Tuesday, March 18, 2014

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 ToursParadise 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.






12 comments:

  1. A very nice summary for your trip. So cool that you designed the t-shirts too.

    A nice moment to go with the photos and memories.

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    1. When the trip becomes but a distant memory at least I'll still have the t shirt, to say been there done that.

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  2. Thank you, Chill for taking the time and effort to share this wonderful journey with us. I have genuinely enjoyed your write up. If you ever come to Europe, you better get used to the gas prices, tho.

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    1. Thanks Sonja, it took awhile to peice it together but I'm pretty happy with it. I'd love to ride around Europe. I wonder how I could get paid to ride around there and blog at the same time??? Ah the mysteries of life.

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  3. Steve:

    Premium fuel here is $1.60 / litre and our Cdn dollar is very close to the NZ$ only 2% difference right now. As compared to the USA an hour south we have high gas prices.

    the memory of this riding vacation will remain with you for many years. and of course you also produced a nice t-shirt which was very nice. You traveled through so much stunning scenery. I know I would be stopping all the time for photos.

    The only troubling thing for me would be to get used to riding on the wrong side of the road

    bob
    A weekend photographer or Riding the Wet Coast

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    1. Hi Bob
      Fuel price's here is around $1.50 - 1.60 per litre too and I thought that was high, those poor kiwi's.
      Your mean riding on the left, that it is the correct side, you've just been doing it wrong for the last 60 years. Lol

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  4. Cool idea doing the shirts for everyone. So how many k's did ya do? You know the TT is on every year so you could pop over for the weekend and ride most of those roads again...

    Think I might do 5-600kms of the North Island on Saturday...

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    1. Oops I knew I forgot something - it was the mileage. I've now added that bit in, we did 3900kms.
      I don't think I could afford to do the TT in 2 days such a rush and so many things to stop and look at.

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  5. thanks for a great ride report giving a insight into the riding over there
    good pics and a entertaining journey
    love the tshirt idea to remember the trip

    so when is your next one over there

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    1. The next tour will probably end my marriage so it won't be anytime soon, although a North Island tour would be nice.
      Thanks for checking it out mate!
      Cheers & ride safe

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  6. Really enjoyed reading about your great NZ trip. Excellent pictures and videos. Have driven most of the places you visited but would love to do it on a bike. Do you know if the rental company offered the F700 GS, the F800 is too tall for me.

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    1. Thanks Theo, it was the best tour yet. Riding in NSw probably won't be the same again. Paradise Motorcycles have lots of bikes. They have the F650, F700, F800 and others. It only cost about $175 per day so it wasn't to bad.

      The F800 was too tall for me to and I'm 180cm tall.

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