Sydney + 1

Hi all,
Dick arrived today and I met him at the airport. Thank God for GPSs!!! Went out to the freight depot and finished putting the girls together. Paperwork all done and out into the rain back to Liverpool Street where we are staying. Good to get the bikes running - no problems at all. Packed our bags now for an early Satuday start heading north. Somewhere.....

Dep Day +/-0

Hey everybody. Arrived in Sydney this morning after a good flight tho slightly delayed. Real fast thru Sydney airport ... I must look honest. Picked up a rental car and went out to Port Botany where I eventually found the girls. They are both in great condition. Fast talked the customs people into letting me begin to unpack the bikes and set up again all the bits we had to take off. Had to borrow a jemmy and a hammer!! Went well with Helga but couldn't find the windscreen bolts for Dick's bike so could not really do much. Reconnected the battery on Helga and fired her up briefly. All good.
Killed a bit of time in Sydney before meeting up with Ruth who is kindly providing accommodation for Dick and I. Will pick up Dick tomorrow at the airport and go back out to Port Botany, hopefully to get the bikes released. Am pretty tired so I am off to bed.
Tomorrow in Sydney and then hopefully on Saturday off to Coffs Harbour. Or somewhere!!

The Chargers of the Lights Brigade!!

One thing that is absolutely cracking me up as I prepare for this trip is the number of battery chargers I am taking. At the last count I have:

• 12v charger for the helmet bluetooth
• 240v charger for the helmet bluetooth
• 12v charger for the ipod
• 12v charger for the GPS
• 240v charger for the camera battery
• 12v charger for the phone
• 240v charger for the phone

Can someone please organise a universal charger so I could cut the number down to no more than two!!

Departure Day - -4

Last ride on the DR650 today with our annual ANZAC Day charity ride for Wellington Free Ambulance. A great ride with about 125 bikes turning up with lots of Ulyssians we haven't seen for a while and a range of others from WIMA to Kinsmen.

We have had advice from the removal company that the bikes have been cleared through agriculture and customs in Sydney. But apparently they are both still in their crates so any clearance must have happened without the crates being opened.

The plan now is that I fly over on Thursday morning, pick up a rental car and go over to the shipping agent. Hopefully I can get access to the bikes to uncrate them and put the windscreens and mirrors back on and batteries reconnected. Dick arrives on the redeye on Friday. We will get the bikes released and final packing ready for a start on Saturday morning. It's May Day but I hope that is not what we will be calling. A gentle ride on the first day I think - up to Coffs Harbour perhaps.

A few things still to sort out like insurance (!!) and whether or not they still have cash-lanes on NSW toll roads (apparently they don't any more in Queensland.)

First attempt at a map

Some people have asked where we plan to go - here is an attempt at a map showing our possible route:

D Day - 7

Dick passed on to me receipt notes from Sydney. Helga and Olga have arrived safe and sound and are ready to be picked up. They are here:

Can't quite see them however but I'm sure they are there. Somewhere.

Isn't the internet an amazing tool!

Here is a photo of the Tatiana Schulte carrying the two bikes out of Auckland and on to Sydney at 19.7 knots!

Today is the day that Helga and her new friend (?) Olga hit Sydney. Dick checked up on Helga in Auckand. She looks a little lonely but I can see she made it safely. I had a phonecall from the dispatch operator at Motorcycle Movements who told me that "Your baby has arrived safely in Auckland." Now that is a company that UNDERSTANDS motorcyclists!!

So now we are in the business of tying up a few loose ends. The most tricky is turning out to be organising the Compulsory Third Party insurance in Oz. Because we have ACC in NZ there is no insurance for personal injury. In Oz this insurance (called greenslip for some reason - possibly because it's printed on a green slip?) is linked to registration of your vehicle. However as we will travel under a carnet de passage we will retain our NZ registration and NZ number plates. Insurance companies seem to struggle to get their heads around offering third party personal injury insurance to a vehicle with an international registration.

We might just have to sort it all out when we get there!

So now into packing and thinking about travel.

Well every journey begins with a single step.

Here is our Helga being loaded onto the truck to
go to Auckland.