13th August

Didn’t sleep that long or that well last night after turning in around midnight. During the night I was quite restless and it wasn’t helped by hearing Dad snoring like a trooper. I thought to myself,  “This is gonna be a fun two weeks if Dad is snoring like this all the way up the Loire valley.”

Julia was awake and up at 5.45am with me not far behind at 6am. Answered some messages and checked the blog from last night, before putting some air in the bike tyres and since Dad was up, headed off on our trusty steeds, toward Chester. Once again the sky was threatening over North Wales, but it didn’t amount to anything. Part way into our excursion, Julia handed Dad her bike as he was struggling with his feet slipping on the pedals. He really enjoyed Ju’s  bike and looked a lot more confident for the remainder of the trip.

Jim and Ju swap bikes

Along with some berry picking and sampling, we also took some photos and 21kms later we were pleased to have given Dad a good length ride on a very nice morning. Back at the house we got stuck into breakfast and prepared to go into Liverpool. Primarily to see Terry, as this may be the last time we get to catch up with him. We won’t be back in England for a while after this trip and even if Terry’s illness wasn’t serious, age or some other factor could mean that this is the final get together for us. That is the major disadvantage of living so far away, but unfortunately is a fact of life and one which none of us will avoid. The older we get, the more we realise that we must do the things we want, as time waits for no one. Caught the 10.50am bus from around the corner, eight pounds odd for a return trip and made the hour long journey through the Wirral and under the Mersey.  

Pete and Jimmy on the ride this morning

Terry was with cousin Deb, who is doing a fantastic job of looking after her Dad. She makes sure that he has everything he needs and Terry is doing as well as can be expected.  Deb had showed us her new BMW 3Series, High Performance car (very nice and convertible), then Ju and I walked into the city centre to look around the shops for last minute items and to grab a bite to eat.

Costa provided us with lunch and a decent coffee although we did have to eat outside as it was full. The rest of the afternoon prior to our arranged meeting with Alexis and Laura at 3,30pm, was spent wandering around Liverpool, looking for a bike helmet for Julia. The Giant store on Parliament Street came closest to a purchase, however we felt their prices were a little over the top, so decided against it. A rapid walk back to Bold Street, very quirky I must say, is where we discovered “The Leaf”, an upmarket bar, with upmarket prices. The girls arrived and we enjoyed the next hour and a half chatting about old times and since I hadn’t seen Laura for 37 years, there was a fair bit to catch up on, although we have been talking on Facebook. Once again it was another person for Julia to meet and after this week, she’s all personed out.

At 5.15pm, we said our goodbyes and made our way to the bus stop, to find that we’d missed the bus by 5minutes and had to wait another 25 minutes for the next one. The journey took an hour and we were tired upon arrival. Ian [my other cousin} had been at the house for the afternoon and for dinner with his wife Rachael and two kids, Oliver and Emily. Spent time with them before they left for Chester. They are talking about coming out to NZ as well, so here’s hoping. Once again, the rest of the tribe went to Mariners Park and left the remainder of us behind. Some quiet conversation and then to bed.

12th August

Up at 5.30am and for Ju that was the longest sleep (of ten hours) that she’s had since we arrived. It’s been a real struggle for her this time to try to shake that jet lag and for Ju, sleep is vital. This is someone who can virtually sleep standing up normally. We both wandered downstairs and began writing blogs and sending and receiving messages. This time of the day, when no one else is awake, is nice just to be able to chat freely. At 6.30am Peg rose and dad about 7am.

By 7.35 am Ju, dad and I were off on an hours walk around a block, containing beautiful scenery, history, stunning architecture and design and to cap it off, ripe blackberry bushes, which we raided and then devoured our bounty. Blackberries are out all over at present, which bodes well for cycling in England. The weather, which had looked very dubious early on, had now come good and there was a nice warmth to the sun.

Vicky, Ju and Stu enjoy the match 

Once back home, it was straight into breakfast and then the rest of the morning was taken up with Julia doing the wages for the guys in New Zealand and me figuring the layout of my panniers. Dad and Peg left for Anfield to drop dad at Liverpool’s first home game of the season. Amazing really as the ticket that Terry had given dad to go, was the season ticket that dad had owned in 1965 and been kept in the family all these years up until the beginning of this year, when Terry got sick. The guy that Terry handed the ticket over to wasn’t able to attend the match. So lucky dad got the prize.

