New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?

The black art of moving from A to B on foreign soil
OnHellas
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Re: New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?

Post by OnHellas »

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DavidS
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Re: New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?

Post by DavidS »

Why do people get in and out of their campers so much? You don’t do that at home.
Mind you, the guy next to us at Invercargill spent about 3 hours setting up his tv dish.
Pretty much every site has one camper have it’s contents spread out across the grass for most of the day. There never seems room for people in them, particularly the garish Juicy Lucy ones (or whatever they were called).
In Cromwell an ex military guy turned up with a folding trailer. His wife got out a chair and a book while he spent about two hours ‘setting up camp’. Everything perfectly placed and lined up...guy ropes at the right angle etc. It was exhausting watching him.
Our second camping trip back in the 70’s we managed to put the tent up with our heads about 6” below our feet :oops:

Next time in NZ we are just going to drive from hotel to hotel. We confirmed that we have done our last camping trip, even if it was in a 24’ motorhome.
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steve the grease
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Re: New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?

Post by steve the grease »

Yeah we spent ages getting loads of stuff together for camping ..... A waste of time, and a lot of effort.
Camping in NZ has moved on a bit more than here . Everywhere has a campsite, sure camp if you want to , but we stayed in ' cabins' for about 50 bucks ( 30 quid ish) , some were corrugated iron sheds ( Optoki) and some were downright luxury. There is always a camp kitchen. Basically all you need is a sleeping bag and a few cooking utensils. My mrs got totally pissed off putting up and taking down tents every day or 2 and I don't blame her , it's not worth it.
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Re: New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?

Post by DavidS »

Our honeymoon in 1977 was camping along the Rhine on our Triumph Bonneville (with my best man and his girlfriend!!) and, amazingly, we’re still happily married 42 years later. We only did one more European trip - Denmark and northern Germany - plus a weekend in the New Forest before we decided cottages are better.
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OnHellas
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Re: New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?

Post by OnHellas »

Motomart in Lower Hutt just north of Wellington services the bikes for us. What can I say, they are a BMW, Ducati, Harley Davidson and Honda dealer.
The initial service booking with Dave was easy, I just had to call back with the frame numbers.
The parts chap understood and correctly ordered the fuel tank parts.
A subsequent call to order the rest tyres and tubes found me talking to Wayne. A top bloke, physically went to check stock of tyres, confirmed that the other ordered parts had arrived and filled me with confidence that all would be OK.

On arrival we spoke to Gareth, the service manager, he was expecting us and new exactly what we were booked in for.
He said that as they were doing the valve clearance check we may as well have new plugs as they were down in there anyway.
We also decided to have fresh brake fluid.

We wandered off having said to Garath that collection the following morning, Wednesday, would be fine.
I had a call mid afternoon to confirm that the Yellow bike was all done and that the white one would be ready by 10am ish on Wednesday.

No need to get up early in collection day and we walked the 5km back to Motomart.

Garath was just doing our invoices......I went to find a chair......he came to find us and went through the charges. Everything we had requested had been done and no other dramas found.
The bill came to.....a lot less than I thought it would. Happy days.
I even double checked the invoices when we got back to the hotel as I thought they may have missed off the tyres.....but no, everything was on there.

This morning I brimmed my fuel tank and thankfully there was no leak. The rubber gasket was found to have a split, the new one is obviously doing it’s job. More happiness.

Thanks Motomart, we recommend you!

The only thing that we didn’t like was the rain over the mountain pass this morning with new rear tyres......but.....two happy customers helps it to still be....

Two happy people, two happy bikes.
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Re: New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?

Post by OnHellas »

The mountain pass I mentioned in my last update took us to the very pretty town of Martinborough where we stopped for the obligatory tea and cake.
We had a stroll around the town centre before wandering off to find our lodgings for the night on the outskirts of Masterton.
Despite not being so keen on the ‘hosting’ style of B&B owners here we booked a night in one based on its outstanding reviews and it’s very attractive price.

Staying in a strangers house is.....strange. We had to watch how the door was locked and unlocked and then have a go ourselves. Almost to prove we’d been listening. Shows off....we then went through a point by point introduction to the ‘space’ and learnt which hill was which in the distance through the panoramic view window.
I could go on, I usually do, but I’ll say that despite it all feeling slightly weird, the bed was comfortable, the place was immaculately clean and breakfast was passable.
They didn’t murder us during the night either so we were able to pack up and set of for our second visit to my mate Darryl’s house.
He said that we should stay as long as we wanted. I hope that 8 nights wasn’t to long. It was like a holiday for us, no packing up and riding each day. A really nice house to stay in has been super. We relaxed and watched films, until Netflix packed up anyway. I think we may have used up the quota for the next month??!!

