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Ok, it’s definitely raining, time to write a report. I thought it’s better if I start a fresh one here. Photobucket has been cruel to me. I have not been able to do multiple uploads without crashing. Guess I got what I paid for.
I'll keep the writing brief. For one, people will be more interested in the photos and even I find my writing style a bit boring. I never go into enough detail and what's interesting to me may not be interesting to you. I'll write this report in instalments, as my typing is slow and Photobucket even slower.
Anyway, it will need a short introduction and so here it goes..
My wife and I have been wanting to a South Island trip on motorbikes for quite some time now. Two things have made it possible. Her riding skills have much improved and the Annual Rally provided a perfect excuse to ride to the South Island. We started by booking Flock Hill, the ferry and accommodation.
Since about a year ago we had been in contact with Tommy and Rosa, a German couple who had been planning to do a two year trip around the world. They had approached me about providing them with some suggestions for interesting routes throughout the country. This was a bit out of my depth, so I approached Steve Bell for help. He kindly offered to mark all interesting roads in one of the KIWI maps, which I then sent back to Germany.
Tommy and Rosa had kept in contact and, when they heard about the Rag Rally, decided that they would like to join us on the trip to Flock Hill. They arrived only a week prior to our intended departure and only just managed to get their bikes through customs on time for our departure date. Martyn Freer had been very helpful getting the MAF inspection over as painlessly as possible. They are now on the road again for their 3 month tour of New Zealand. Rosa speaks English quite well and Tommy can do with the practice. Say hello to them if you meet them on their travels.
This brings us to 8 am on Tuesday the 4th of January 2006. We are about to leave.
We carry slightly less luggage
But then again, we will not be on the road for long.
Tommy and Rosa usually travel at a sedate pace of between 80-90 km/h, after all everything they see is new to them and they want to see as much as possible. This speed range has the added bonus of keeping the petrol consumption to a minimum and at today’s prices this is not to be sneezed at. As I was leading the group we had trouble keeping to their usual pace, but still were in no danger from the revenue collectors.
First stop Otorohanga, the Kiwi House. I had never been in there myself, so this was our opportunity to see some unusual nocturnal birds.
Tommy and Rosa and Big Bird, it wasn't possible to take photos of the real thing, due to flash restricitions.
This little reptile is a Tuatara, a native of New Zealand
The destination for the day was Wanganui, so we had to keep going to make it on time. Remember that we were sticking to a pace. We stopped a couple of times on route, but possibly not often enough for Tommy and Rosa. However, they would most likely see this part of the country again, maybe more than once.
Here are a couple of photos from between Raethihi and Wanganui. The Volcanoes were covered in cloud, so they’re not in any of them.
We reached Wanganui around 5 pm. We had booked ourselves into a backpacker type accommodation, but Tommy and Rosa preferred to go camping. We decided to meet again the following day for a 9 am departure to Wellington.We met up the following morning. Gerda and I had had a pleasant stay at the Anndion Lodge in Wanganui. Dion , the owner is also a motorcyclist, although he had to sell his Harly Davidson in order to install a sprinkler systWednesday 5, January 2006-01-24em in his lodge. Dion offered us parking in his garage and continued to entertain us with stories. One could tell that he missed his bike.
The ride to Wellington was uneventful, apart from the nasty westerly wind which kept us listing. We hit a rain shower in the Foxton area, but it soon cleared up again. Once in Wellington Tommy and Rosa had to get ferry tickets at the terminal. They had to pay $90 per ticket. Our pre-booked ticket had been $69.
Next we stocked up on groceries in the Kilbernie Pack and Save. From a previous visit to Wellington I knew that Seatoun was just around the corner. We made our way past the airport only stopping for a few pictures. This is where we caught our first glimpse of a ferry. Seatoun has a wonderful café just be the water. It must be one of the prettiest settings around. In fact I think it featured in a commercial not too long ago. The waiters have to wear visi vests, as they must cross the road in order to serve the guests. There was no sign warning of crossing waiters as there had been signs warning of crossing penguins just down the road. This made me think how a sign for penguin crossings would attract more attention than one warning of crossing children.
We continued on, doing the full loop around the headland back to Oriental Bay. We only stopped briefly to take a photo of the ship that took King Kong back to New York, it’s still berthed just down the road from Miramar.
Next stop was Te Papa. As we pulled into our non designated parking area we noticed an Africa Twin in typical around he world trip attire. We had bumped into another German couple on world tour, their website is http://www.enduroreisende.de. Tommy and Rosa had heard of them, but weren’t expecting to meet them. Of course they had to spend some time catching up. In the meantime Gerda and I went on to see Te Papa.
