New Zealand - Day 4

Hanmer Springs to Fox Glacier - Feb 14

Today we had an early start and were on the road by 8am as we had quite a lot of riding to do today and through some beautiful mountain scenery and if was to be anything like yesterdays effort which left me feeling like the motorcycle paparazzi then it would be a very long day. I got to sample the Triumph Explorer 1200 from Hanmer Springs to the next fuel stop. It had a very torquey engine and I ended up riding it in 4th gear along the highway as it felt right, I really liked it along the big open sweepers it felt better than the beemer, not sure what it would be like in the tight twisties though. I didn't get the buffeting from the screen like on the bmw either.

We cruised back down towards Christchurch but took the inland route through to Rangiora. We actually didn't make it in there which was a designated fuel stop because the bridge was blocked to all traffic for some reason, probably an accident we couldn't quite see why. So we diverted around through Ashley Gorge which was the way I wanted to go anyway. It was a beaut ride through the country side but everyone was getting worried about their fuel. Doubters!

We stopped in Oxford for fuel for both the bikes and us before we made the ascent up the legendary Arthur's Pass. I must say that it did not disappoint, I loved the mountain scenery along here with big sweepers running through the valleys between the huge mountain ranges. They are unlike anything we have in Australia.

Time to get the camera's out boys

Pictures of you, Pictures of me

It was just after the two photos above that my brother lost his gopro off of his bike. He too mounted it to the surface of the side pannier like Geoffro back in day 2's video, although I didn't know at the time as I pulled over to take photo's of my own I saw Wayne pull in and asked where Dave was and he just said that Dave had turned back which we assumed he was just taking more photos but he went looking unsuccessfully for his gopro.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing along this stretch of road. You'd come around one bend to this huge mountainous scenery where you would stop and take some photo's. I'd then remount the bike and ride two bends later and say" Oh wow" and have to pull over again to take another couple of photos. It will take us 2 or 3 days to get to Fox Glacier at this rate. But boy was it fantastic scenery.

Lake Pearson

We arrived at the top of Arthur's pass which there's not a lot there just a little village and then some twisty roads coming back down. Then we came to the via duct which is an amazing piece of engineering in the mountain pass. As we pulled into the car park at the look out we noticed some Kea's sitting on some tourists car. We had been warned about the Kea's eating bike seats and grips etc When Dave left his bike to take some photo's they pounced on his bike one attacking the front tyre. Another flew up on the top box to see if he could get at his gloves. Geoff vowed to run one over by the time we left NZ but sadly for him, but happily for the Kea he didn't manage to do it.

Pesky Kea's

Via Duct

The road down from the via duct was probably one of the worst surfaces we had ridden on in NZ so far, it just reminded me of riding on NSW roads back home but they were probably still better than our roads. The surface had broken up probably due to the harsh winter. It's hard to think that this road is a major Highway. Roads like this back home are relegated to being back roads.





The weather started to turn a bit overcast again as we approached the west coast and Hokitika where we stopped for some fuel and a bite to eat. We continued on down towards Franz Joseph and Fox Glacier. The further south we went the weather got worse covering the mountains with cloud and spitting with rain again.

Road to Franz Joseph

Even though the weather had turned bad again with low cloud cover I still wanted to go up and have a look at Franz Joseph glacier to see if I could get a photo to compare when I was here in 2007. The other guys continued on into Fox as I turned off. It was a bit unfortunate that I didn't get a good view of the glacier today, but you can just make out that it has retreated quite a lot from looking at my 2 pics below. I can barely see any glacier in the 2014 pic.

2014 Franz Joseph

2007 Franz Joseph Glacier

After the disappointment of not seeing much at the glacier I was just about spent for the day and just wanted to get there and get out of my riding gear. We'd done about 500km already and it was only a short 24km ride from Franz to Fox and it's a cracking bit of road. Here's a very short video of the fun to be had between the glaciers.




Our digs for the night was the Fox Glacier Inn. The accommodation was quite cheap and not to bad quality. Nice clean and comfortable rooms, and not far to the bar. I saw a few Kea in the car park on the way in and one was ripping up the pub garden hose. After we had diner the publican Shane told us to put the bikes inside the bar. We laughed at his suggestion but he was serious and we brought them in so the Kea wouldn't feast on them. This place was awesome, I'd recommend it to anyone wanting cheap, clean friendly place to stay. We ended up staying up for a couple of hours chatting with the publican and his wife until they closed up, which was when we left. Another fantastic days riding, Wow can it keep getting any better? Geeze this place is good. Might have to think about moving to NZ.....

