London to Auckland

So, I’ve decided its time that I got my own blog. It is really quite essential that I have one in the quest to represent that a) JB is not alone and that b) intelligent life does actually exist out here. As I write this Jeremy doesn’t know that I’ve upgraded myself to blog status but as he is over in London doing some real work on the ride (read more productive than blogging)…he is at my mercy.

Now that’s done the next thing on the agenda is an introduction. My name is Travis and I am one of the lucky few that have been chosen to the honor of helping JB safely and successfully negotiate the challenge ahead. As we are now within two months of August 1st, preparation is at full throttle and as each day goes by I am learning more and more about the responsibility that I have signed up for. More importantly however, I am starting to succumb to the excitement of the build up.

Perhaps the most important purpose of me having a blog will be that I am creating an avenue in which I can present another angle to the adventures as they happen along the way, especially as things get fun and funny. My first recollection is of the recent afternoon where Jed, Jeremy and I all went down to the Takapuna ramp to sit our PWC licenses with instructor Chris Musgrave. We were put through our paces with challenges like parking the Seadoo’s gently against the coastguard boat and reversing figure eights between some free floating buoys. The toughest test component was a fully clothed exit off of the craft to satisfactorily prove ourselves capable of re-mounting whilst dripping wet. With Jeremy egging us on high and dry on the boat next to Chris we jumped in and got it over with. Done and done.

It wasn’t until we were back on dry land that we stopped and realized that Jeremy had managed to escape a soaking. It turned out that this part had just been Chris having a bit of a laugh as anyone in an instructing role should. Come his turn however Jeremy kept Chris entertained with tales of his high seas adventures and distracted our teacher away from dishing out the same punishment, very much to the disappointment of Jed and I.

While reading Jeremy’s book The Ride around New Zealand I noticed him to be in possession of a highly crafted level of wit in which every second sentence was a play on words, a pun or an ever vigilant crusade to ensure his comrades didn’t get too big for their boots. So it is in that same spirit that I’ve decided to open my first blog with a crack at JB, unfortunately though he proved himself as very intelligent life when he came up with the absolutely brilliant idea that is The Ultimate Ride.

Will write again soonest,

Travis