Almost Ready: I thought we would have a broken spoke before the wheels even turned

July 18, 2011

A really exciting day yesterday as it felt we were almost off. We took our bikes into Mark to be packed up. As usually happens with us the process was not without drama. We loaded the bikes onto the bike carrier - always a little dodgy with two bikes. When we got to 237Bikes the pedal of one was firmly wedged in the spokes of the other. No amount of jiggling helped we seemed to get into more and more trouble. Eventually Mark came to our rescue. We couldn't take the pedal off because the spanner wouldn't fit in the small space, eventually we removed the offending wheel from the back bike and were able to prise out the pedal. I thought we were in for a record - a broken spoke even before we had ridden at all. I just hope Mr Bean is not going to be our constant companion. Mark made a fantastic job of the packing and the good news is that the bikes weighed in a little under 20kg each.

Mark did a fantastic job packing up the bikes. he says he is much photographed doing this job and his photo appears in many blogs!

Nearly everything has been done. Bernie (dog), Ken and I have all had haircuts. We have tied up most of the loose ends, the shuttle is booked. I am rushing around manically doing house work as if I am about to go into labour Most of the remaining time seems to be going to be spent socialising. I am doing my best to establish a baseline for my study of coffee by visiting many cafes!

The benchmark will be this Cappaccino from Cafe 103 in Pukekohe. The coffee was hot, strong but not bitter and made from FreeTrade beans. It came with the little heart shapped chocolate you can see in the spoon. The size was medium but I am sure in most countries it would be called large. Cost $4.50 (NZ) which is around 2.75 Euros

We are now at the top of the page of trips happening in the future. This must mean we are leaving soon. Hurrah!

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