Freedom of movement and dress

Just a story I do have to share with you guys..

This morning I was walking to downtown Deventer, and at a junction
near home I noticed a campervan. The lights were green, though the
campervan didn't move. The driver mentioned that it wouldn't start, bu
he could fix it. However, a push of all of us (I wasn't the first to
arrive at the van) helped to 'park' the van somewhere out of the way.
The driver thanked the three of us, and set about mending his
campervan. I just had to take a photo of that campervan... Couldn't
resist.

Moments later a policeman came up to me asking for my ID. A bit
shocked as I was I handed over my drivers license, and asked why. The
answer was that because I was wearing flipflops in this cold (about 7
deg. C) and the fact that I had made a photo of the campervan, they
(yeah, there were two) had noticed me.

I explained the story about helping the driver of the campervan and
that the photo was for personal use. Though still got weird comments,
like I was crazy to walk around of flipflops, from the other policeman
(who miraculously appeared). Apparently both had been sitting cosy
warm in a parked station wagon.

After having checked my ID all they said was: "Everything is OK, bye".

Please, let the police catch crooks, help at accidents, or at least do
something useful... but don't mind the people who are walking around
on flipflops and taking photographs!!!

(apologies for the ranting, just had get it off my chest)

Another route and some additional equipment

Well, after some thinking the route that I originally planned, I missed out a couple of places of interest. Such as Hobbiton (near Matamata, Waikato), the skiing areas on Mt. Ruapehu (Whakapapa Village, Waikato), and the Huka Falls (Warakei, Waikato). These points were not in my previously planned route, and from what I heard pretty amazing. So hereby a new route in Google Maps (route).

This week also some investments were made in some garments to keep me warm in the cold and wet New Zealand autumn and winter, Icebreaker Bodyfit shirts! Actually these garments originate from New Zealand's Southern Alps, where the merino wool is 'growing' on the sheeps ;). And a Me˚ru' Glacier softshell will keep the wind and water from my body; love the Bever Zwerfsport bargains. For additional insulation I am considering to invest in another Icebreaker Sport 320 shirt, "nature's alternative to fleece", but first I'm going to test the Icebreaker garments that I currently have. I guess these garments are already pretty warm when cycling.

Aside of the garments, I also bought a couple of additional CompactFlash cards for my camera, not to run out of memory during my 2 month trip. I'll be taking about 14GB worth of Sandisk CF cards with me:

• 1x 2GB Sandisk Ultra II
  
• 2x 2GB Sandisk Extreme III
  
• 2x 4GB Sandisk Extreme III
  

And no, will only take a single camera with me. When shooting raw with my Canon EOS 20D there 'only' fit about 210 photos on a 2GB card. So I'll have room for approximately 1470 photos .. that should be enough :p.