Lie-in this morning, recovering from the bike ride. It was quite exhausting surprisingly!

Checked e-mails at lunchtime, found a facebook mail from Keith – something about St Athan now being back in Inc 3a DII. For those that don’t know what that’s about, it’s not good! It also means that if I have to go back to UK to work for a few years, I’ll be working for the Atlas consortium (presuming I get a job back at St Athan) and in particular for Fujitsu – that could be useful I suppose, if they let me transfer over to NZ ! I’ll wait and see the letter they’ve sent out to current workers at St Athan – assuming that they remember me of course. I wouldn’t be too surprised if I was left off the list!

Massive notes update for blog. I really should get up to being only a few days behind!

Popped up to Waikanae Beach and back along the coast road by Paraparam Beach on the bikes. Nice windy slow stuff for Louise to get used to!

Spent the day looking for and applying for jobs.

The Kapiti Coast Thursday Night Cruise (advertised on the Kiwi Bikers website) sounded like something out of the movie Wild Hogs – all middle-aged men seeking a bit of “sedate adventure” on the open road……To quote the NZ Tui (a local brew) advert….Yeah Right!!

More like Mad Max on a chase through all the local New Zealand roads you’d prefer to do with your eyes closed, given the choice!!

On the positive side, my VSTROM performed like I never knew it could, out pulling the majority of the race bikes going up the mountain climbs and easily keeping up on the odd 100 yd straight and flat bits!! And all the other bikes were single riders, whereas we were two up!!…

Who needs a bungy jump for an adrenaline rush!!

We went over Battle Hill and down into Pauatahanui to pick up another biker. Over to the Hutt Valley to pick up another and then up over the Rimatuka and down into Featherston for a drink at the Royal Hotel – and for me and Louise a bit of a recovery!

Back over the Rimatuka to the Hutt Valley, but this time taking a “shortcut” over Moonshine Road towards Pauatahanui – single lane bendy road! Then another rapid climb over Battle Hill before dispersing at the top to go home.

I need to get my bike looked at – the speedo appears to be reading incorrectly! Everyone else’s seemed to be reading 100 km/h, whereas mine was obviously incorrectly reading between 10 and 40 km/h above that!! I’ve also noticed that the front tyre appears to be a little “flighty” when pulling away at speed uphill – not sure I can do much about that other than improve my balance. There doesn’t appear to be anything mechanically wrong with the bike – strange……

Louise went off to PaknSave to do some shopping, or so I thought!

She came back and asked if I could be ready to leave the house n the next 45 mins……mmmm……

She had arranged “something”. She drove me into Paraparam, and then turned off onto a dirt track next to the airfield where she spilt the beans. As an early birthday surprise, I was going on a glider experience trip!

Bob the Builder turned into Bob the Pilot for the day, an American who prefers the sunny Kapiti Coast to a very wet, windy and cold Pennsylvania at this time of the year. Cheryl, the visitor who had been attracted to Bob’s online presence in America, Jason the tow pilot and Alex the “Gofer” – friendly bunch!

Lovely trip! I was in the air for 30-40 mins, and Bob let me do the flying for about 15-20 mins. We got up to approx 5000ft @ 160-180 knots. We flew over the Paraparam/Raumati area, over Transmission Gully and Battle Hill Rd to the South, back over Valley Rd, up to the Akatarawa road in Waikanae and then halfway out to Kapiti Island before coming back in for a few circuits around Paraparam.

We got back to the house to get ready for a bike ride, but before we left Fujitsu called to get a bit more info on me and my situation – Cool, crossed fingers there then!

We thought we’d pop up to Otaki for a coffee to give Louise a bit longer out on the bike. We did that and more as we then doubled back and rode down to Plimmerton on the SH1, then around the lake at Paremata to Pauatahanui.

While we’d pulled over at Pauatahnui for a break, another biker pulled over to check we were ok. He turned out to be from Paraparam – another Bob. He told us about the Kapiti Coast rideouts on thursday evenings and invited us along.

Back home for a takeout!

Mileage 122km (approx 76 miles)

Lovely day today!

Louise spent a lot of the day cleaning and polishing her new bike, and admittedly washing the car too! Bless! During the odd break I did look longingly at the bug spattered front of my bike, but to no avail, they wouldn’t come off without some physical input!

The reason I didn’t follow suit was of course because I was doing job applications all day with an updated CV….

Both Road Coded out this morning!

Off to Super Cheap Autos first thing this morning, it’s a lot like Halfords really. We haven’t been to Repco yet, but I’m guessing it must be quite similar. We needed to get chain lube for the bikes, but ended up with some polish and cleaning stuff too and even found some discounted bike covers for when its raining and we don’t use the bikes.

Louise popped into Briscoes, but I stopped in the car, she was looking for a replacement quilt cover set that had just gone on offer today – save washing, drying and ironing the spare bed in a day

We pulled up at the AA office in Paraparam and booked Louise in for a bike theory test, 45 minutes later. She had her photo taken, signature electronically, eye test and application form ($79 test fee and licence application) while I popped around the corner to get a coffee to steady her nerves. While she took her test, I picked up some AA freebies to look at places to go….

35 questions on the NZ road code – Louise PASSED with 35 out of 35!! Not sure I’d have been that confident for me, but, she’s legal now! She handed in her 1 week old new licence and got a temp paper one again, and then registered ownership of her bike ($10).

We drove down to Paraparam Beach for a celebratory coffee.

Got home, me with a headache – too much caffeine I think LOL. Louise was grateful as that meant she didn’t HAVE TO go out on her bike – still suffering from nerves after last Saturdays marathon session!

Louise sorted out her insurance – a grand total of about £90 in the end!!

I grabbed some Panadol, and lo and behold no headache 10 mins later, so I told Louise we were going out on the bikes to get her confidence back. She was a bit nervous but got togged up anyway.

We started off just going to the end of the drive and to the beach access (this alone resulted in a cold sweat as the memories of Saturday came back to Louise) and then going for a couple of turns around the block. We hadn’t filled up the bike with fuel when we brought it back from Waiouru (or rather, I hadn’t) so we popped into Paraparam Beach to fill up, along with a lesson for Louise as she did it herself. We then popped down the road from the garage for a rest and recuperate. Sweaty back syndrome still in evidence.

Louise was feeling a little bit more confident by now, and we decided to pop up the coast to Waikanae and back – about 10 mins there and 10 mins back again. We ended up having a quick break on the beach.

I’d taken some frozen chicken out of the freezer this morning, and left it out to defrost – no issues, it was still mostly frozen when we got back. However, the NZ life-form Cat came in through the door with us, sussed the chicken smell and nearly ran off with the chicken!! Reminds me of the Christmas Turkey and Blob (Louise’s cat now ensconced happily in Torquay) and Missy-Moo (Louise’s other cat now also ensconced happily in Torquay) and the gravy episodes over Christmas 2008. Blob took a chunk out of the turkey while we weren’t looking, and Missy-Moo left a tongue sized hole in the gravy saucepan while our backs were turned!

Hang on, CHICKEN for tea!! Without going to KFC – we must have spent the weeks housekeeping then!