Stu, Vicky and Andy arrived at 11am and we sat around shooting the breeze until early afternoon, when I dived under the shower, before watching the first half of the Liverpool game. Shortly after, with Liverpool a goal up, Little Jane and Mark arrived to take us to a barbeque at a friend’s house who I hadn’t seen for 38 years, John MacNamara.

John has done very nicely for himself. He lives in a beautiful home, in Lower Heswall, overlooking the river Dee. He is with Kathy, who is lovely and between them they seem to be enjoying life very much. They entertain a lot and the house is set up for just that. Many years ago when I  was knocking around these parts, John was working at British Aerospace as an apprentice and rebuilding Porsches from shells…very impressive, even then. He is now a property developer doing most of the building work himself.  His specialty is kitchens and bathrooms and he pays special attention to the lighting in these areas.  If the lighting in his properties is half as good as the lighting in his own home, they will be awesome.  

At the barbeque we had Gary and Jane, John and Joanne, Mark and Jane and Julia and I. Shortly after Dave Argent arrived then Alexis and Asha showed up. John and Kathy put on a fantastic afternoon with great food, singing and conversation. These are friends that I have thought about often, wondering what had become of them. It’s been nice to see that they are happy and healthy and still the same friends that I knew all those years ago. 

Peggy, Pete, Rachel, Ian, Emily and Olly with Jimmy at the back

Arrived home in time to spend an hour with cousin Ian and wife Rachael and their two gorgeous kids, Oliver and Emily. Unfortunately, that was all the time we had as they had to leave to get the kids ready for school. Hoping to come out to NZ in the near future though.

By now Stu, Vicky and Andy were back at Mariners Park and the rest of us talked for a while before Ju hit the hay, followed by dad and Peg, whilst I stayed up to type up the day’s events and finish the day with Match of the Day, with Liverpool beating West Ham 

4 - 0.

Dad had spoken briefly about his visit to Anfield for the game. He certainly didn’t think a lot of the seating arrangements, being absolutely crammed into his seat and having trouble standing up when Liverpool scored. Of course, this is all part of trying to get as many bums on seats as possible as the club attempt to increase the ground capacity. He also mentioned the lack of singing. When we used to attend the games in the 70’s, the creativeness with the singing was fantastic, but over the years we’ve noticed a lack of songs. Whereas once the crowd were singing for the full game, now it’s just sporadic chants of Liivveerrppoooolll,  You’ll never walk alone is still sung before and after, but I’m glad that all our family experienced Anfield and Liverpool in their glory days and you stood in the Kop squashed in, but loving every minute.

11th August

After getting to bed relatively late last night, I thought I might be able to sleep through until dawn finally, but no….3 am rolls round and I wake from a great sleep, wide eyed and bushy tailed.  I got up for a couple of hours and had some tea and toast and then went back to bed about 6am but only dozed really for the next couple of hours and got up again at 8am.  Pete seems to have kicked the jet lag and slept right through until 7am.

Jimmy gets in his tent to try out the size......

It was a beautiful sunny morning and so we got the bikes out and made a few adjustments to the handlebars and my front axle which was making a slight squeak.  Fixed everything to our satisfaction so decided to practice putting up the tents.  Jimmy’s first and that went up nice and easily, but even at 230cm long, it was only just long enough for him.

.....and it looks pretty good!

Then we put ours up.  We’d put it up once before in the lounge and it is definitely different from our usual dome.  On our last trip we went cheap with our tent.  We were travelling over the European summer so didn’t think we’d need anything too hardcore.  So we ordered a $125 tent from AliExpress and it did alright, but after three months it was very worn and we gave it away.  The things we didn’t like about it were that it had a very small vestibule (front porch) and the tent inner was only 210cm long and when we lay on our sleeping mats, our feet often hit the end of the tent – and we’re only 175cm tall.

