We made it!
We flew out of Brisbane on Wednesday the 7th and into Auckland. It was about a 3 hour flight but were delayed out of Brisbane by about an hour due to some-one not showing up. I am getting suspect about this actually happening as I have come across it a few times it the past.
Anyway, it was the boy's first plane trip. He handled it well and was busy smiling and laughing at the people on the plane. Most were probably Korean / Chinese but they were still trying to talk to him.
We wanted to get a lot of photos at the airport and had a lot of things planned for ALL the extra time waiting about the airport. Sometimes things must take a lot longer than you expect and the time just vanishes. Everything we did to make the gate was just in the nick of time. It was not really amusing then that we were stuck on the plane for another hour.
We booked a rental car which was supposed to be a wagon but we ended up with a peoploe mover kinda thing.
Mrs HBR's bike had been well packed in a box we got from the shop where the bike was bought from. We had put our shoes, helmets, pump and somke tools into it. We had an allowance of 23kg and used almost all of it. We needed the wagon to fit the bike in the back along with the baby seat and our luggage.
Our first night was just outside Auckland. I find staying in motels really stressful because of the boy. I stress becuase he can be quite unsettled and usually wakes up about 12.30pm and screams for a little while before going back to sleep until 7.30 am. Mind you, he doesn't do that at home.
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Thursday we drove from Auckland to Rotorua. Elaine, are you still reading? Lucas HBR has been close to crawling for the past week or so, we knew he would be crawling by the time we got home, we didn't expect it to be our first morning here. We teased him with some toys and an apple amd made him crawl around the unit and later around in a park at lunchtime. Mrs HBR cried.. hahaha.
We had a drive out to the supermarket in Rotorua to grab some groceries as we have a mini kitchen and need some stuff for the boy to eat. We are struggling a little as at 5 pm I would swear it's about 2.30 ish. Sun is not setting till almost 8 pm I'd guess.
Got the bike built in the evening and checked it over. All good.
Friday morning we headed out to have a look at the MTB info centres in the forest. We bought a map and some chain oil then came back to the unit.
Finally I got geared up and took the bike out for a ride. We are staying in a motel that backs onto a thermal pond and visitor centre and a back track to the trails. Just awesome planning by Mrs HBR for the location.
I did about a 2 hour loop, about 24 km in total. Some really nice trails and varying difficulty. I got home for what felt like lunchtime but turned out to be about 3 pm. Mrs HBR had worked out a ride route for herself so she headed out about 4pm. She is due back very shortly so I better wake the boy up and get him ready. It's about 5 pm and the sun is about 3/4 across the sky.
I packed lights just incase I get a chance or desire to ride at night but the cold might beat me, I believe it will be down to about 6 degrees over the next few nights.
I'll retro add the photos.
We will be out of here on Tuesday but will have to pack the bike away on Monday arvo I guess.
Stay tuned..