How we travelled from Portrush to Auckland with bicycles
Let’s start by saying we are travelling from Portrush to Auckland with our bicycles packed in boxes. We’re not riding there!
Portrush to Belfast
Public transport out of Portrush is poor at the best of times, but try get from Portrush to Belfast on a Sunday morning and you’ve got no chance! Add to the fact you’ve got two big bike boxes to transport and there’s not a taxi in town that can take you. Thankfully our friend Tommy from TWV Sports Massage came to the rescue and transported us and our boxes to the bus station at Belfast for our 9am bus to Dublin airport.
Belfast to Dublin
Our first change of plan came as soon as we realised the boxes would not fit in the storage compartment on the express bus to the airport! This was despite having phoned the bus company in advance to check and being told it would be no problem. But not to worry, they did fit on the non-express bus that made stops along the way. We still made it to Dublin Airport in plenty of time, and only 20 minutes later than the express bus. We’d built in extra travel time to allow for these kind of hiccups. We’d always rather be killing time relaxing at the airport than feeling frantic about making it in time!
Dublin via Doha to Auckland
A bit of last minute taping and a very helpful check in clerk at the Qatar Airways desk, along with some dodgy weighing scales, meant we came in under our weight allowance of 30kg per person. Everything was good to go, fingers crossed it would all arrive safely in Auckland.
It was all smooth sailing, well flying actually, with flights on time and three seats between the two of us on each of the flight legs. What a difference it makes to have that little bit of extra manoeuvrability on a 7 hour, followed by a 16.5 hour flight (Doha-Auckland is currently the longest commercial flight in the world). Less than a couple of hours waiting around in Doha was enough to stretch the legs.
Weary and bleary after a 36 hour door to door journey including countless, texture-less airline meals, numerous movies, most of which we can’t recall watching five minutes after landing, and a little bit of sporadic sleep, it was a relief to see all our luggage waiting for us.
Now to fit it into our friend Debbie’s car who is kindly collecting us and putting up with us. She doesn’t know what she’s let herself in for! Let the holiday begin…
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