Up and early this morning and on the road by 08:25am to deliver the TransAlp across Town via the very, very busy SH1 (State Highway 1) and Khyber Pass Road during the height of rush hour to one of the local Honda Dealers, AMPS (Auckland Motorcycles & Power Sports Ltd). I arrive there at exactly 09:00am and check-in the bike with Shane, the highly efficient – and even more highly tattooed – Service Manager.With little to do for the next 2-3 hours, I wander aimlessly into the Newmarket District of Auckland and look for a proper ‘Smokey Joe’ type establishment that will dish me up me a right-full-on English breakfast, ideally by a fat ‘n farting pot-bellied geezer, (with a fag hanging from the corner of his gob); all served up with a black hair-lined cracked and chipped pint mug of dubiously scummy grey-coloured and barely drinkable tea-like beverage made from a solitarily tea bag from a dusty-but-cheap batch of bulk catering tea bags that’s on the third-but-maybe-last time round of use ... in other words, SOME DECENT GRUB and drink! But sadly, there’s not a greasy spoon shack to be found, just the usual Auckland over-the-door signs advertising, “Thai Noodles this” and “Japon Sushis that” … not for forgetting the, "Kebabs & Tapas other stuff”. Then I’m spotted checking-out a windowed menu by the literally fair Nancy, a keen waitress, who’s clearly working on a commission basis. She promises me an English brecky, full monty-style; and soon I’m hijacked into the near empty “Summin-or-Other” named cafe located in a totally unmemorable side street of Newmarket.
Nancy and her associates deliver the goods in less than fifteen minutes, although disappointingly there is a distinct lack of yellow melted lard around the two sunny-side-up soft fried eggs … still, you can’t have everything you want in life, I guess. I take Nancy’s picture … and get the complete ‘naturally delighted to oblige’ smile back from her; she should be in the movies! … ;o)
Thirty minutes later I’m well fortified with bacon, eggs, sausages, mushrooms, baked beans, hash browns, perfectly grilled tomatoes, etceteras – goodness knows how Nancy & Co knew or even found these wonderfully fresh and tasty English fried breakfast ingredients? After wandering for a couple of more hours and two excellent cups of freshly ground coffee and an Brit newspaper later, at 12:10pm I get a phone call from Shane, “Hey Keith mate, yer Trannie’s all done and fixed-up, and a rawnoyce bike it is too … ya can betcha life it’s runnin’ like an Opossum with his nuts on fire that knows he’s about to become the next road kill” [… or words to that effect]. I also take Shane’s pic in the heart of his efficiently run and very busy workshop. He gives me yet another completely natural looking pose back in return – one more movie star in waiting, I fancy … ;o) 
I ride down the road for a half kilometre; fill-up the tank and check the tyre psi pressures (29 f – 32 r). Then I find my way back onto the now well familiar SH1 motorway/trunk road and head northwards. After 150 km and a couple of pleasant hours riding I arrive at this junction and take a 90ยบ right hand turn off SH1.
A little while later, and after 11 months since the last time we saw each other, I’m finally re-united with my son, Mark, whose very busy and demanding schoolteacher schedule I have deliberately avoided until the end of the Kiwi academic school year, an event that occurred only just a few days ago. We hug and smile broadly at each other, then spend the next two hours exchanging and commenting upon each other’s news, life and opinions in general and certain family-orientated issues in particular. Mark notices my new whiskers and reckons the new image looks good. I think he’s just being kind.
Before we retire to bed in the small hours of Thursday morning Mark hands me his spare back door key insisting I should retain this for the next 3½ months, until my eventual return to the Northern Hemisphere next April.
Well now, it’s been the most satisfying day today, which has ended quite perfectly. The ‘Muther’, in fact, of any satisfying day that I’ve hitherto ever had. Soon it’ll be time for me to properly relocate my temporary base to Ruakaka, Northland, in good time for the Christmas and the New Year celebrations. I take to my bed that night with a big grin stretching across my boat from ear to ear. Finally I can now relax and start to properly enjoy rest of this once-in-a-lifetime motorcycling adventure. Within ten minutes I float off gently into a deep sleep, purring all the way, just like the proverbial Cheshire cat.