So we devised a list of what we wanted in our new tent – and if we had to go slightly heavier to get it, we would.  We needed:

220 cm length (at least)

110 cm height (at least)

A big vestibule (for cooking with a bit of shelter from any wind and/or rain and ease of entry into the tent).

Green colour (for wild camping)

Under 4 kg

Freestanding (in case we have to camp on gravel or the ground is really hard)

Good ventilation – preferably two doors.

Not outrageously expensive

Not too flimsy

Bearing all these things in mind, we opted for the Vango Mirage 300+ for a total cost of $400NZ, including shipping.  It weighs in at 4.2kg but after reading about the minimal effect weight has on cycletouring (thank you www.cyclingabout.com ), we were happy to let this slide.  Otherwise it had everything we wanted and seeing as we are touring in the European autumn, we felt we needed to be able to expect a bit more from our shelter.

Pete and Jimmy pitch our tent - you'll notice how brown the grass is after the long hot summer they've had here.

Our tent -note the nice big vestibule

You have to pitch the outer first and this takes a bit of getting used to, but once it was up it looked magnificent and we can’t wait to test it out.

As we were doing the tents, Pete’s cousin Stu and his wife Vicky arrived from Chichester – I don’t think we’ve seen Stu for twenty years and we’ve never met Vicky, but they are here for four days so we’ll have plenty of time to catch up.  We had some lunch and then Jimmy borrowed Andy’s old bike and joined myself and Pete for a jaunt down the Wirral Way.  He did very well on a foreign bike and into a strong headwind that had sprung up round lunchtime.

Pete and I then cycled to Sainsbury’s to get a few necessaries for a barbecue we’re going to tomorrow.  Peggy refused all offers of help to cook dinner so I got on with the blog while Pete caught up with his cousin.

Like Julia has mentioned, it was great to catch up with Stu, who we last saw when he was out in New Zealand all those years ago. We’ve been hoping to meet Vicky for years, but circumstances never allowed it, so it was nice to be able to just sit around and catch up and have a laugh.

Pete and Jimmy on the Wirral Way

The weather by this time (late afternoon) had packed it in, so we’d been fortunate to get the ride in with dad. I’d noticed that whilst riding that he’s not as confident. Someone else’s bike doesn’t help, but I think that when he had ten weeks off with the melanoma surgery, that put him back a lot. We’ll only get another couple of rides with him before we leave and then he’ll have to be out on his own. It’s a huge bonus to have the Wirral Way to train on, where he is off road, but even so, there are plenty of other cyclists and pedestrians with dogs to look out for. As long as he takes his time through obstacles and watches his mounting and dismounting he will be okay.

Had our dinner with the gang before Stu and Vicky headed off to Birkenhead to stay at Mariner’s Park and Andy went with them. That left Peg, Dad and myself to sit and chat for an hour, as Julia had turned in at 7.30pm. She was totally knackered as she’d been up since 3.30am. With all the dishes done, it was off to bed for the rest of us by 8.30pm. I thought I may have trouble sleeping at that time, but it didn’t take long until I was in the land of nod.

10th August

Although Julia was up early again, I slept through until 6.30 am and felt very refreshed for it. Julia was downstairs in the lounge finishing the blog and catching up with messages when I turned up and we began the day with a nice breakfast, before having a Facetime chat with Brody and then Kate.

The Wirral Way on the way to West Kirby

About 10 we set off along the Wirral Way to West Kirby to go and catch up with Alexis.  We set off in the sunshine having just put the washing on the line, but it wasn’t long before we noticed an ominous black cloud approaching from our left over the Welsh hills.  It’s a truly beautiful ride along this disused railway line, travelling through the Wirral Country Park and it is really well utilised by cyclists and walkers/dog owners alike. The rain by now was coming in over the river Dee, although we were managing to outrun it. We were riding into a slight headwind which was keeping the rain behind us.  We felt a few spots of rain and increased the tempo in an attempt to outrun the deluge coming our way.  We’d no sooner arrived at Alexis’s with hugs all round and been ushered inside when the rain hit for about half an hour.  Once it cleared we walked into West Kirby, stopping briefly at the bike shop to buy a lock and then onto Tanskys, a cafe/restaurant that we’ve been to with Leccy before, where we spent the next couple of hours chatting and catching up, before heading back to her flat. 

