The Adventures of Maisie Mason

Flying with a bike

25th July 2024

Thankfully Maisie and I arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand, together and mostly unscathed from our travels. As much as I loved ‘Maisie’ my Mason Raw, I had become a bit blasé with the whole bike box packing thing after all the travelling! When leaving Scotland back at the start of June it had taken me hours to lovingly wrap the bike and pack her into the box. She had just been attentively serviced after the Highland Trail 550 and was embarking on her first ever flight to Calgary, ahead of the Tour Divide.

Since finishing the race in New Mexico and having twenty minutes to pack up all of my kit, including boxing the bike and loading it into Jeff’s trailer to catch a bus from the Lordsburg McDonalds, my care and attention had definitely gone out the window! Maisie some how survived the Greyhound bus trip up to Phoenix, AZ, two Uber rides and then a flight to Vancouver, where she was at some point unpacked and inspected by the US Department of Homeland Security.

After that I had put a little bit more effort into packing her up to meet Air New Zealand’s weight restrictions and the country’s biodiversity rules, only to find Vancouver airport didn’t have a big enough security scanner at check-in. I was forced to unpack the bike and put everything through the scanner individually and then repack it, whilst a member of the security team watched on impatiently!

To get through the narrow security lanes on arrival in Auckland, I had to load the box up on its end (not ideal), also meaning I couldn’t see in front and kept running into the backs of peoples heels accidentally with the trolley! Everything was again unpacked and inspected by the Ministry for Primary Industries, some items taken away to be sprayed and then I again repacked, whilst a large queue formed behind me. One more flight to go.

Being a true ‘tight’ Scots lass, on arrival in Christchurch I refused to get a airport taxi, so took a gamble on a Uber (even though they didn’t have the XL option) and ended up having to shoe horn the box into the boot of a Toyota Corolla Hatchback.

A crazy few months had just gone by, a lot to process, more sleeping and eating to be done, along with finding my feet/wheels on the other side of the world!