Harry Hemstreet on a South Island Scamper - December 2002

Wow - what a trip.

We started planning for this trip in 1995. Sent our deposit to Beach's, and then decided in the middle of our move to Colorado, that we could not swing a New Zealand trip along with our move. We had Beach's hold our deposit for 5 years, and then convinced our friends Phil and Janet and Ralph and Judy to join us. We made our plane reservations in January of 2002 and waited anxiously for 10 months and departure day.

The airplane ride from Denver to Christchurch New Zealand (Wed 11/27) requires about 15 hours in the air, plus several hours of layovers in LA and Auckland - about 20 hours elapsed time. We flew business class, so the journey was reasonably comfortable. Ralph and Judy were on the LA - Auckland leg, but flew in steerage - so we don't see much of them.

Afternoon arrival in Christchurch was uneventful as we take a shuttle to our hotel, unpack and try to stay awake for the remainder of the day (Friday - 11/29). Our first impressions were; it’s a little cool here (low 60's) and pretty windy. The city is quite interesting and we spend Saturday and Sunday sightseeing and exploring.

Sunday afternoon, Phil and Janet arrive from Sydney and we hook up with them for dinner.

At Monday morning breakfast we meet our tour hosts for the trip, Al Wilson and Graham Beker. We also meet the three other bikers who will be participating - Peter and Pauline Mellor from the UK (riding 2 up), and Kenny Pollock - an Irishman from Belfast.

Peter describes himself as an ordinary bloke who works in a thermostat factory in the English midlands. Pauline is a nurse. Kenny is a Sergeant Major in the British army (military intelligence) and is a veteran of the Balkans and Kosovo. Kenny is the youngest of our group at age 36.

Monday afternoon (12/2) - we meet our bikes for the first time and are ready for a shakedown cruise to Akaroa, a charming French village on the Banks Peninsula (190 km round trip). Phil and I have BMW R1150GS's, Peter will be riding an R1150R and Kenny has picked a Honda Shadow for his journey.  Ralph and Judy are not present for the shakedown, as they will not arrive until 7:00 pm tonight. Ralph will be on a Harley.

Al stresses to us that we will be riding on the 'lift' - that's Kiwi for left. Since this is our first foray into New Zealand traffic, we ride as 2 groups - each group being led by one of our hosts. The ride is uneventful and we spend a pleasant 20 minutes kibitzing on the pier at Akaroa harbor. Al is pleased by our progress, apparent riding skills (little does he know) and our riding gear. It seems that it is not uncommon for someone to show up for one of their tours somewhat ill prepared.

It is Monday evening and our first official dinner as a group. We meet in the hotel bar at 7:00 pm for the first of what will become a daily briefing by Al. We bring our maps and notebooks. Al outlines the itinerary for tomorrow's ride, points out interesting places we may want to stop and suggests the best place to stop for lunch. Our first day's ride is not overly long, so the plan is to be under way by 10:00 am. Briefing over, it's off to dinner where we get to know one another a little better. We find that Graham is an animated storyteller and are quickly into a laugh filled evening - listening to Graham's wee stories. Kiwis never use small - it has to be wee.

Tuesday morning (12/3) is busy as we sort out all our 'stuff' - one pile for stuff that goes with us, one pile for stuff that we leave at the hotel. It seems like we have enough stuff to last us for a couple of months. Since we do not have to carry any luggage on the bike, we are overly generous in our 'take along' stuff.

About 10:00 am - as scheduled, we are under way. The plan is to stay together as we exit the city, then it's everyone for themselves. Ride your own ride they say.

Our first encounter with Kiwi highways is relatively benign - not much traffic once we are away from Christchurch, not a whole lot of scenery in the first leg as we head south along the coast. Our lunch stop is in Geraldine where we enjoy a cappuccino and really good sandwiches. In general, our food throughout the journey is excellent and Beth and I came to really love the wonderful cappuccinos available almost everywhere in NZ. Our next stop is agreed to be Lake Tekapo, where we will gas up, check out some local sights and proceed on to Lake Pukaki and Mount Cook - assuming the weather was agreeable.

The scenery starts to become interesting as we head away from the coast and towards the west and the Southern Alps. The road also becomes more interesting as it starts to get twistier.