We went to the Palmerston North race track on the Saturday night. A half mile dirt oval with incredibly loud V8 stock cars roaring round. There was a demolishen derby too. An evenings entertainment for £13, what’s not to like.
The rest of the week has been a few short walks, a couple of visits to a supermarket and some proper home cooking. Sarah made a tasty Shepherds Pie. A large Shepherds Pie. A Shepherds Pie that lasted for three days.....and no, I’m not complaining.

Bringing you up to date, today is Saturday. The last Saturday of March already.
We rode away from Darryl’s this morning for the 100 or so miles to Hastings.
Both lunch and rain on the way we’re encountered but it was nice to be back in the bikes.
We’re back in a campsite, we haven’t gone straight back to the tent but a cabin. We need weaning off of the luxury we’ve had for the last week.
The cabin doesn’t have an en-suite, it does have a rather tired look and a slightly less than fresh smell......hey-ho, the life of the long distance motorcyclist eh?

Two happy people, two happy bikes.

Sorry, the photo haul since we arrived at Darryl’s has been zero. I will try harder over the next little while, I promise.
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Re: New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?

Post by OnHellas »

A couple of photos from a ride out with Darryl on his Suzuki DR650.
I can’t remember where we ended up but there was cake. It was a cracking ride and another 120 miles in the book.
(I forgot about these pics until I found them earlier.)
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Re: New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?

Post by Hoot »

OnHellas wrote: Sat Mar 30, 2019 3:57 am The mountain pass I mentioned in my last update took us to the very pretty town of Martinborough where we stopped for the obligatory tea and cake.
We had a stroll around the town centre before wandering off to find our lodgings for the night on the outskirts of Masterton.
Despite not being so keen on the ‘hosting’ style of B&B owners here we booked a night in one based on its outstanding reviews and it’s very attractive price.

Staying in a strangers house is.....strange. We had to watch how the door was locked and unlocked and then have a go ourselves. Almost to prove we’d been listening. Shows off....we then went through a point by point introduction to the ‘space’ and learnt which hill was which in the distance through the panoramic view window.
I could go on, I usually do, but I’ll say that despite it all feeling slightly weird, the bed was comfortable, the place was immaculately clean and breakfast was passable.
They didn’t murder us during the night either so we were able to pack up and set of for our second visit to my mate Darryl’s house.
He said that we should stay as long as we wanted. I hope that 8 nights wasn’t to long. It was like a holiday for us, no packing up and riding each day. A really nice house to stay in has been super. We relaxed and watched films, until Netflix packed up anyway. I think we may have used up the quota for the next month??!!

We went to the Palmerston North race track on the Saturday night. A half mile dirt oval with incredibly loud V8 stock cars roaring round. There was a demolishen derby too. An evenings entertainment for £13, what’s not to like.
The rest of the week has been a few short walks, a couple of visits to a supermarket and some proper home cooking. Sarah made a tasty Shepherds Pie. A large Shepherds Pie. A Shepherds Pie that lasted for three days.....and no, I’m not complaining.

Bringing you up to date, today is Saturday. The last Saturday of March already.
We rode away from Darryl’s this morning for the 100 or so miles to Hastings.
Both lunch and rain on the way we’re encountered but it was nice to be back in the bikes.
We’re back in a campsite, we haven’t gone straight back to the tent but a cabin. We need weaning off of the luxury we’ve had for the last week.
The cabin doesn’t have an en-suite, it does have a rather tired look and a slightly less than fresh smell......hey-ho, the life of the long distance motorcyclist eh?

Two happy people, two happy bikes.

Sorry, the photo haul since we arrived at Darryl’s has been zero. I will try harder over the next little while, I promise.
Looking at the photos you took when with Darryl I'm guessing you rode over rocks, ruts and roots?
OnHellas
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Re: New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?

Post by OnHellas »

😂😂😂
OnHellas
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Re: New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?

Post by OnHellas »

The weather in New Zealand has quite often determined our direction of travel.
We had planned to head up to Hicks Bay the the forecast wasn’t good.
Instead we set off from Hastings under cloudy skies for Taupo.
We bought some fuel just outside Napier, a town we’ll probably end up coming back to have a look around, and continued over the fantastic road through lovely scenery....and rain.
Rain was in the cards and that’s why we didn’t go in to Napier. The plan was get to our destination by riding in the rain for the shortest period of time.
Our Klim suits do keep the water out but we’d still rather be inside looking out than outside looking in when it’s raining.

There has definitely been an Autumnal change, leaves are falling from trees, the nights are drawing in (I love that saying, it’s great for moaning old guys) and the temperatures more cabin than tent. The mornings bring dew and less enthusiasm to go outside.

Still, Two happy people, two happy bikes.
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