Our pedaling adventure officially began with the short, 3-hour flight from Sydney to Christchurch (with a special shout-out to Neighbor Cynthia who, that morning, played the all-too-familiar role of Chauffeur Cynthia).  The view of the Southern Alps from high above got us to thinking “Hmm, how will we get across those?”.  But not to worry we told ourselves, that comes much later down the road, after our bums have had a chance to reacquaint themselves with those saddles they’ve been absent from for many, many months.

We are staying with a wonderful host family from WarmShowers.org, a community of touring cyclists who open their homes to others of like mind. Stephen and Carol have been hosting cyclists for the past several years, and it’s no wonder they’ve received such positive reviews. They have been welcoming, gracious, helpful, and entertaining, and have kept our bellies full, which, as we all know, is no small task with Gina. And did we mention that they’ve been patient too? We show up at their door, two strangers, intending to stay for two evenings and yet here we are, four nights later … thanks to a nasty cold that kept us from our major tasks at hand, i.e., packing the panniers and assembling the bikes.

But now that one of us is feeling much better, the packing is underway. Gina has been off her bike for so long that she has mistaken her biking tights for a buff:

Dena has been off her bike for so long that looking at this makes her sigh deeply and think that she should have paid more attention during those High School years when Harry and Don would discuss the intricacies of small engine mechanics across the dinner table:

But the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree, as seen by the two (nearly) completely assembled bikes in the background:

All that in only three hours (okay, maybe it really was four, but sometimes Gina’s ADD interferes with her ability to be a motionless bike stand).

Time to go enjoy the view from our hosts’ deck.