Moore happy with Lions build-up

Stephen Moore carrying lots of kit to New Zealand.

Worcestershire opener Stephen Moore makes the first of his weekly reports back for BBC Hereford and Worcester from the England Lions tour of New Zealand:

It's a long trip but it went well and we got here safe and on time too, although there was a bit of a rush for the connection from Auckland to Christchurch.

Due to some delays to another flight we were able to make it, or we could have been sitting in Auckland for a while.

Sometimes I look at all the kit we have to take with us, and think 'Holy smoke, I wish I'd picked another sport', but they do give us some extra baggage allowance.

The First Test is still a week away but we have our first game against a New Zealand Emerging players XI on Sunday.

Today we have had a lot of middle practice up at Lincoln University, which was good, to be fair.

Stephen Moore first man to 1,000 runs in 2008.

I was lucky enough to have Saj Mahmood and Amjad Khan bowling 90 mph with the wind behind them with a red ball and no sight screen, so that got the adrenaline going first thing in the morning.

Some of the guys are still with the time difference and trying to get the sleep patterns right.

We've done a lot of fielding and catching to get the reactions back up.

The weather has been pretty good.

We had a great day the first day we trained on Tuesday, but it's been a bit grey and cool, only around 12 or 13.

If the sun comes out it creeps up to 20, very much like English conditions early season. But not quite as cold as in the UK this winter.

I have had the shorts and t-shirts on and it was nice to be able to do that.

We have not been really in touch with the main tour in the West Indies side to the time difference but we get dribs and drabs through from the internet, and I know we batted better and that Graeme Swann got a few wickets.

If we can get that Second Test and level things up, then we can push for a series win.

Stephen Moore was talking to BBC Hereford and Worcester's Dave Bradley.