And the horse you rode in on…

Today is the last day of New Zealand’s coronavirus Alert Level 4. Tomorrow we go down to Level 3, which allows a few businesses to reopen. Level 4 with KFC is how a lot of people are describing it.

My new bike tyres arrived the other day so I felt confident to venture a bit further afield today. It’s a glorious autumn day, and the final day of what will almost certainly be the best local cycling I’ll ever get. It was a great ride, and even better because – 10 years after most people – I made the switch to slightly wider tires, which really do seem to soften the ride a bit. Somehow in my youth I got it in my head that skinnier is better and have stuck to that, uncomfortably, till now.

Toward the end I rode down by the Viaduct, which on a holiday like today (even though ANZAC Day was Saturday we get the Monday off) is normally packed. The super yachts are there as always.

This one is the Rocinante, which is according to one source the 122nd largest yacht in the world, reportedly owned by a Spanish billionaire. I heard people inside laughing loudly… probably the crew. While I don’t imagine many super yacht owners are suffering greatly during the pandemic, this crew at least ended up in a Comccomfortable spot for quarantine.

I don’t know why you’d name your yacht after Don Quixote’s horse… I mean, a fine animal for sure, but it leaves the owner in the role of tilting at windmills and doing a lot of other non-billionaire activities. I guess at some level of wealth you can go ahead and not worry about what I think of your boat name.