Podcast interview, and another lap of the sun completed

 Auckland, September 14, 2021

My official 53rd birthday photo

Greetings from a five-star hotel in downtown Auckland, New Zealand. The Rydges Hotel is being used as a covid-19 Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) facility for people arriving in New Zealand from overseas. Everyone entering the country needs to do 2 weeks in an MIQ facility, getting tested a few times for covid along the way, in the effort to keep the country covid-free. Ironically, the country is in a lockdown at the moment because a month ago coronavirus managed to leak out of an MIQ facility and get into the community. We are hopeful that within a few days of our release on Sunday that the country will be able to relax its strict lockdown so that we can travel around freely to explore this amazing place.

Me atop the Midas Monument in Phrygia, Turkey

We spent three weeks in Turkey before coming to New Zealand, and I should have a post up soon about that trip, during which we explored parts of Turkey that I had not seen in three previous visits to that fascinating country. Lots of history and archaeology on this trip, which was centred on the interior of the Anatolian peninsula, rather than on the usual coastal tourist hotspots.

The birthday cake that the hotel brought to our room

It was my 53rd birthday yesterday, and while being locked inside a hotel room isn't exactly how I would choose to spend the day, it could be worse. The hotel food is excellent, the hotel brought me birthday cake and Terri and I shared a bottle of New Zealand bubbly wine to mark the occasion.

In our MIQ room, I recorded a podcast interview a few days ago with Aaron Millar, the creator of the Armchair Explorer podcast. We talked about Pedalling To Kailash and the bicycle expedition that inspired the book, and Aaron's skillful editing made me sound much wiser, wittier, fluent and coherent than I usually am in conversation. It's a great episode to listen to, and you can find it here. It's almost (but not quite) as good as reading the book itself. I hope some of you, my gentle readers, take the time to listen to the interview.

I'll be back in a few days with a blog post about the Turkey trip. Until then, peace and tailwinds!