderGrandchild, the death of my father, and the impending selling of his house AKA The Family Home, seem to be needing some review.

But not today.

Today is for figuring out how to get back onto this platform using some still-new-to-me technology and, to my quiet surprise, it seems to have worked.

And why now?

Well, because some friends said, "Come.  All you need is a helmet.  We can get everything else in the charity shops."

Going to New Zealand.  Not Ordinary Daily Life.  Need to Keep a Record.

Stay tuned.

Still breathing.