Leaving Leccys place we headed back along the cycle path, now bathed in sunshine, back to Little Neston. Peg and Andy had taken off to Birkenhead for the day, whilst dad had taken off to Liverpool to see brother Terry. As we didn’t have a key, we shed some clothing and lay out on a couple of loungers in the sun. Fine, while the sun was out, but occasionally it disappeared behind a cloud and with the breeze it suddenly went very cold.

Peg, Andy and Dad all arrived home within a couple of minutes of each other and we sat around talking for a while before Ju and I went to get ready to go out.  The two Jane’s and Joanne picked us up at 7.15 and we all went for a nostalgic dinner at our old hang-out, the Ring o’ Bells.  Good food and good chat all night and then back to Peg’s for some sleep about 11pm.

9th August

We both had a fantastic sleep………until 3am for me and 4am for Pete.   So we got up at 4.15am and had some tea and toast and caught up with messages and blogging.  Just after 6am we decided it was light enough for a bike ride so retraced our steps from yesterday’s ride but went a bit further this time, stopping at a delicious blackberry bush for an impromptu feed, before heading back to Little Neston for more breakfast with the rest of the household. 

Mmmm yum yum - got my first encounter
with our old friends the stinging nettles due to
my determination to get the best blackberries!

Had a look over Andy’s bike, which dad had got a guy to check out for him the other day. This fella had taken the bike and quoted dad sixty five quid, to put right what was wrong. However, he then comes back with a figure of one hundred and sixty five. I don’t think so…!!

That, however leaves dad with the problem that he had previously….a bike that doesn’t work and he really wants and needs to get out on one and do some training. After taking an unqualified look at the bike, I felt the brakes needed adjusting, but the gears most definitely required checking out.

It was about 10.30am when we eventually piled into Pegs car to take a trip to Mariners Park retirement complex, where Peg and Andy have an apartment.  The complex was set up over a hundred years ago to provide living accommodation for ships captains, but nowadays caters to all forms of mariner, as long as they have twenty years service at sea.  However, they’re not entirely happy there but also realise no 1 Greenfields Drive is getting too big for them so are in the throes of buying another smaller house further along Greenfields Drive.  Always tough moving from the family home where you’ve been so happy for so many years.

Beautiful cycle paths on our doorstep here

From Mariner’s Park we drove under the Mersey `river to Liverpool to visit Terry, who is Jim and Peggy’s brother.  Unfortunately he has liver cancer, which is why Jimmy came over early but he still has his cracking personality and we enjoyed a couple of hours catching up.  In fact it was me who started flagging first, sitting in the early afternoon sunshine so we thought we’d better make a start on our shopping list.

A cardboard castle being built in Liverpool

So Pete, Jimmy and I walked into Liverpool and after a very average lunch and less than average coffee, we headed to Millets, a camping store.  Found a tent for Jimmy virtually as soon as we walked in the door.  No easy task as even though he is only 6ft 2in, he always seems to have trouble fitting into things.  Most tents are 210cm at their widest point, but from experience we have found this to not be long enough when you factor in the sloping sides, so were happy to find one 230cm in length and 120cm in height so he doesn’t have to commando crawl into his tent each night.  And it weighs less than 3kg, although by the time we finished shopping, it probably felt like 30kg – Pete and I both offered to carry it but Jimmy refused.

Checked out Auntie Anne's latest venture

We also picked up a self inflating sleeping mat, a bowl, insect repellent and a tic removal tool, all for less than 100 quid.  We also got some expert advice and tales of tic removal from one of the three assistants we had helping us and enjoyed a good laugh with them.  Then we had a less satisfying experience looking for a new phone for Jimmy, (decided not to buy one), a sim card and package that suited us, (dithered around so much unable to decide and in the end bought a SIM for a quid from a corner shop just before we caught the bus home), and some socks for Jimmy (found some and went to pay at Primark but the queue was so long we put them back on the shelf and left empty-handed).

