It’s stating the obvious to say that New Zealand is a long long way from everywhere – but every time we load up Peter’s bicycle and head for the hills (this time the Dolomites in Italy – some quite high hills), I get a renewed sense of distance, the benefits and the costs of geographic isolation.

From a New Zealand mired in political debate and increasingly nasty politics-that I suspect will all have faded away by the time we return – 36 hours of mind-numbing travel brought us to this lovely little village on the shores of Lake Como, where the biggest care in the world seems to be ensuring you sweep your front entrance at dusk – as we saw several people out on the road doing as we ambled up and down.

A few red wines, local, of course, and far too much yummy food set us up for an 8 hour sleep despite the jet lag and time difference!

If I wasn’t such a sceptic, I’d say the 1Above ‘inflight hydration drink’ made the difference – it’s one of the startups that we didn’t invest in – but we buy their product anyway, now that it’s available as a
pack of soluble tablets – the promise of “fly well, arrive ready” seems to have worked this time – or maybe it was just the lovely dinner with the fabulous view.

Today we head further into the mountains to ‘base’ in Bormio for the next week, where we will meet up with Gary and Don, hopefully basking in the glory of great results from their foray to the world age group cycling champs (both competing in the 75-79 year age group!).  I might even hire a bike!

From Italy, ciao for now.