March 5 2016 Wellington

This morning we did a lot of bike preparation work.  Jos is loaning Tom and I bikes, so there was a changing of pedals, mounting of bike bags and adjusting of saddles.  Tom was quite concerned that the top tube length was too long however after the seat height was set and we got Tom on the bike he decided that it was fine.   I am going to ride Jos’ Avanti which is the bike Jos rode across America in 2012.  It is equipped with Ultergra drive train.  I am convinced I got the best bike.

After the bike assembly and fitting we went for spin.  The hills in Wellington are really steep and it was kind of a big change as all of my training has been in Phoenix where a big hill is an overpass.   It was a real adventure riding on the wrong side of the road.  Following Jos was the ticket to no making a mistakes.

After our little bike adventure Jos took us down to this restaurant which is on a tub boat in the Wellington harbor.  The fish and chips were fabulous. 

We returned to the National Museum in the afternoon.  We had just over 3.5 hours which was hardly enough to walk through the place.  There was a very interesting displace on the earthquakes.  They also had a lot of displays on the natural flora and fauna.   I thought the stuff on the Mauri was very fascinating.   They arrived in New Zealand only 600-800 years ago.   This compares to Hawaii which saw the first humans arriving about 2500 years ago.

Back at Jos’ place we had a wonderful supper of grilled salmon.  Liz and John Pfahlert who were on the Orient Express came over for supper. It was great seeing them and catching up with them.

Tomorrow we pick up the rental car and are off to the south island.

Terry