I struggled to stay awake on the bus and when we eventually walked through the door at Peggy’s we were astonished to see it was 7pm!!  Peggy warmed us up some of last night’s scouse and then I loaded the SIM card into the phone and Pete began calling friends organising the next few days and I checked the emails and loaded the blog.  At 9.30pm we called it quits and went to bed.

8th August 2018

Happy Birthday Pete - catching a few zzzz's at Hong Kong airport

Our flight from Hong Kong to Manchester was absolutely chocka – so chocka they couldn’t seat us together!  We were on the same row but on opposite sides of the plane and we met two other couples in the same situation.  I was sitting next to a 21 year old Chinese girl and her father and they were heading to Hull where she was undertaking her first year of university, studying finance.  A few things sprung to mind as I was struggling to get this information out of her.  Hull….a well renowned city for all things financial….?......21, quite old for her first year of uni, but maybe they had to save a number of years to get her there, but most importantly, how the hell was she going to get a degree in England when she could barely speak the language?  And the language barrier would be even more of a problem in Hull I would imagine.  I kept these reservations to myself and whiled away the hours napping and watching a few movies, meeting Pete at the back of the plane for some squatting and stretching……well, whatever floats your boat I guess!

It’s a hell of a long plane ride and we were glad to have it over with when we arrived in Manchester at 7am.  Had a slow queue to get through and were held up by a young lady from some African country by the look of her, telling the immigration officer she was a student.  When asked what she was studying, she said “medicine” and the immigration officer looked very unimpressed and asked her how she intended to study medicine in England when she could barely speak the language.  She didn’t answer, probably couldn’t understand, and was eventually shepherded to an interview room.

Pete and Alun wonder how they will get the
bike boxes past the throng and onto the lift.

Got through to baggage claim and the boxes were there waiting for us and in good shape after the long journey.  Had a bit of a mission getting into the arrivals hall as the bike boxes are so wide on the luggage trolley, but we managed and soon spotted our contact Alun, from Thunderbird Taxis.  Had another mission getting our boxes past the bollards at the exit door, across the road past more bollards and then into a very crowded lift up to Alun’s van.  The carparks are so cramped he had to do about a 20 point turn (no exaggeration!) to get the van out and finally we were on the road to Little Neston.  When we first planned this blog, we thought we would be starting our ride from Peg and Andy’s new place in Birkenhead, but they still have their old house in Little Neston, which is much bigger, so this is where we are staying. 

We arrived just after 9am and it was good to see Jimmy outside to greet us.  Peggy wasn’t far behind him and remembered to wish Pete a happy birthday – which I had totally forgotten to do and so had Jimmy!

It was a lovely cloudy morning which soon gave way to sun and probably hung around 16C most of the day – very similar temperature from what we’ve just come from in New Plymouth in the middle of winter!  Of course they tell us this is the coolest day they’ve had for the last six weeks……..

I think you're missing a vital piece Pete.

After the obligatory cup of tea, with a bit of a chat with Peg and Andy, we assembled the bikes before a bite of lunch and then Pete and I took off for a ride to get rid of my cankles.  Pete didn’t fare too badly this time with the dreaded fat ankles but mine looked hideous and I couldn’t wait to get on the bike and get the blood pumping.  It definitely helped them but they still look pretty fat so might go for another ride if the weather holds.

Pete here….As we boarded the plane in Hong Kong, at gate number 47, we were at the tail end of a very long queue, including a large group of young Chinese girls, taking  their flight to England and possibly further afield. A bit different to the school ventures of our day, when a bus ride to another school for a sporting fixture was a real adventure. Who knows what lies ahead for future generations of young kids everywhere? Now boarding at launch pad 224, this is a final call for the Dolan family. Your flight to Mars and intergalactical wonders is now boarding. Please ensure you have donned your space suits and have received your appropriate interplanetary jabs from your designated robot prior to your final cellular scan. The duration of your flight will be 300 light years. Nourishment will be provided on board in handy pill capsules. This is a standing only flight and space walks are only available to members of your districts higher echelons. Time travel and other portal devices are not available for use in these sectors. However, entering the world of visual reality movies, will be provided. Options for this venture include “ I was Agnetha Faltskog’s sex slave during the hey day of Abba” or “Being a grasshopper for a year,”whilst listening to David Attenborough explain the digestive system of said insect.

