Day 31

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Today Helen and I went into New Plymouth, to Centre City, as Helen really fancied having her toes painted, as the paint job she had done in Abu Dhabi had started to wear off!! I did a bit of shopping while she had her toes done, and got some more clothes. Then we checked out the book shop and headed to get a coffee, at which point we bumped into Steve and Liz who joined us for coffee and a bit of a chat. We know them from church, but Steve is also the local GP, someone who saw me when I had a chest infection last time I was out here. After the coffee we headed to the bike shop, as I needed to find some decent nutrition for the longer rides, and for the races over the next couple of weeks. I wanted to speak to Blair and find out what he recommended for use out here, and whether he know what they’d be using at the races themselves. We arrived and he was busy with another customer, so we waited to see him, as the person I spoke to there said Blair was the best person to speak to. He said hi as he wandered past and then, in what was a really nice touch, when he did finish with the other customer, he came over and sat down with Helen and had a chat with her before coming over to find me. We talked about the best things to be using, he told me what he was using and suggested that, rather than use the recovery drink I’d chosen, which was a large pack and very expensive, I try a couple of sample sizes first. He told me what he used for his longer rides, and then rummaged around the back and came out with no less than TEN gels and packets left over from a training camp weekend he’d run a couple of weeks before, at no cost to me at all. We left with a lot of ideas and feeling a bit more happy with taking on the longer rides and races, but still not sure which one was going to work best for me. We headed back home ready to head out with the girls for Fish and Chips on the beach!! That was lovely, just chilling out and playing with the kids on the beach, throwing stones into pools and just enjoying the sunshine. After we’d finished, the girls headed home and then Mark and I headed off to look at some more cars. We had 2 on the agenda for this evening, the first was a Honda Civic, which, with a 2.2l engine was a little too big, and the second was a Subaru Legacy, which was a bit tatty but mechnically sound. We looked at both of them and neither of them was particularly stand out ish, but the Subaru probably edged it. There was a bit of a story there, too, as this was actually a car we’d seen on trademe (the kiwi equivalent of ebay) and had bid on a couple of weeks previously, and got out bid on. It turns out that the lady selling the car worked at the hospital and the car came up in conversation, about the winning bidder not actually paying up, and it turns out it was the same car! All cars over here have to have registration (like our Road Tax) which is valid for 12 months, and a Warrant of Fitness, (WOF) which is like an MOT and that is valid for 6 months, so ideally we want a car with both of those running out after we’ve left the country in April.

After the test drive it was home and a relatively early night, tired out from the beach I think!

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