New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?
Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 7:54 am
On Monday the 7th of January we returned to our bikes that had sat in the warehouse of ACME packaging, I kid you not, in Sydney to retrieve the gas canister that we had forgotten in the JetBoil and also our sleeping bags etc.
According to info found getting secondhand camping gear into NZ can be a pain so our tent was given away.
A new one had been ordered from a store in Auckland for us to collect once there.
On the 9th we flew to Auckland and picked up the very latest Adventure Travel vehicle to come out of Japan....a prototype Yamaha 700 Tenere you ask?? No, a blue Toyota Corolla Estate type thing. Automatic, not presented very nicely but as cheap as we could find online.
Hence the 2 wheels good bit in the title. We’re out there and on the road despite our bikes being in ??? Sydney I think. Hopefully we’ll have news early next week as to a time scale re the shipping. It seems as if the earliest they’ll be here is the 26th. Add customs clearance and quarantine inspections......
So a car seemed to be the way forward. We can go explore. Our new tent has been collected, erected and slept in.
It’s bigger, in side at least, lighter and brighter. Better ventilated and free standing. We’ve bitten the bullet and bought an MSR Mutha Hubba. Fingers crossed as it wasn’t cheap!
Our first couple of nights we spent in a B&B type place found via our old friend Booking.com
Lack of reviews should have made us look elsewhere but hey, give ‘em a chance right?
Two nights on a sofabed feeling grateful that there aren’t poisonous spiders in NZ while counting webs and their inhabitants whilst trying not to moan about our poor backs, told us that elsewhere may have been better.
Never mind, the stress of putting up a new tent and sleeping on the ground will help.
It has so far after the first of three nights booked at a campsite just outside of Paihia. Near The Haruru Falls. Nice.
For now then it’s:-
Two happy people, two longed for bikes.
I hope that they’re OK. We like our bikes.
According to info found getting secondhand camping gear into NZ can be a pain so our tent was given away.
A new one had been ordered from a store in Auckland for us to collect once there.
On the 9th we flew to Auckland and picked up the very latest Adventure Travel vehicle to come out of Japan....a prototype Yamaha 700 Tenere you ask?? No, a blue Toyota Corolla Estate type thing. Automatic, not presented very nicely but as cheap as we could find online.
Hence the 2 wheels good bit in the title. We’re out there and on the road despite our bikes being in ??? Sydney I think. Hopefully we’ll have news early next week as to a time scale re the shipping. It seems as if the earliest they’ll be here is the 26th. Add customs clearance and quarantine inspections......
So a car seemed to be the way forward. We can go explore. Our new tent has been collected, erected and slept in.
It’s bigger, in side at least, lighter and brighter. Better ventilated and free standing. We’ve bitten the bullet and bought an MSR Mutha Hubba. Fingers crossed as it wasn’t cheap!
Our first couple of nights we spent in a B&B type place found via our old friend Booking.com
Lack of reviews should have made us look elsewhere but hey, give ‘em a chance right?
Two nights on a sofabed feeling grateful that there aren’t poisonous spiders in NZ while counting webs and their inhabitants whilst trying not to moan about our poor backs, told us that elsewhere may have been better.
Never mind, the stress of putting up a new tent and sleeping on the ground will help.
It has so far after the first of three nights booked at a campsite just outside of Paihia. Near The Haruru Falls. Nice.
For now then it’s:-
Two happy people, two longed for bikes.
I hope that they’re OK. We like our bikes.