Beth and I are really taking our time, so we are far back from the lead pack when we arrive in Lake Tekapo, our first gas stop. We ride through the small town - checking both gas stations for signs of our group. No luck. So I pull off the main highway and do a U turn back up a slight incline. As I approach the highway I see that I am going to have to stop on this little incline, realize that I am in 2nd gear, kill the engine and over we go. Damn. We lay on the ground - each asking are you OK? Of course we are ok - we have these $700.00 riding suits, great helmets and mongo boots - we should be able to sustain a 4-foot fall at zero MPH!

We right the bike, brush off the gravel and check the damage: scratched windscreen, scuffed cylinder head and totaled left turn indicator. It turns out that the guys always have a stock of turn indicators in the luggage van, so they will make necessary repairs tonight. My ending damage bill came to about $220.00. Graham arrives (it was his turn to ride) just as we are righting the bike. This is the first in a series of encounters where we suspect that the Kiwis have implanted GPS sensors on our bikes or us. They always know where we are and always seem to show up just when they are needed.

Arriving at Lake Pukaki - our rendezvous point for the Mount Cook detour, we establish that the weather is great - warm and sunny. The ride from here to Mount Cook is 56 km one way. The scenery has become progressively more fantastic as we head west, now it's awesome. We pull the bike over several times to photograph the unfolding panorama of beautiful snow capped peaks, glaciers and the unusual turquoise colored Lake Pukaki.

For the metric challenged:  1 kilometer = .62 miles, 1 meter = 3.28 ft, 1 mile = 1.6 kilometers.

Mount Cook is New Zealand’s highest peak at 3764 meters. This is where Sir Edmund Hillary initially prepared for Everest. What are especially awesome are the glaciers, Hooker and Tasman. The Tasman glacier is one of the longest in the world, running 31 kilometers down Mount Tasman - 600 meters thick and almost 2 KM wide. The sun is perfect as it backlights the wispy snow blowing over the lip of the mountains. I am thankful that we invested in a digital camera for the trip. We never hesitate to take a picture - knowing that we have unlimited capacity (I had my laptop along) and zero consequences of taking a bad picture. Our final count was almost 600 pictures - but I wish we had taken even more.

Our first overnight is at the small town of Twizel.  The motel is superb. We shower and relax before our 7:00 meeting in the motel bar.

Our first dinner on the road is delicious. We are given a fixed menu, with choices of 3 appetizers, 3-4 mains and 3 or more desserts. We have been taking turns buying wine, but soon decide that it is easier for one person to buy all the time and split the tab at the end of the meal. When buying our dinner wine, we always tried to buy something that was grown close to our current location. New Zealand wine is superb and it was great fun trying delicious wines that we never see in the US.

Next morning (Wed 12/4) we are off again about 9:00 am. A beautiful sunny day (as were most). We experience temps in the upper 60's, climbing to the low 70'a as the day progresses. We see more neat roads and beautiful scenery, especially as we pass Lakes Aviemore and Waitaki on the way to the east coast. We make several stops for pictures along the way. Our lunch stop is in the seaside town of Moeraki, where we gather at a wonderful seafood restaurant, right on the ocean. Our group takes over the restaurant deck and we have our first taste of New Zealand green lipped mussels - delicious.

A few KM's past our lunch stop, we turn off the main highway and head east onto Mt. Cargill road. Mt. Cargil is a narrow, climbing, twisting, turning beauty that follows the hilly contours and affords spectacular views of the ocean and Otago Harbor. After a photo stop at a spectacular turn out we are soon in Dunedin. This is where Al grew up, so he quickly escorts us into the heart of the city. We park our bikes in the middle of the town 'Octagon' and set out for a brief hour of shopping and an ice cream cone. Al leads us to the world’s most southern Harley dealer so Ralph can pick up a T-shirt.

We leave the Harley dealer and proceed east onto the Otago peninsula and our pit stop for the night - Larnach Castle.

The castle is a pretty interesting place. The Hon W.J.M. Larnach built it for his wife in the 1870’s. This guy had a pretty dysfunctional family. His first wife died shortly after the castle was completed. His second wife also died young and his third wife ran off with his son from marriage number 1. He eventually shot himself, as did the son.  We are housed in a lodge in back of the castle. There are spectacular views from almost every vantage point as this is the highest point on the peninsula.

