New Zealand Ride

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.