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19th Nov 2010 - A LONG Way to Fly....

It is certainly exhausting travelling with bikes to New Zealand. It would be a bit tough without bikes but with them is that bit more difficult - especially in a world which regards a bike toolset as a potential terrorist threat. Ooooph! Anyway we are now in Wellinton Youth Hostel and about to sleep.... ah blissWe got our bike boxes from excess baggage co. at Heathrow. This was a great help because it made it perfectly viable to cycle from Oxford to Windsor the day before amd then just along to Heathrow on the day of the flight. Oxford to Windsor was fine until the fog came down and required blindingly bright lights - which we had.... The actual experience of taking a bike by air to NZ was not too easy. We only had 23kgs for the hold and that was just the bike boxes plus the bike, sleeping bag and mat. The tools were added to the hand luggage. Ah... a big error. I should have put my sleeping bag and mat in my hand luggage since various bag checks then proceeded to remove odds and ends that they didn't like from my toolset. My excellent multitool was the most serious loss - an ozzie official declared it unacceptable. Hope it went to a good home. I also managed to drop my passport in the plane nd only got it back due to a diligent air hostess. Curious that her male colleagues all missed it. So, half asleep and very groggy we cycled to Wellington YHA.

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