The rest of the crew!

I moved out of my digs at the SkyCity Grand Hotel and lugged my stuff the two blocks to the Best Western President Hotel which is where the team is staying. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I had my own room!  I’m sure that will change on future accomodations further ‘down range’.

I met most members of the team who are joining the ride in Auckland like myself. There will be 4 or 5 people who will be joining us from the Australia legs of the trip but they were not at the orientation meeting. I’m sure after two months on the road they know the drill pretty well.

It seems like a nice crowd. There is a gentleman from the Netherlands, a woman from Sweden, a woman from Germany, a couple from the States, a couple from New Zealand, and a gentleman from Canada. The tour leader is from Turkey. The bike mechanic is from Canada. And I haven’t met the cook yet (Chelsea) or the tour assistant, Marcus.

All of the riders seem to have done some touring but the amount varies quite a bit.   Some folks are retired like me and others just have jobs that allow them to take off extended periods of time.

Tomorrow will be the first of many challenging days ahead – 66 miles with 3,500 feet of climbing. But the weather looks like it will be nice so it will be a good test of the navigation systems, the bike systems,  the camping equipment and just getting used to the other riders and the tour staff.   Not to mention a good test for me physically.  So far several of us have claimed to be going for the ‘old and slow’ moniker so we’ll see who wins!  :0)

I’m not sure what kind of comms  I will have for the next three days on the road so if I stop posting for a while, it’s either because: a) I have no internet, b) I am too tired and am collapsed in my sleeping bag or c) I had an unfortunate encounter with a wayward herd of sheep!  More later – I hope!