Well the morning raced by and all too soon the minibus arrived to take us to the airport.

Was it the driver or the seats that smelt of b.o. I’m not too sure but the smell kept wafting by the whole trip.

On arrival at check-in we found out that jo had 2 requests for an upgrade,  while I had none.  So off to the service desk to try and get it sorted.

Well it turned out for the best in the end as we both got upgraded to business class despite there being 14 people waiting.

Next was getting through customs and security.

I managed ok but jo was pulled over

Well we managed it to the lounge and a well earned beer.

Having completed our chores our time is free.

After several coffees and time wasting we decide to go for a bike ride. he sun has been out all mornng but is now threatening to hide behind some clouds.

Having wasted a few more minutes getting changed it is off we go. Turning right out of the gate we head off down the road. Having only got a few metres it starts to spit with rain. I stop to put on my jacket just as it starts to rain slightly more heavily. We decide to head back and just manage to get the bikes into the garage before the sky opens up.

Not wanting to waste the day after the rain stops and we have had lunch we decide to have another try at getting ot on our bikes.

We head off gently cycling along, it’s not long before I start to treat it as a bit of a work out and start pushing myself a bit more. I soon left Jo behind.

I rode to the end of the road and admired the view while I waited for her.

The view at the end of the road

While I was waiting I heard a dog barking. I wasn’t sure where it was as I didn’t see or hear any dogs as I rode along. The dog barked angrily for several minutes before stopping.

Eventually Jo appeared.

“Why on earth did you ride off and leave my fending off that dog. I thought it was going to attack me” she shouted at me. “I had to ump off my bike and get it between me and the dog, the owner eventually came out and called it off.”

Ooops. I must remember to look back and check where Jo is when we are out cycling.

We turned around and headed back. Thank goodness there was no sign of the dog.

Here is the track of the completed ride.

We wanted to ride some of the rail trail into Thames, having previously ridem both north and south out of Paeroa.
We picked on the old Kopiu bridge as our starting point. Unfortunately the old bridge is closed so we had to cycle over the new one instead.

Kopu bridge near Thames

The path is gravel to start off with passing between paddocks. It eventually turns to a concrete path running beside the main road for a spell.

The main track ends at the outskirts of Thames. We managed to find a sharred cycle/footpath. Well it was really a footpath but we decided to share it.

This path continued through Thames passing behind The Warehouse and Pac’n’Sav.

The path continue onto Ferugeson bay after passing some colourfull fences and paths

Colourfull fence in Thames

Going around in circles

After we had completed 10 kms the path ended so turned around and went back to the car.

And finally the route taken

This is not squatting but house sitting by prior arrangement and looking after the owners animals while they are away.

Currently we are house sitting in Orini, Waikato, looking after 3 dogs, 3 cats, 2 horses and 7 or 8 hens. (I keep trying to count them but they keep moving)

The morning routine is get up, feed the dogs and kitten while making a cup of tea. Afterwards it is take the dogs outside to feed the hens and get back in doors before the dogs. That way they can go off and do their business before coming back in.

After breakfast it’s feed the horses. Then the rest of the day is pretty much ours to do what we want. Only thing left to do is to find the 2 timid cats and try to get them to eat. We’ve given up calling them and hope thy will come to the house when they are hungry enough.

Anyway we started off doing very little during the days as it was weather was rather unsettled.

On Saturday we went off and visited Jo’s parents and then ended up walking from their house to Claudlands event centre and back.

Sunday after completing our chores we headed off down the road to go for a bush walk.

On the return leg of the walk we came across a family, with a cage and a whole family of hens, that were wandering around the cage. Jo in her usual un-observant  way walk through the middle of the hens, scattering them in all directions.

We stopped and chatted for a while only to find out they were trying to get the hens into the cage as they had been abandoned there a week earlier. They had to start all over again thanks to Jo’s intervention.

To celebrate, seeing as I now have summer birthdays, we decided to go to Queen Elizabeth Park and take a look & have a little ride.

We took the beach side route along the sand dunes, although there is a track it is quite steep in places as it goes over the sand dunes. Although it was only a short ride we both felt that we had a good work out.

The only thing I would do different next time would be to stop along the way and have a swim.

We have been saying for some time that we must do this ride.

Following an old railway line there is a steady incline, we cycled to the summit tunnel, but decided to turn around and head back as it had started to rain slightly.

Thecycle back although down hill was nearly as hard as the cycle up due to the strong head wind.

On the way back home the weather changed and we drove through a very heavy downpour. Lucky we didn’t carry on cycling otherwise we would have got very wet.