Ian & Julie’s Slightly Less Big Bike Trip

Finishing work has been a big step for me. It’s a less confronting way of saying ‘retiring’. It’s been a long time in the planning, but I’m doing it early while Julie and I have the time and, more importantly, the physical and mental capacity to undertake active activities. After 17 years at Beca - my longest-ever job - my formal letter to my manager opened by saying it was with a mix of reluctance, sadness, trepidation and excitement that I was resigning. I’ve had a great career at Beca and will miss both the work and the people. I was given a lovely send-off by current and former colleagues, with some thoughtful words from three of my most respected colleagues. The last few days of work were spent sorting out a last few loose ends of project work, copying files, changing my contact email address to my personal one for various professional and personal organisations, clearing out my desk/drawers/bookcase and living on a caffeine high from all the final coffee catch-ups with colleagues...

Almost two decades ago, Julie and I closed the front door of our suburban house in southern England, got on our bikes, cycled into town to drop the keys off at the real estate agent’s office and headed very slowly and very indirectly to New Zealand. The kids had left home, we’d quit our jobs, sold the house and, as Julie so eloquently put it, we were unravelling our life’s jumper. That was the start of our Big Bike Trip in late April 2007. Over the following eight months, we took in 20 countries and clocked up 10,000km on the bikes, with four months cycling in Europe and another four in Asia. We arrived in Christchurch in early January 2008 and made about re-knitting our life’s jumper in Aotearoa.  Setting off from our house in Bedford, April 2007 Post-cycling beachside drinkies, Thailand, November 2007 Now in late April 2025, we’re doing something similar, but not quite so dramatic. This time, it’s going to be ‘The Slightly Less Big Bike Trip’. With Julie having retired from teach...