Tag Archives: Mondiale

Day 21 – Chores and tears

We spent the day at our friends’ place to get as many things on our new (Nina updated it while I was not looking with more boxes to tick) list of things to do.

I guess the most important thing was to get the shipping of the bike sorted out and payed. After a little exchange to ensure that we do not have to pay a particular service twice, the final number still came out way over the original quote. The two reasons here were: MCL did a great job at packing my bike secure, but with little concern for packing it down. Compared to the crate I have build myself for airlifting the bike to NZ, this one is 33% larger with less gear in it.

The other reason is that the exchange rates of the NZD vs. USD and AUD have plummeted – something that will hurt our funds continuously from here on out. All in all, this lead to an invoice about 15% over the original quote. Not Mondiale’s fault, but painful nonetheless. I’ll post final numbers for shipping once the bike is customs and bio security cleared.


Theme song for a lot of NZ for me

And the tears: Well, this was the last step, we were leaving our new home NZ for real for a while now, leaving behind new and good friends, colleagues and amazing places (side note, saying goodbye and then going to bed is weird). It was a calm and warm goodbye this one though. I cooked for the three of us in the house, something that for me tied the last three years together quite poetically. Me cooking for friends (and getting a lot better at it) is definitively something that will forever be linked to our time in NZ.

P.S.: And just for Brendan – a new Favicon!