Our dinner tonight is in the dining room of the castle - which our little group has exclusively. Again the dinner is delicious, the conversation stimulating and the wine outstanding.  The only negative of this stop was Ralph's wee tip over on his Harley as he tried to muscle it around on the gravel driveway. Let's see - that's 2 down and 3 to go.

Morning (Thru 12/5) finds the whole peninsula enveloped in thick fog. We have breakfast (really good too) in the castle stables, take a quick tour of the castle and head out for our next stop. The fog is gone as soon as we reach the mainland and again the day turns sunny and nice - quite warm. Our lunch stop today is the only lunch provided (by Beach’s) on the tour. We are given hand drawn maps that will guide us to Lammerview Orchard in the tiny town (crossroads) of Ettrick. Our hosts are Judith and Alistair and the lunch is at their beautiful home and orchard. Judith is a gardener and takes great pride in showing us around her beautiful gardens. There is a pool and several in our band decide to cool off - temps are in the low 80's. Lunch is spectacular with hearty homemade fare.

We are all hesitant to leave this peaceful setting, but we do have a destination to reach. Al leads us over some delightful back roads that remind me of southwestern Wisconsin. If the road sign had said this was county road JJ - I would have thought I was back in the US.

After re-uniting with the main highway, we proceed west into the alleged windiest part of New Zealand. It was windy, but not a big deal and we would find windier, much windier, roads.

Our destination today is near the towns of Te Anau and Manapouri. The unusual thing about tonight and tomorrow night's stay is that we will not be going to a hotel/ motel, but will be staying on working farms. Al gives us maps to individual farms (3 farms) and the group will be split among these farms. Murray and Decima Lott own our farm. The farm is call Manapouri Downs - 3000 acres, sheep and beef cattle are the primary products. Al and Graham - our ride hosts - will also be staying here.

We pull into driveway to the farmhouse and are met by Jasmine - a Jack Russell terrier who has been waiting all day for someone to play with. Cute. Decima and Murray welcome us to their home and show us to our room - very nice home, very nice room. As soon as we are out of our riding gear, Murray invites us on a little tour of the farm in his truck.  We head out into the fields, surrounded by a gazillion sheep. Murray (almost 70) is a character. He is full of stories and fun as he hauls us into the hills around his beautiful farm. As soon as we return to the farmhouse, Beth is offered a chance to feed their pet lamb - she had asked if she could touch one. The lamb is cute as a button and practically inhales a bottle of milk as we pet him/her?

Murray's living room has a display case full of trophies he has won in sheep dog competitions. Turns out that Murray is quite well known as a sheep dog trainer and it doesn't take a lot of arm-twisting for him to give us a wee demonstration. I don't know that much about sheep dogs other than they are supposed to help move sheep around, but I was totally impressed. Murray used only a whistle to give precise orders to the dog - exactly where, when and how to move the sheep. The dog was absolutely silent through the whole exercise - basically intimidating the sheep to do exactly what he wanted. Cool.

Dinner tonight is home style - a delicious roast of lamb in luscious gravy with roasted vegetables. By this time Al and Graham have joined us and a rollicking round of story telling by Murray, Graham and Al has us all holding our sides from laughing so hard.

Today (Fri 12/6) we are awakened to the pitter-patter of rain. Our destination today is Milford Sound a 320 KM round trip from our farms near Te Anau. The plan is for everybody to meet at the BP station in Te Anau by 10:00 am. We have a 1:30 pm boat ride scheduled, so that should give us plenty of time to get to the sound. We buy picnic lunches to eat on the boat and are off around 10:30. Prior to our departure, we have our usual briefing by Al and he gives us wee warning about how the road to Milford is a bit 'rugged' and to use caution when we go through the Homer tunnel (named after the animated TV star?).

This is a spectacular ride. We skirt Lake Te Anau for the first 30 or so KM’s then dive in and out of lush forests before popping out into a spectacular valley - rimmed by mountains and dozens of waterfalls. The last 30 KM's are indeed rugged, as the road unexpectedly and with little warning reduces to one lane! Great - there are tour busses all over - I cross my fingers and hope that we do not encounter one on the next curve.

The one lane tack is only a tease as we approach Homer's tunnel, shift into first and dive right in. Holy crap - I can't see a thing. It's as though we just rode into a bottle of black ink! After about 10 seconds I can finally see the sides of the tunnel (very close) and my headlight is now visible. The tunnel has a wicked downward slope and is very, very bumpy/ rocky. Before we can get really spooked, we are out of it and covering the last few KM's to the sound. These last few KM's through the Cleddau Valley are awesomely beautiful. I have a really hard time concentrating on where I'm going.

