New Zealand Epilogue

Our last day in New Zealand was basically the ride from Methven to Christchurch a distance of some 80kms to hand the bikes back to Wayne from Paradise Motorcycle Tours. Paradise were excellent and if your looking to hire some bikes for a similar tour then I'd highly recommend them.

It was a cool morning on the ever so flat Canterbury Plains and the whole area was covered in a thick fog which lasted to not far out from Christchurch. We rode back through the Rakaia Gorge which was the one last throw at a bit of a twisty ride before riding the boring plains through Darfield and into Christchurch.

Wayne greeted us at Hampton Motorcycles and was intrigued as to how the bikes went. Other than Wayne's bike not having a full tank on the first day the only other problem was Geoff's bike blew a headlight bulb. The bikes ran superbly otherwise. The panniers fitted all our gear in nicely and were easy to use with soft bags that you could easily unload your stuff at the end of the day. We ended up doing just over 3900km's for the whole trip with dave doing an extra 200km's searching for his gopro.

I wasn't overly impressed with the F800 GS but it was comfortable for touring on which it should be seeing as that was what it was designed to do. I won't be rushing out to buy one anytime soon put it that way. I'm far too young for a touring bike but I could have one as a second bike.

Tour Successfully completed rubber side down 

I'd like to say thanks to Geoff, Wayne and Dave for making the ride that much more enjoyable. Thanks for your company guys. Special thanks to Dave for bringing this back up after so long it finally actually came to fruition. If you dare to dream sometimes dreams do come true. I'd also like to thank my wife for her patience and understanding of my one and only hobby and letting me do something like this. Thanks babe your the greatest.

This has been the best motorcycle holiday ever by a long shot, the only way I think I would have made it better was to ride my own bike around. I'd wanted something to remember the tour with after we had finished it so I decided to get 4 T shirts made up for the other guys. I'd asked their shirt size early on and they forgot up until day 2 and asked why I had asked them, geoff thought that Paradise Motorcycle tours was giving us t shirts but little did they know I used a design your own t shirt web site and bought them some. You should have seen the smiles on their faces when I gave them the shirts, It made it all worth while.

Being the middle of summer it wasn't very cold, I think 8°C was the lowest I saw and I didn't even have thermals on, I took them but didn't wear them because it wasn't needed. The hottest I saw was 29.5°C. I pretty much wore just my leathers with a t shirt underneath for all of the tour. Petrol prices were pretty steep at anywhere between $2.24 - $2.48 per litre for premium unleaded which was a bit xxx'y. We'd pretty much booked all our accommodation in advance except the last night, which was lucky as a lot of places had no vacancies when we got in around 6pm or later. It probably wouldn't be too much of a problem if you get in earlier.

The last thing I can say is if that you've ever thought of doing an Middle Earth(NZ) tour, just do it, you won't regret it. It is some of the most spectacular riding ever with scenery to die for. What are you waiting for get over there and do it.

New Zealand - Day 1

Christchurch to Nelson - Feb 11

It was a late start to the morning thankfully because my flight didn't get in until near midnight and I waited for my brothers flight just after midnight so we could go to the motel in the one bus. Wayne from Paradise Motorcycle Tours picked us up at 9:20 and we were dropped off at Hampton Motorcycles where the bikes were waiting for us. Three off BMW F800 GS and one Triumph Explorer 1200 were our weapons bludgeoning instruments of choice, Wayne, Geoff and myself had the GS and my brother had the trumpy. Wayne noticed that the front tyre had some cracks in it and mentioned it to Wayne of Paradise and he had the mechanic change it no questions asked. Excellent service from Paradise. The weather was looking pretty good as well at least it's a nice start to the trip.

By the time we got away it was about 10:45 and we still had 460 odd kms to churn through so it was time to get going with as little stops as we could afford. Our first turn off out of Christchurch from the main highway was towards Hanmer Springs. Unfortunately Geoffrey was leading and had obviously not looked at any of the maps that I sent as he rode off up the main Hwy. Wayne had to end up chasing him down and suggested that if he didn't know where we were going that he shouldn't lead. We all had a laugh at Geoffs expense and continued on up the inland scenic route as an alternate to the main highway.

Waiau River

It wasn't long before we got the red and blues flashed at us by the local constabulary, warning us to slow down. We had only been doing about 115-120 km at the time anyway. It's a weird feeling riding in another country knowing that you can't lose you license for speeding, but I suppose they could deport you if you were doing some really silly speeds.

The inland scenic route is a great road, very scenic with lots of twisty bits to keep us happy as well as lots of sweeping bends through the forested hills on either side of the road.

We finally arrived in Kaikoura where we faced our next stuff up of the trip and its only about 3 hours in. Dave and myself said to Geoff that we would go back into town along the beach after we leave the petrol station. Well it seems that Geoff forgot to mention this to Wayne, so when we exited the servo and went right, back into town Wayne went left out of town towards Picton. Little were we to know we wouldn't see Wayno until we arrived in Nelson for the night. So it was only 200kms before we had lost one of the crew. Onya Geoffro.

We had a quick drink in the main drag of Kaikoura which is where we realised that wayno wasn't going to join us so we hit the road again headed for Blenheim. The road was excellent along this section but as we were pressed for time to get to Nelson before dark, I didn't stop for photos along here, I'll come to regret that later as the scenery along the coast here was spectacular. The road wound its way along the ocean front with large hills on the opposite side. We stopped in at the Omaka Air Musuem in Blenheim but unfortunately it was closed when we got there at 4:30 but we still got to see some of the old World War 1 planes in the hangers as well as a Hurricane and stuka out the front.

Hurricane Davo

Bi-planes

Stuka

The road to Picton was very busy with traffic, which I assume was headed for the inter islander ferry. We took the Queen Charlotte Pass between Picton and Nelson. I remember scrapping the centre stand on the beemer first on a couple of left handers then on some right handers. The bike was telling me it was getting near the limits of clearance. This is one of the twistiest roads I think I've ever ridden on. It's pretty tricky trying to learn a new bike and new roads at the same time. The BMW is so far removed from my R1 its not funny but I'm still having fun on it. In fact I'm having a blast.

Lookout over Picton

Okiwa Bay

The road into Nelson is an absolute cracker with a very long winding section of road heading into Nelson only about 20kms from town. It has been hot mixed all the way along and was top fun but we were very much looking forward to getting off the bikes and getting a beer and food, it had been a long day. Nelson appeared to be a town that doesn't sleep as we were out late on a tuesday and we could hear people all night up the street at other pubs and clubs. We stayed in the Wakatu Hotel which was pretty ordinary with standard pub type rooms, nothing flash.

Road into Nelson from Picton

A couple of initial impressions of the BMW F800 GS. Well how does it go and handle. I must admit I initially struggle with it in over taking situations as I like to get around quickly but this thing lacks any sort of punch. Don't get me wrong it still can go bloody fast but it takes a while to get there. It seemed to handle the bends ok and the steering was fairly quick and direct only feeling slow in the really twisty bits along Queen Charlotte drive. The 21inch front was a bit vague in the feel department but it seemed planted. The bike lacked ground clearance that's for sure, as you will see on day 8. I struggled a little with the height of the bike as well as it was also pretty top heavy, but was easily manoeuvred at low speeds doing u turns etc.



Here is the google maps link to the first days riding.



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