I can cope with the sleep deprivation. The check-in queues. The seemingly endless security controls. Even sitting next to the odd fellow passenger who, you suspect, just loves to super size their meals. If there’s something worth it at the other end. Like Alaska. But, add a boxed bicycle and another forty kilogrammes of awkward baggage and mustering any enthusiasm becomes a bit of a struggle.
Fortunately, thanks to some help from The Outward Bound Trust, there’d been a phone call from Robyn at DHL South Pacific. Yep. That well known international shipping and courier company. Yes, she explained, they’d air freight everything for me. Details to sort out of course. Assured her I’d make sure everything was in order so not as to cause embarrassment with US Customs. Clean tyres and tent pegs. Just as I’d done for flying into Australia.
This was good news, I thought as I put the phone away. Really good news. One company rather than three different airlines. No struggling with boxes of kit around four airports, two terminal changes and an overnight stop in a Hawaiian hostel dorm. And a substantial saving in excess baggage charges. Of the order that would buy you a return airfare from Heathrow to Washington. No. Seriously.
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