Milford sound has to be seen to be believed. It has to be one of the most beautiful places on this planet. We were lucky to have our tour on a somewhat rainy day. When it rains - even a little bit, there are hundreds of waterfalls - all spectacular. This was one of the real highlights of the trip. We were even luckier to catch sight of a pair of extremely rare Fiordland crested penguins on our 2.5 hour boat trip through the sound. Awesome!

Our boat ride ends about 4:00 pm and we gear up for our trip back to the farms. Due to our late arrival, dinner tonight is late. While waiting for Graham to complete his evening run, a rabbit is sighted enjoying Decima's garden. Murray (ever the gentleman) asks us if we mind if he kills the hare. We say - no problem Murray - as long as we can watch. Within a few minutes we see Murray headed towards the garden with his shotgun, while Al is attempting to flush the beast in Murray's direction. Murray takes aim and pulls the trigger, but no shot and the hare (knowing his luck won't last forever) - disappears. Murray utters a wee curse as he notices that the safety is on.

Again the meal is superb and this time we have a couple of bottles of wine (from Te Anau) to add to the occasion. We relax completely and enjoy the fantastic view from the Lott's porch.

Saturday morning (12/7) - a very lazy start to the day as we enjoy a typical Kiwi breakfast prepared by Decima; fried eggs, bacon, hash browns and broiled tomatoes. The bacon is not like our bacon, but like English/ European bacon - mostly lean. Our plan is to meet at the main highway about 10:00 am for our ride today to Queenstown. This is a relatively short ride - about 200 km's, but we will be taking a few detours as we get closer to Queenstown.

It is a spectacular sunny but cool day. Our first stop (for cappuccino of course) is in the small village of Kingston at the foot of Lake Wakatipu. We make a brief visit to the Kingston Flyer - a legendary steam train housed near the lake. As we leave Kingston, the road along Lake Wakatipu is fantastic as it follows the serpentine shoreline, exposing ever more scenic vistas of lake and mountains.

Our lunch stop today is in the small tourist town of Arrowtown - just north of Queenstown. While relaxing after lunch we find a New Zealand magazine titled Ralph - which of course I have to buy and present to our own Ralph. It's a men's magazine - appropriate for Ralph. After lunch we take a wee detour up the slopes of Coronet Peak where we have a great overview of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu.

Queenstown is a 2-night stop for us, and everyone is ready for a day off. The town is full of shops and is touristy, but some of our wives are serial shoppers - so, no problem. Beth and I spend our free day just relaxing and shopping, with a ride on the 1912 coal steamer, TSS Earnslaw to highlight our day. Queenstown reminds me of Aspen - a major ski resort in the winter but with a lot of exciting summer activities. The city boasts that it is the adrenaline capitol of New Zealand, with para gliding, bungee jumping, jet boating, skydiving, white water rafting and similar mad options available from several operators. Queenstown is also the hometown of Graham Beker - and we get to meet his lovely wife Donna at dinner. Graham and Donna (she rides a Harley) are frequent guides for Beach's European tours during the New Zealand winter.

Monday morning (12/9) - Al gives us our daily briefing at breakfast and we are on our way around 9:00 am. Our route today will take us to the west coast of the South Island and the town of Fox Glacier. The first leg today winds north on the Crown Road to the small town of Wanaka. This 50 km stretch is a bit like Trail Ridge road - but without any traffic. Starting with many switchbacks, we climb until we are riding along a scenic ridge - very twisty and an excellent road. Another beautiful and sunny day.

At Wanaka, we are in the hometown of our tour leader Al, so we stop at his home for coffee and a wee visit.

We all stop for picnic supplies in Wanaka, as there will be several scenic picnic spots along the lakes Hawea and Wanaka as we head north. Beth and I find a spot on the most northern point of Lake Wanaka for a very pleasant (and isolated) picnic lunch.

After lunch it's another scenic ride through dense forest, then along the Haast River until we finally reach the sea at Haast Village. Gas and a potty break and we start our last 140 km's along the coast. It's a bit windy, but the road and scenery are again quite spectacular. We hit a few turn outs for pictures along the way and are in Fox Glacier around 5:00 pm. This part of New Zealand is really remote and isolated. Almost no houses, farms or civilization for miles upon miles.

