As a whole, this trip is not simple. Its in two parts, with an international move thrown in there to mix things up. In August 2022 we decided that we would take our first trip back to NZ in 3.5 years in March 2023. The country seemed open again, my brother is getting married, and we wanted to finally introduce Tobias to his family. Then James lost his job unexpectedly, my job started looking shaky, and at Christmas we decided that 2023 was going to be the year that we relocate entirely.

A less-crazy family might have thought that this is pretty good timing - we already had a flight to NZ and enough time to pull off the move. But this would mean 2 winters in a row, giving up on our dream of another longer term cycle tour through Europe, and missing our friends wedding in Belgium in August. We could have also switched our flights out to later in the year and just stayed in Europe, but then we would have missed my brothers wedding. So 2023 is going to consist of: 2 months frantic packing and organization, 2 months of travel in NZ, 5 months of cycle touring in Europe, then finally heading back to NZ in September.

At the moment (early 2023) we are busy packing up all our belongings. Packing for a 48hr flight to NZ with a baby is complicated, packing for a cycle tour with a baby is complicated, and packing 6 years of life into boxes to ship home is complicated. Trying to do all 3 at once is next level.

Part 1 is not a cycle tour, but more of a road trip around NZ. We'll spend a week in Rotorua with James' family then fly down to Nelson for a week in Golden Bay for friends wedding and some beach time. Then we will drive the length of the South Island to my family farm in South Otago in time to help my brother and his fiancé with wedding prep. After the wedding we have a week with my family in Hawea, Easter with James' family in Rotorua, then a big flight back to the Netherlands.

Part 2 will start when get get back to Utrecht, but we don't have a home anymore. We'll hang around a week to recover from the jetlag, get our bikes and touring stuff out of storage, then fly down to Tirana in Albania and... start biking I guess. 

Before we decided to add this part of the trip on I was really nervous about flying to NZ with a baby - what if he doesn't sleep? What if he screams the whole way? What does jetlag do to a baby? The good thing about adding this next part of the adventure on is that I have much bigger things to be anxious about.