Merry Christmas, Pascal & the Nomads are off on the new Air New Zealand direct service to Houston and then onto Tequila country for tastings then cigar smoking Cuba for a cycling adventure. Big hope for Air NZ putting on Christmas dinner for us with endless champers - so will let you know how that goes. Follow us along our adventure...... I'm sure there will be lots of laughs.

Singapore Airlines once again AMAZING service is all I can say, the staff were exceptional!! Smiling and constantly coming around with drinks, collecting rubbish, there wasn't 1/2 that went by that they were offering you something, the opposite of Swiss Air from the previous evening. The flight was chocka too - Good on Rod for taking the middle seat, I have to have an aisle otherwise it does my head in and claustrophobia sets in. My mind wanders back to the...

So I've landed back in Aotearoa "land of the long white cloud" except today I'll call it land of the p...... down!!!!  Pascal has decided to write this blog to give our friends and friends of friends in Europe an insight into "The Real New Zealand." Yeah there's lots of crazy adventure junky activities that attract people from all round the world to come and it is a beautiful country but tourist don't see the real life unless they come and help...

Bike Pants CheckGloves CheckEnthusiasm Double CheckPassports, Bike locks, Panniers, Shoes whew have we got everything - well you know what it doesn't matter if you forget anything - they do have shops in France!!! Bags are a bit heavy with all this stuff. We are buying our bikes in France and have decided on Cross Trail Bikes at this stage, they can be ridden on and off road. The training has gone well and we have done a lot of this on mountain bikes so ...