Graham has reserved several spots for us on a helicopter tour of the glaciers, but the weather has started to close in when we arrive - so no chopper tours tonight. We will try again in the morning. Dinner is at the hotel, very nice as usual. In our pre-dinner briefing tonight, Al warns us about a potential road hazard tomorrow - there are 2 one way bridges between Kumara Junction and Greymouth where the auto bridge is shared with a train. Obviously, trains have the right of way. Al says; 'Try to hit the tracks at a right angle, before turning onto the bridge. Be sure you stay in the middle of the bridge, I doubt you have enough room staying either right or left of the tracks.'  Very helpful. New Zealand is full of one-way bridges - even the major highways utilize this cost saving construction.

Tuesday morning (12/10) - it's raining buckets. No helicopter tour this morning. This is the rainy side of New Zealand.  The area is classified as a rain forest - guess we should not be surprised that we have some rain. But, damn - it's raining hard!

Oh well - we have our Aerostitches, waterproof boots and I have my Aerostitch triple digit rain gloves - should be no problem eh? Our first stop is planned to be Hokitika - the Jade capital of New Zealand. We also need to check out a T-shirt shop in Hokitika (recommended by Al) for some neat stuff.

Hokitika - 160 km, 100 miles. Raining like I have never seen - so put the head down and motor on. Heated grips - I love you. Approximately 2.5 hours (non-stop) later, we float into town and find a parking spot 2 doors down from the T-shirt shop. We are off the bike and quickly into the nearest coffee shop. Wow, warmth - feels really, really good. I look down and see water still pouring off my suit - a huge puddle forming where we stand. Customers in the coffee shop give us weird looks.  I start laughing as I try to get out of my helmet and gloves. The proprietor is trying to appear casual as I drip all over the counter. Two cappuccino’s - extra hot please.

I can't believe how wet I am, soaked completely through to the skin. Waterproof boots - what a joke. I slosh like I am walking in a lake. Aerostitch - Water-resistant?  For about 10 minutes maybe. Triple digit rain gloves? My leather gloves are not completely soaked through, but still pretty damp. We don't even try to take our suits off as we luxuriate in the warmth of the shop, our hands wrapped around the wonderful warm coffee cups. Beth is wet, but nothing like my soaked countenance.

It is still pouring outside as we finish our coffee and head up the street to the T-shirt shop. As soon as we walk into the shop, the proprietor, Ken Reece, greets us with a huge grin and a big thumbs up. Turns out that Ken is an avid biker, has toured the US extensively and knows exactly how we feel!  He invites us to drop our gear in his back room while we try to dry off a bit.

Since Ken is such a generous guy, we reciprocate and spend about NZ$300.00 on poly undershirt, poly sock liners, a set of fleece jackets, wool socks and half a dozen T-shirts. I strip down in Ken's back room, and don the fresh, dry clothes. Wonderful - I'm ready for another go!

Now somewhat warm and dry, we put on our rain shells and try to find a spot for lunch. A block or so of walking and we see several of the bikes from our group in front of a cafeteria. Hot vegetable soup, another cappuccino and we are renewed. We commiserate with Ralph and Judy - who appear to have much better rain gear than us, but are also soaked.

A small sidebar here. The preliminary information provided by Beach's guarantees that you will be rained upon on this trip. Riding in the southwest last summer, we traveled over 8,000 miles. We encountered rain twice - elapsed time riding in the rain was about 3 hours. We are totally conditioned to forget about rain.

We think we have a system that will allow us to survive the next 230 km. Dry shirts/ undershirts, fleece then our rain shells (nylon and waterproof) all under our Aerostitch. And of course, those lovely heated grips.

It is still pouring rain as we leave Hokitika, heading to Greymouth. Soon after we depart, we encounter the first one-way rail/ car bridge. This looks tricky. With the pouring rain, the rails have to be slick as ice. The right angle approach is easier said than done, since you then have to turn within the width of the tracks (about 30 inches - NZ trains are all narrow gauge). I approach the rails at about 45 degrees; hold my breath and slither/ slide onto the center track. The bridge is about 150 - 200 meters and I focus intently on the car in front of me and hold my breath for the duration. Touching the rails on either side would be an immediate disaster. We make it easily. Hey, that wasn't so bad - I lie to Beth.

