Its the Chinese New Year holidays , so me and my wife decided to go for a ride.
Actually we planned this trip/ride almost a year ago.
Finally the day has arrived.
Before we ride we have to get there.
Looking down on the mountains with the snow covered peaks.
Welcome to New Zealand .
We got everything done by the guys at South Pacific Motorcycle Tours.
From the bike rentals to the hotel bookings etc ..
After picking us up at the airport they took us to their premises.
The roads on the way to their office.
Where i finally set eyes on Isabel : )
BMW 1200RT . Great for long distance 2up touring
While we were getting ready some other riders pulled up.
Paperwork done.
Time to RIDE .!!
Mike escorted us out of town .
Our first view of the country side.
Historic marker on Tram road.
Once he was sure we were not going to crash his bike ; ) he waved us on .
On our own, onwards
All we did was take in the views.
Mountains.
And more in the distance.
Nice houses
Making hay while the sun shines : )
All we do is ride .....
Great roads .
We kept riding till we saw this interesting rock formations on our left.
Its like the cliff had been scraped away
We stopped to check it out.
Awesome blue
Rakaia Gorge. Just awesome.
bunnyrider thrilled ; )
After some time in this awesome place we continued riding.
Back to Isabel
Back on the road. Our last view of Rakaia gorge
Hilly country now
No matter what i'd rather be riding
Our eyes were drawn to the great scenery
See this hedges, these are actually pine trees cut in this shape.Why ?
cause its frickin windy..
Day one was planned to be a short ride as we just got off the plane.
We reached our destination of Geraldine.
After a late lunch we rode to our B&B.
The view from our room.
A lovely home run by a lovely couple
We spent the evening chit chatting with them while enjoying the view.
Great end to the first day.
DAY 2
Bright and early.....wait... not so bright. Infact it was dark , gloomy and raining.
And cold
We're here to ride so ride we did. The weather forecast predicts dry conditions after an hour plus riding.
Besides our gear is weather proof.
The temp when we left Geraldine was 8.5C , my new record.
The lowest before this was 10C in Laos.
Short break ,its warmer now ~ 10C yay
Screen fully up : )
Soon the skies cleared up
And the views got awesome again
After a while we saw this amazing turquoise water.
Lake Tekapo.
We rode along the lake and when the sun came out it was amazing.
Fantastic color
seriously , look at that. ( click to enlarge)
We came from there.
Memories .
Many other riders out.
I'm going to be using the words amazing and awesome a lot : )
A short break at the lake side.
Pulling ourselves away we headed on our way.
Great roads.
I kept comparing the RT to my FJR as i rode.
Reached our destination of Queenstown
View from our room
Remarkable : )
Nice hotel
After freshening up we took a gondola ride up
View of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu from the top
We went for a Maori cultural show
Haka
This guy was awesome.
After a great dinner at the peak, we headed back and zzzzzzzz.
DAY 3
About a month ago i was riding in the Laos highlands. I was cold, sore ,tired , & thirsty but i was having the time of my life. While traversing the Laos roads i was thinking about this ride. Today we were supposed to ride from Queenstown to Milford sound . A 10 hour round trip . While in Laos i decided to give my wife a break. So i emailed the guys at SPMT and booked a fly-cruise-fly package.
Great weather
Remarkable : )
Up grading from an RT
our pilot, cool chap.
Flying over Queenstown.
When we crossed the mountains the sky cleared up.
First view of Milford sound.
10 seater.
Glorious !
We hopped onto our second ride of the day
For a cruise around the sound
Seals basking
There were many waterfalls
And blue all around
More seals on another rock
We sailed to the open sea
And then back into the sound
More waterfalls
To one side we saw this view
Yet more waterfalls
Good bye Milford sound, you were amazing .
Our ride around the sound.
A quick flight back to Queenstown and we decided to explore.
The main commercial area is small enough for us to walk around.
After a nice dinner we sat on our balcony and took in the sights.
Remarkable : )
9pm
The sun finally set at 10pm
DAY 4
Good morning
Time to ride.
Leaving Queenstown.
Soon the roads opened up
Twisties : )
Soon the roads winds upwards
And the views get better
Ever upwards
Motorcycling heaven
We took a short break at the peak, at a viewing point.
We could see for miles.
The roads calls again
Awesome roads.
Giant wind barriers
That a-way
Till over a hill we saw this.
Lake Wanaka.
Reached our hotel early. The rooms was not ready yet so we decided to chill at the restaurant.
Team Griffin
Not tooooooo bad
Wow
our lunch terrace
Once settled in we went to explore the town
I could live here.
Contemplation is always best with ice cream : )
Back at the hotel .
We parked right next to the lobby
Today was spent exploring the town and surroundings , and when i say exploring i mean eating : )
DAY 5
Today we ride
Heading west
Big sky country
Passing an arm of Lake Wanaka
Every where you look.
Its just gorgeous.
here we rode along the lake , and the views like every where else was superb
A Petrol stop and R&R
Soon we were back on the road
Where to look ? the roads or everywhere else.
After an hour we stopped to stretch our legs.
The views around us.
the occasional biker, as this region was a bit quiet .
Team Griffin again : )
Back on the road
We finally reached the west coast of the South Island
Desolate
It started to drizzle a bit so we rode to our destination of Franz Josef Glacier sans photos .
Huge room in our hotel.
Isabel resting
the main Lodge makes you think of an Alpine ski Lodge.
Cloudy so the views esp of the Glacier was obstructed.
We went in to town .
Small but nice.
What to do ? Eat ; )
DAY 6
Its our last day in NZ
Before heading to Christchurch we decided to pop by the glacier.
Zoom
We were not going to walk all the way there in gear so after a look from the distance , time to ride.
Away from glacier country it got brighter fast.
Riding by the sea
Through forest
And hills.
The next few shots are some of the views along the way
To reach a marked R&R site we had to ride 1.5 km on gravel
still not there yet.
Old bridge site
Beautiful water.
Back on the road again
After an hour again we stopped this time at a town.
Most of the towns we passed were small
Still heading north
Again the views were varied and amazing
Here we turned of the west coast and started our journey east
We are headed towards Arthurs pass.
Its started to rain and get cold so we rode past the pass till it cleared up .
No pics though
After the pass it was great.
our final plains before Christchurch.
The chicken pie and chocolate fudge here were excellent.
From the last stop above we rode back to South pacific Motorcycle Tours.
After clearing all the paperwork & packing our gear we headed to our hotel in Christchurch.
Riding in New Zealand was great. The natural views and amazing scenery had us enthralled.I don't know what's in the water there but every one is so nice and happy .
Great people and the team we got the bike from were really good and very easy to work with .Mike & Carole ..let me know when you get the K16, i still need to ride the north island : ) .
Awesome.
Cheers.
