Preparing for the Trip

Well, we are going on the 29th May, less than two weeks away now. We have spent the last two days making sure we have all our bikes working and the gear set up. Did a trial ride today out to Rangipo with the bikes fully laden.

The bikes went well, and so did the ruddy thunderstorm! Well at least we were able to test out the raincoats. Came home saturated and cold, but it was only 20km. Gave us some good ideas for keeping the stuff in our rack bags dry!

Trying to work out whether we can land at Heathrow and get across London to jump on the Eurostar within 3 hours or not. Odds are probably not! Will see if we can stay the night with Tracey and Trevor in Ealing, gives us lots more flexibility. AND Peter wants to buy some flash new Schwalbe bike tyres (which aren't currently available in New Zealand) - so it will give him the chance to spend more money!

Looking at the different options for booking Eurostar, there is an expensive NZ site, but it looks like if we just go straight on to Eurostar.com, we can pay with a NZ credit card and pick the tickets up electronically when we get there.

Peter has decided to investigate replacing the brakes on the bikes - at this last minute - well done!

Getting very excited. Hope we get some sun while we are away and it isn't all rain and thunderstorms like today and when we did the Australian tour!