Before we hit the second bridge, Graham goes past me and I stick to his taillight. The second bridge is approaching and I am so focused on the back of Graham’s bike, that I blithely follow him onto the forbidden left side of the bridge. It's time to hold my breath and really concentrate as I think there is maybe an inch or two separating my left saddlebag from the railing. Graham later admitted that he was quite surprised/ shocked when I followed him. Anyway, we make it over and again I lie to Beth about how easy that was. Beth not only held her breath, but also closed her eyes and promised God that she would go to church when we got back (assuming we did).

At a little over 120 KMs from Hokitika, we need another break. We find a coffee shop in Reefton and again make big puddles before ordering our cappuccinos. Phil and Janet spot our bike on the street and join us for our break. They were not so lucky on the one-way bridges, going down at the first bridge. Not a lot of damage to either them or their bike, other than Phil's bruised hip.  Phil noticed that as they were picking up the bike, the ditch next to the bridge was scattered with motorcycle parts.

I think we finally pulled into our motel at Hanmer Springs about 5:30 pm. Still pouring rain. As soon as we got off the bike, Kenny asks us if we stayed up today. Yes - we said, but Phil and Janet went down on the first rail bridge. Interesting says Kenny, since both he and the Mellors went down on the same bridge this afternoon. Again, not a lot of damage to bikes, but Peter has a nasty rib bruise. The Mellor's fall was evidently the worst, with Pauline flying over and landing on top of Peter.  They actually had their front tire stuck between the rail and the bridge and had a difficult time extracting the bike.

Sooo - 5 out 5 guest bikes have been dropped! I don't feel so bad now.

Wednesday morning (12/11) - the rain has stopped, still a bit cloudy but the sun is trying to peek through. Al gives us our briefing at breakfast and promises that this will be a better day. We have several route choices today, but everyone decides to head for the east coast and highway 1 for the ride north to Nelson.

After a short bit on the main highway, we turn off onto a secondary road (highway 70) and experience one of those 'best damn road you ever rode'. You remember the first time you did CO 141 or UT 12 - the same feeling. A real rhythm road, where you could often see 3 corners at once. Lot's of elevation changes, absolutely no car traffic. Beautiful.

There were a few challenges on the 95 KMs of highway 70. We have our first encounter with livestock on the road, as we meet a couple of loose bulls and a herd of sheep being moved to a new pasture. We also encountered several bees - a hazard when riding with your face shield open. One sting, one splat and a third bee that hitched a long ride in my Aerostitch to our next coffee stop in Kaikoura.

A splendid lunch stop today - I think the town was Parikawa. In any case, the only thing in Parikawa is this oceanside restaurant (The Store). We have the best seafood stew ever in a stunning setting.

During lunch we convince Graham (it's his turn to drive the van today), to stop with us at a couple of wineries - just in case we decide to purchase more than we can carry in our saddlebags. The plan is to meet him at Cloudy Bay winery first. Cloudy Bay makes the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world. It is very difficult to find in Colorado.

Between Parikawa and Blenheim we are riding along the east coast. Now we have some real wind. Not a sustained wind in any direction, but a swirling, twirling dervish of a wind. Constantly whipping us left, right, left, right - scary if you've never ridden in this strong of a wind before. There is little relief until we finally come into Blenheim.

We gas up and double check our wineries map. Another 10 minutes and we in the tasting room of Cloudy Bay. Graham pulls up a few minutes later and we do the wine tasting, buying thing. Next stop is the Villa Maria winery - another of our favorite Sauvignon Blanc’s. More tasting, buying and loading up the van.

The road between Blenheim and Nelson (about 110 KMs) is another one of those scenic, twisty, undulating delights that we seem to find at every turn. We arrive in Nelson about 4:30. Time for showers, some relaxation and a little vodka as we wind down for the day. Nelson will be another 2-night stop, and once again, everyone is ready for a day off.

Friday morning (12/13) - cloudy, but not raining at our 9:30 am start today. We turn south now, heading to the west coast and a planned lunch stop at Cape Foulwind. Our ride and the road this morning is quite pleasant, spending much of our pre-lunch ride following the twists and turns of the Buller River. The river is quite high and very brown with all the recent spring rains.

It takes a few wrong turns before we finally locate the Bay House and enjoy our fourth oceanside lunch of the trip. Post lunch we investigate the nearby seal colony with Phil and Janet.