I must admit, that my first reaction to Te Papa had been prematurely negative. However, once I had seen it for the first time I knew that it had been money well spent. What an amazing building, it’s a must see and just because it houses a Britten and the fastest Indian �. It wasn’t long before Tommy and Rosa joined us again, they too liked what they saw.
Soon it was time to line up in the queue for the ferry. BMWs were definitely in the majority. We met a few other riders on their way to Flock Hill along with people just returning home from a North island trip. Time passes quickly when you’ve got plenty to talk about.
This was to be our first ferry crossing with the bikes and I knew we had to tie them down. Getting on turned out to be easy enough, but tying two bikes down turned into a bit of a mission. Let’s just say we were well underway, by the time I found my way onto the deck. I was I no mood for photos during that time.
Gerda much preferred t travel on deck, as her sea legs were almost non-existing. After a quick meal I joined her on deck, no good rubbing it in by eating in front of her. As we had the evening ferry and the weather wasn’t all that bad we had a reasonably good crossing. The bike gear came in handy for sitting outside, as the wind did make it a bit chilly.
Once we had entered the Tory channel the scenery changed quite dramatically. The sounds are very pretty, especially in the morning and in the evening. Soon enough we were in Picton. Leaving the ferry in the dark turned out to be a bit tricky. I had managed to get stuck in the middle channel of departure ramp, and it took me a while to get the front wheel back on track. That was not easy while riding in the dark. Gerda and I had booked a motel again while Tommy and Rosa went camping at a DOC ground 20 min down the road. You can tell the seasoned travellers… they book ahead.�. Finding the motel proofed to be more difficult than I had expected. Before I knew it we were on the road to Blenheim. This is probably a good place to mention that Gerda and I had outfitted our bikes with the Baehr communication system, so that we could talk to each other. This system was invaluable throughout the whole trip. That night in Picton it kept us from loosing each other in the dark, until we had circled the square 3 times and finally came across Kent Street. We had found the motel. That was day 2Thursday 6, 2006
The destination for the day was Hanmer Springs. For us this was the real start of the trip, as we had reached new ground, having said that, the road from Raetihi to Wanganui had been a real gem, with great scenery and lots of curves.
Tommy and Rosa were spot-on on time, as usual and we were good to go. The first stop was Blenheim, we needed some fuel and Tommy and Rosa needed to get out some cash. I took the opportunity to buy a new bungi cord for my tank bag to replace on I had lost on the ferry, while Tommy and Rosa went into town to get the cash.
Rosa had attempted to use a Kiwi Bank cashflow machine, it made all the right noises, but refused to spit out the money. It did manage to print out a receipt with the amount it has supposedly paid out. As there is never a Kiwi Bank when you need one, we had to leave the resolution of this for another day.
Soon we were riding through the hills on our way to Kaikoura, the road was excellent and the scenery stunning. We made good progress towards Kaikoura, stopping only for the occasional photo and to admire the scenery. As it was our intention to sample some crayfish we stopped at the first stall that looked like it might sell them.
Sure enough, they had crayfish, albeit chilled ones. The price seemed reasonable and away we went eating half of one each. You sure have to work for your food while eating one of these little critters.
The next stop was Kaikoura. We needed some supplies as we intended to cook ourselves that evening. As there was a brand new Supermarket we had no trouble finding what we were looking for. Further on we found the entrance to the town centre and spotted a sign that said “Seal Colony�. Tommy and Rosa had spotted some in the distance earlier on, but this seemed like a good opportunity to get a bit closer.
We were in luck, a couple of seals were in residence. The signs asked people to stay away for at least 10 metres. Most people must have misread feet for metres, and so we got closer as well, as you do.
I must say the seals seemed to enjoy the company and didn’t look bothered at all. These guys were sunbathing and resting, they were obviously used to human company. Of course if they’d had a sense of history the seals would have been a bit more cautious with humans around
Having satisfied our curiosity we moved on towards Hanmer Springs, taking the inland road. Again the scenery was outstanding and the roads must have been made for motorbikes. It became hard to make up my mind whether to enjoy the road or the scenery. The road was such that you had to concentrate really hard if you were going at any speed at all. In the end I settled for some fast runs, followed by admiring the scenery while the others caught up.
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The close we go to Hanmer the better it got.
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We arrived in Hanmer Springs at around 5 pm and proceeded to check into the local Backpackers. Tommy and Rosa were off camping again, but we used the kitchen of the back packers to cook dinner. After dinner we went up to the hot pools and spent the evening relaxing, soon any tension drained away, the perfect end to a day of riding. The weather had been excellent so far, perhaps a little on the cool side at times, but definitely comfortable. This was the end of Day 3.Post count: 2134
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