Day 58: It's done

We woke this morning to one sound that we didn't want to hear. Yep! Bugger - it's raining. Not just raining but persistently persisting down. Triple bugger!!! I had left my roll bag and rainsuit on the bike and of course they were soaked. It also meant we had to wash the bikes in the rain. Sound easy but actually it was most unpleasant. We organised a hose out of the back gate of the house and got on with it. The surface dirt was easy enough but there really was some ingrained grime - some from the loop road out of Uluru some weeks back. We then rode through the rain to Port Botany where we tried to find the shipping depot. Karen (the GPS) got us to the right road but we could not find the exact address. We stopped to have a Steering Committee meeting when a bloke in a truck stopped to see if we were ok. The first thing he told us was that he had a GS just like these. Apparently he worked in the same warehouse at the same depot as we were trying to find so he just led the way. We arrived there at about 11.30am.

They were expecting us and directed us into a nice dry part of the warehouse where we began sorting and packing our stuff to take home, stuff to biff (minuscule), and stuff to go back home in the bikes. This meant I had to put my sopping wet jacket and motorbike trousers into a pannier. It will be very interesting when I get them out in three weeks time! Yuk!

Our old crates were delivered - a bit worse for the wear - and we ran the bikes up onto their original pallets and strapped them down with wooden slabs nailed around the wheels. The local boss offered us the use of a nailgun (with a 10sec lesson on how to use it) and this made the job much easier. We disconnected batteries, removed mirrors and windscreens and we were done. We weren't allowed to completely crate up the bikes. This had to wait until customs had been in and verified the chassis numbers. The girls will then get loaded onto the JOP Scorpious and should arrive in Tauranga on 22 August. This year. I hope!

We then said farewell to our girls and headed for the airport arriving there at about 4pm. Our flight home didn't leave until 6.30 so we settled into the Koru lounge (thanks Dick!) to wait it out. A good trip back to Auckland where we were met by Diana and a night at their apartment. Home the following day, via a tour of Hubbards Foods. Despite the rocky start, another good day. Tomorrow the summary!!

:-)