Bikes in the Bar

Happy Days.....

Here is the map of the route for day 4's riding.


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New Zealand - Day 3

Westport to Hanmer Springs - Feb 13

We awoke in Westport to drizzling rain which put a bit of an dampener on things but after a couple of bacon & egg rolls cooked on the hotel barbie we were feeling a bit more enthusiastic.
We got under way out of town along the coast via Capefoul wind. None of us were wondering how it got that name with the conditions we were riding in. Even though the weather seemed to be bad it didn't stop Geoff and Dave from getting in touch with their homosexual side(more on this in Queenstown day 5).

Even in the rain the west coast had some spectacular riding but I would have much preferred it in the dry. The scenery was still stunning, well at least what we could see of it anyway as the clouds were rolling in low over the mountain range and you couldn't see the tops of them.

West Coast Hospitality

Thumbs up Davo

We stopped in at Punakaiki, where they have the pancake rocks and blow holes. These must be some of the strangest rock formations I think I've ever seen. I bet we scared some of the tourists walking in there in our full gear and still wearing our helmets because it was still raining although half way through the rain did stop so we got to take our helmets off. Amazing rock formations and the sea was crashing in making all the blow holes err, blow.

Pancake Rocks

Blow Hole

We continued on into Greymouth but didn't have time to visit Monteiths brewery, ah well we will just have to be content with drinking their pure beer goodness at the local pub. It had stopped raining by now and was just overcast. After Greymouth we passed by Historic Brunner Mining site. After that we continued on into Reefton. It was along here that I was about to overtake a car and decided not to as I could see a railway crossing ahead with a 45kmh bend on the other side. It didn't stop Geoff from barrelling past at ridiculous speed, I could imagine the expression on his face as he accelerated into that 45 bend at about 130 or so. We had a good chuckle about that one at the pub later. We stopped in Reefton where we stopped for fuel and a break before we went up over the famous Lewis Pass.

Lewis Pass is the first of the four iconic passes in New Zealand that we would be riding and I couldn't wait. We would be riding 3 of the passes in 3 days back to back, so it will be good to be able to compare them.

Brunner Mining Site

Unfortunately for us as we were leaving Reefton it started to rain on us again. Not heavy rain but just enough to wet us and the road. The road itself was a beauty winding its way for ever up the pass in through heavy lush forest all the way. Once we reached the summit and started to come down the other side of the pass the rain eased up and stopped and the roads dried up making it much more enjoyable.

After the top of the pass I noticed that the scenery start to change fairly drastically from lush forest to a more harsh and steep barren mountainous landscape. This must look magical in winter when there is snow on the peaks. There was no snow now being the middle of summer, the temperature at the top of the pass was about 8°C and wet. I was using the heated grips though here. They felt weird using them with the top of your hand being cold and underneath being very warm. It felt like I was holding on too tight. Just a weird feeling. But coming down out on the Hanmer springs side of the pass the temp soared back up to about 20°C and nice and sunny so I turned them back off again when it warmed up.

Drying roads increasing the fun factor

The views along here were stunning with huge valleys and steep mountains with rivers tracking along the valley floor. The roads opened up into some really big sweepers here which allowed us to open the bikes up a bit more. And I can attest to the fact that the BMW does go bloody fast. I was lucky along here as the local constabulary was coming the other way about 1 minute after I was zooming along bloody fast which made me slow down in a hell of a hurry. I can see why they patrol this section of road, it must be easy pickings.

Waiau River

The road flows along next to the Waiau River until the turn off into Hanmer Springs. This is the same river we stopped on the bridge and photographed on day 1 of the trip as we headed up the inland scenic route.

We finally got into Hanmer Springs fairly late in the afternoon even though this was one of the shortest days we would experience on the road. Everyone was itching to get out and go down to the hot springs and thermal pools. I didn't get any photo's whilst at the pools but they were very relaxing just lazing in the hot water checking out some of the local talent. We stayed here at a place called Jack in the Green which turned out to be pretty good, cheap and clean. We ended up back at our room relaxing and having a bbq and beers in the green. We had a big day planned for tomorrow with an early start so we didn't have a big night.

Beers, Bikes and BBQ's. Does it get any better.

