Way back in 1986 we did our first bike tour.  Two months through western Europe on a second hand ten speed racing bike with my backpack bungeed to my carrier.  Pete was slightly better set up on a cheap touring bike with panniers.  Despite suffering a bad bout of tonsillitis in the first week as well as thirteen punctures (twelve of them mine!), we loved this trip and decided if we could put up with living with each other in a one-man tent for two months, we should get married.  So we came back to NZ and got married with thoughts of settling down and buying a house.  However, the travelling bug still had us and we thought we could do a much better job of bike touring if we actually bought some decent equipment.  So in 1989 we bought a pair of those new-fangled mountain bikes and a set of panniers for me and set off for a six month trip around the UK and Europe.

Germany 1989 - good memories.  Of course we'd just had showers, cleaned our bikes and bought new cycling shorts with an unexpected windfall.  It wasn't always like this! 

Again we had a fantastic time but felt it was probably time to settle down.  So we returned to NZ again and built our house, had three kids and of course never had the time or money to go travelling round the world again.  There was a brief time when we pondered doing it with the kids but the cost of getting five of us to the other side of the world soon saw an end to that line of thinking.  But now the kids are 20, 19 and 17 and can look after themselves (we hope!) and it's time to live the dream. . . . . and see if the reality lives up to the dream!
Major worries are of course the kids.  Briana has already left home and is happily saving for her own trip overseas.  But the other two. . . well, we worry.   How much junk food will they eat?  Will they do any cleaning?  Will they remember to feed the dog and give him water?  Will they walk him?  Will they brush him?  Will they have wild parties?  Will they have endless arguments?  Will Brody do his rehab exercises (he only got out of fourteen weeks in a cast three weeks ago due to a spiral fracture of his leg).   Will Georgina run off with a long-haired, tattooed band member and leave her annoying little brother to fend for himself?
Between us we also have four parents in their eighties and that is another worry.
We also have two businesses to worry about and the house we built all those years ago.  A bit different from when you just pack your job in and go without a care in the world!
But we are really looking forward to another adventure together and to see how our ageing bodies cope with cycling every day and sleeping in a tent every night!