Our destination today - our last night on the road - is Punakaiki. Our motel is within a few meters of the ocean, but behind a protective berm. The surf is loud, but very soothing. Our motel consists of little cottages that are straight out of the 50's. Minimal, but very comfortable. Our dinner tonight is at a pub about 2 blocks from the motel. The pub looks like it was transplanted from somewhere in northern Wisconsin.

Saturday morning (12/14) - our last day on the bikes - we are awakened by loud thunder and lightning flashes. Raincoats out for our walk to breakfast and Al's final briefing.  Our route today includes an option to revisit the one lane rail / car bridges. No thanks - all opt for the more scenic route.

It's raining lightly as we depart, but we now feel we are ready for rain. The rain gets more intense as we turn east towards Arthur's Pass. As we climb higher and higher, it gets darker and darker, with the rain eventually giving way to huge snowflakes. It's a bit hard to see now with snow clinging to my face shield. I can see that the snow is not sticking to the road surface, so no problem with traction. It's really cold - I love those heated grips. We creep over Arthur's Pass in heavy fog and snow, finally arriving in the village - also called Arthur's Pass. Off the bike, into the closest restaurant/ bar, and lovely, hot cappuccino’s. It is snowing hard while we take our break, but still not sticking to the ground. Good.

Within 30 minutes of riding we are out of the rain and snow and into sunshine. The remainder of our journey into Christchurch is sunny and warm.

12 days, 3700 Kilometers, 2300 miles, a few challenges, a lot of laughter, some great food and wine, fantastic scenery, superb roads, excellent riding companions. A great ride. 

MORE SIDEBARS
Kiwi Toilets
We all found the kiwi washrooms fascinating. Most toilets have double flush buttons - one for a wee flush, a second for a massive flush. We also found public washrooms in almost every town. Some of these were self-cleaning; i.e. when you leave the washroom, the door closes automatically and water is sprayed from hidden jets over the whole washroom.

Pumpkin Soup
You could pretty much guarantee that pumpkin soup was the soup of the day at every restaurant. It's seasonal, I guess. With the exception of Graham, I don't think anyone ever ordered it.

The Things We Say
Interesting how the mannerisms and culture of the 4 English-speaking countries represented on our trip (US, UK, Ireland and NZ) are quite different. Pauline Mellor highlighted this a few days into our journey when she shared her observation of our  'Americanisms':

Janet:  Hey you guys!
Judy:  Really wonderful! And Awesome!
Beth:  Exactly!

Of course we had a good laugh throughout the rest of the journey when these phrases popped up.

BMW R1150 GS
What a great bike. I even got used to the silly turn signals after 12 days of riding. Did I say that I loved the heated grips?

America's Cup
Beth and I were able to spend 2 nights in Auckland before returning home. While there we got hooked on the America's Cup race, which was under way while we were there. Actually, they were racing for the Louis Vuitton cup - which must be earned in order to challenge New Zealand (current America's Cup holder). The Louis Vuitton finals start January 8 and the America's Cup challenge races start February 15th. Nine boats from 6 countries challenged for the Louis Vuitton.

No Bikes?
When we ride in Europe, we are constantly amazed at the great number of motorcycles on the road. In New Zealand, we met only a handful of motorcycles on those beautiful roads.

Speed Limits
New Zealand has a national speed limit of 100 kph – 62 mph. The nice thing about their speed limit is that they rarely override it. If I drive from my house to Estes Park, about 30 miles, I will probably encounter 15 speed limit signs as my speed is micro managed. In New Zealand, there would be one speed limit sign – 100 kph – go to it.

Some Interesting Sheep Facts
There are some 45,000,000  sheep in New Zealand as well as a goodly number of beef and dairy cattle. While we were in New Zealand, the NZ government endorsed the Kyoto treaty re reduction of global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. One half of New Zealand’s (methane) greenhouse gas emissions are sheep farts (this from NZ TV News).

How Big Is It?
New Zealand total (270,000 sq kms) is about the size of Colorado. Population is about 3,900,000 – a little less than the state of Colorado. Less than 25% of the population lives on the South Island.

Everybody Waves
We were constantly amazed at the friendliness of New Zealanders. All clerks made eye contact, smiled at you and made you feel welcome. Anyone on a roadside (outside the cities) would usually wave at you. I got the feeling that these folks are pretty happy with their lives.