For previous blog entries of our ride through NZ, Australia, South East Asia, China and Central Asia, click on the little arrows beside the dates in the Blog Archive below and use the scroll down menu.

Wednesday 21 October 2009

We have arrived!
















We arrived in Auckland last night after the journey from hell. 24 hours sat bolt upright in an uncomfortable seat in a "tin can full of other peoples farts" is not my idea of fun. Just before take off in Glasgow, Ben brought out a ring and asked me to marry him. I told him I'd rather gnaw my own leg off. Only joking, I said yes of course. The morning of our departure we were treated to a champagne breakfast by the Gobeo-Lyons family and were waved off at the airport by the Whitehead-Morrisons. Thanks everyone.

Our first flight was Glasgow to London, then London to Hong Kong. We only got to see Hong Kong from the air but I've never seen anything like it. It's a mass of neon,flashing lights and huge buildings. Quite an amazing sight though.

Arriving in Auckland, our first impression was that everyone was super friendly and looked far healthier than Glaswegians. We were a bit disappointed though to find out the weather wasn't that much warmer than Scotland. We built up our bikes and cycled to our friend Lisa's sister, Briar in Ponsonby. The traffic in Auckland is quite scary, however I'm sure we'll encounter far worse along the way. Arriving at Briar's, we were met by a very friendly bunch who put us up for the night. We were pretty delirious by this point and passed out for 12 hours. Lisa is arriving later with the rest of our stuff, then we'll set off on our travels, heading South to Tauranga, where we have yet another place to stay after meeting a couple of Kiwis on the plane who'd just cycled from Norway to Nepal. After this, it's on to Rotorua, then we'll see where the road takes us from there.

We are so glad to be here but looking forward to getting out of the city to experience the true natural beauty of New Zealand. We'll keep you posted as the trip goes on.

6 comments:

  1. Hey guys, so they let you in then,phew!
    Congratulations, ahhhhh!!!!!!! I can't believe it, fantastic news, what perfect timing Ben. I only wish I could have seen you getting down on one knee. I texted you Ben, only to get your Dad and he is extremely proud of you boy.
    No news here, shit weather, shit job, bloody hell what am i doing here, reckon you had the right idea. Girls are snotty, getting ready for halloween shinanigans.
    Giant hugs to you both, so so happy for you, love you both and enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. hi ben & margo glad you got there safe & well hope your legs last the pace

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congratulations of your engagement! what a way to spend your honeymoon! I'm glad you got there with everything, it sounds like a long journey too on a 'tin can of farts' - nice. I hope the days your away go well and you get fair weather for your trip, have fun.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello to you both, glad you arrived safely. Congrats on your engagement, you know what that means though I am the only one left in the family not married or engaged, i'm being left behind, lol. Looking forward to seeing your next blog. xx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi guys missing you loads already. The place is just no the same without you. Congrats on your engagement that's fabulous news and of course ill be your best man no problem, Ben.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi,

    I hope you were warm and cosy before the sou'wester hit Palmerston on Friday 17th December.

    You asked if I knew how you could tell how many people had visited your page. I don't know how but there might be enough info here:

    http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=42078

    to get you started. Looks like you just put a bit of HTML in your page somewhere that points to a URL that does the counting for you.

    Hope you had a decent run of weather when crossing the Canterbury plains.

    All the best,

    Eric (blue land rover trook)

    ReplyDelete