If I'd begun to hate the screen on the beemer in the dry then I was really loathing it in the wet. Rather than have water bead off to either side of my visor it was beading straight down then flying off and I could see it going up,down and then swirling around and sometimes flying back in through my slightly cracked visor and smacking me in the face. Annoying to say the least. Where is that bloody hacksaw.

Even though it rained for about half of the day we still had a fantastic time especially when it dried up coming down Lewis pass to Hanmer. Fantastic scenery.



Here's the map of day 3 riding from Westport to Hanmer Springs via Greymouth.


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New Zealand - Day 2

Nelson to Westport Wednesday - Feb 12

The morning started out sunny and fine even though some of us were a little on the dusty side after last night, luckily I was ok, Dave didn't look to good. A quick breaky in Nelson at the Lambretta cafe and we headed on out towards Takaka Hill. I wasn't sure what to expect along here and if I thought yesterdays riding was a real treat then we hadn't seen anything yet.

Breakfast at Lambrettas

Takaka Hill was some of the most fantastic blacktop twisties you could find anywhere which wound its way from near sea level up to the peak of 791 metres(2595 Ft) and back down to the township of Takaka. I think Wayne put it best when at the lookout he said New Zealand must be the love child of Australia and Austria. The views along this road were magnificent.

Takaka Hill Lookout

Takaka Hill Views

From the lookout you could see the road winding its way down through the lush forested hillside and down onto the valley floor and then out of sight. Beautiful.

The road winds ever on.....

We made our way down into Takaka township which is just a small tourist village but very pretty. After a quick drink it was back on the bikes and it was so unfortunate that we had to ride back over the hill again to get back to Murchison. We put the cameras on the bikes halfway back up the hill and it was here that I captured the first camera of the trip biting the dust err tarmac.



To see Geoff's video of his camera falling off click this < LINK >

The centre stands came in for another hammering up and down Takaka Hill, ground clearance on these BMW's is a bit on the low side so I have to take it a bit easy. From here we fueled up again and headed out towards Murchison. The valley road along here until we got to Kohatu was a fantastic run of sweepers through the pine forested hills, pure riding delight. It was early afternoon and we stopped at this little cafe on the corner at Kohatu. Excellent coffee and caramel slice for a late lunch/early afternoon tea, it was to early for beers. It was along this section Geoff and Dave had swapped bikes. When Geoff pulled up he had a gopro in one hand with a mount missing some bits. He'd managed to catch Dave's gopro as it was falling off the handle bars. Nice one Roosty.

Kohatu Cafe

There was rain coming over the tops of the mountains through here and I was certain we would need to stop and put on our rain gear but every time it looked like we were about to get wet the road suddenly turned away from the rain clouds and wound its way into the next valley over. The ride over Hope saddle was some excellent bit of road, with awesome views. Continuing on we made our way through Murchison and on into Upper Buller Gorge. I had driven Buller before but not ridden it, and was much more fun on the bike. The sections along the forest and river is fantastic riding and very scenic, it's more or less high speed sweepers all the way. We passed by the Swing bridge and jet boating, no time for that though.

Buller River near Murchison

Swing Bridge

Buller River

We then turned into Lower Buller Gorge which heads to Westport. There was a bit less traffic through here and the road was even better than Upper Buller. The sections along the river were magic. There was even the road going through this huge cutting out of the hillside with the road being single lane through. Lots of high speed sweepers with some slower corners thrown in with fantastic river views.

Kill Kenny Lookout

Single lane Cutting

Lower Buller Gorge

It was spitting with rain in the last photo, so it was time to put the camera's away and enjoy the remainder of the road into Westport. We stayed at the Buller Bridge Motel here and the room was fantastic with comfy beds and no traffic noise outside with very friendly hosts. Another fantastic days riding even better than the day before, surely it can't get any better than this can it?

Here's the best bits of lower Buller Gorge from the rock cutting.




Day 2's thoughts on the bike. I've now mastered mounting the bloody thing. It's so tall I had difficulty getting on and off but now I just mount it like a horse by putting one foot on the left peg and step up and over onto the right peg. Sorted. Parking on angled surfaces is a bad thing as it's so top heavy and makes remounting near impossible and if the angle is too big the bike wants to topple over. I've started to have a hate/hate relationship with the massive screen on this bike. It's far to tall and if I ride along with the visor cracked the wind blast makes the visor vibrate and become noisy. It also makes lots of wind noise, if I move my head out to the left of the screen into the wind blast my helmet becomes almost dead quiet. I'd like to take a hacksaw to that screen.


Day 2 Map below.


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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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