Temporarily moving overseas- excess luggage and bike gear tips please

[MVnut]

I usually just get travel insurance thru 'Mike Henry Travel Insurance Specialists' Auckland phone no is 356 2279 . 6 weeks is not long enough to guarantee seafreight to arrive on time so it's gonna have to be air. Do you have 1 or 2-piece leathers? Wearing a leather jacket would be okay but wearing 1-piece over to Europe would suck ! You are over 30 hours from leaving NZ until you land in Eu. and I presume with a 20kg limit (+7 carry-on) you are flying economy. If you have airpoints you will be allowed increased kgs. 35kg is the second stage. I think you are allowed 25kg anyway if you go via USA, but check it out. So what route are you flying ?? You will enjoy every moment on a bike over there, just be aware that the Italians all cut corners, but it seems everyone is used to it and they seem to have very few accidents. Euro drivers/riders in general are very good, couple of other points tho, they give cyclists a LOT of room and many streets in small towns are very narrow, we usually go pretty slow in town, maybe 45kmh cos when you get into the backroads you can have a ball. If you're on a motorway stay in the slow(er) lane unless overtaking, the fast cars are really fast and don't f^%k around. pm me if you want any more info. ciao MV

[scracha]

good, couple of other points tho, they give cyclists a LOT of room

Or to put it another way, kiwi's give cyclists, horse riders, moped riders and pedestrians fuck all room when they squeeze past in their 4x4's. Very scary....

Oh...back to luggage.

Camera's go around your neck before you pop them into hand luggage :-) Actually, anything "expensive" should be in your hand luggage.

Laptops aren't usually counted in the 7Kg. Hand luggage is usually + laptop + purse (if you're a lady). There is no way I'd ever put a laptop in baggage....if you've ever had baggage go AWOL you'd understand....aside from the way they chuck baggage around.

Take a vodyfone moby with ya and just buy a european sim card for peanuts incase you break down or get homesick.

Be careful of the strange things the French expect you to carry whilst driving/riding. As MV Nut said...take it easy through towns and have a blast on the open road.