Our bike ride from Peg and Andy’s place in Neston was just what the doctor ordered. After a glitch putting my bike together, just an adjustment with the front disc brakes, we headed off down to the estuary  which leads into the old, now marshland area of Parkgate.  This once prominent port, was an embarkation centre for ships in the 18^th century heading to Ireland. To this day, although no ships are able to access Parkgate, it remains a beautiful place to wander along it’s frontage and enjoy it’s oldy worldy charm and sample the ice creams and food on offer. Living around here many years ago, one such establishment was the Old Quay which still stands today, complete with refurbishment, from the days when it used to be a hangout for the crew we hung around with.  Instead of heading into Parkgate, we headed left and rode alongside the estuary for 10 kms avoiding any rain which had threatened earlier on, but came to nothing.  

Happy Birthday Pete!

Back at the house we chilled out for the rest of the day and I managed a couple of hours kip.  Peg cooked us a classic “scouse” for our dinner (corned beef stew for the uninitiated) followed by a birthday cake for me, which was delicious!  Seeing as we'd each only slept a total of about four hours on the long flight over, Ju hit the hay about 8am and I wasn’t too far behind her.

Take Off

If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.....
Jimmy (Pete's Dad) was supposed to be coming with us today but decided three and a half weeks ago to go to Liverpool early as his brother wasn't very well.  So off he ventured to the other side of the world on his own at the ripe old age of 85.  Today it's our turn to fly to the UK and meet up with him.

After months of planning and counting down, d-day suddenly descended on us in a rush and there wasn’t enough time to do everything we wanted before we left.  The last week was a whirlwind of final catch-ups and we feel very lucky to have so many wonderful friends and family.

My Dad, me and my brother Richard

Friday night games night crew

Goodbye dinner with Shaz and the kids at Portofino

The airport send-off

All the kids came to the airport to see us off along with our friend of forty years, Toff.  Everything went smoothly and we had fantastic weather for our flight out of New Plymouth.  At Auckland airport we had a final catch up with our good friend Sue and a final NZ coffee before heading through security.  Both our carry-ons were pulled aside for further inspection along with another self-confessed dodgy character.  While we waited for a very stressed lady to realise she couldn’t take her two bottles of alcohol on board, I mentioned to the dodgy character that he looked familiar.  Briana, you’ll be impressed that when I asked him if he was a politician, he said “Yes” and followed this up with “I’m Phil Goff”.  I told him you’d be mortified I had to ask who he was and he said you sounded like a very well-informed young lady.  I wanted to ask if he was off on holiday or business, but it was our turn to be questioned about our carry-on luggage.  Probably just as well as he may well have been off to some big summit meeting I should have known about.

We had to catch a bus out to our flight due to the renovation work going on at Auckland Airport – Pete was alarmed when he saw a man rushing off the bus as we were getting on and was on the lookout for mysterious packages, but I think the guy had just realised he was on the wrong bus.  Made it safely to the plane and were in the middle column of seats.  There were only three seats per row and Pete sat in the middle seat while the biggest man on the plane sat in the third seat, his bulging flesh encasing the armrest so Pete decided not to fight him on it.

The passengers continued to stream in and in walks Jannice Halliburton (an old friend from New Plymouth but originally from Liverpool), and her partner and they sat in the seat behind us.

Pete here. I have to say that the Cathay Pacific plane and crew were very nice. The plane appeared to be new and very streamlined and even came complete with Rolls Royce engines rather than the cheap American rubbish. The food selection throughout the flight was delicious, however, I couldn’t get a Baileys and Cointreau or a Jack Daniels so had to settle for a beer, a Steinlager, not even my preferred choice. Movie selection was limited as was sleep, which was in fact non existent. Julia did manage to grab three seats to herself, down the back of the plane, but once again, sleep was in short supply. Landing in Hong Kong around 9.30 ish we wandered through the vast corridors to gate 33, which Jannice had said was ours and began to write this piece, to stretch and to nap until our flight to Manchester.