Ian, Louise, and I fully loaded our bikes for an overnight shakedown ride. Rick stayed back in KeriKeri in hopes that his new bike would arrive. Louise burned through vacation time last week sitting in the airport and shuttling us around (An absolute legend.), so it felt real good to finally get her bikepacking, which was is what she’d signed up for. The ride was KeriKeri to Russell, which included a ferry. Russell happens to be a drop dead gorgeous beach town. Bougie now, though once know for being a particularly brutal place, according to my new kiwi friends. Partway through our ride, we got a call from Tim at the bike shop informing us that Rick’s bike had arrived. (Rick is mostly deaf and can’t take calls.) We cheered. Later, we got word that Rick had been spotted riding a bicycle down the main street in KeriKeri, looking cherry. Fingers extremely crossed, knocking on this big ass tree in Russell (pictured), but..things are looking up!