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

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

Post by Kiwiscoot »

Hi,
Is it your first time in NZ? I'm in Christchurch and would be happy to accompany/show you some of the local rides here. Available on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Contact number 027 459 4026. Paul
OnHellas
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Re: New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?

Post by OnHellas »

Well, we are on the South Island. We caught the ferry across earlier than we expected but later than we were expected. Following?
Yep, that’s right, I booked the ferry for the wrong day!!
What a numpty! A twenty four carat plonker!!

Luckily the ferry company called us to check where we were as they were expecting in to be checking in and boarding, at 2 o’clock this morning. The answer to their question was ‘about 100 miles away’.
Although it was a non transferable ticket the nice lady changed our booking until 1.30 this afternoon.
Hence we caught the ferry earlier than we expected as we thought it was tomorrow morning at 2.30.


Still, alls well that ends well. I hold my hands up and take full responsibility, as much as I’d like to blame Sarah I can’t. It was me. There is a bit of an explanation including early embarkation on overnight crossings but I got it wrong.

Beautiful scenery during the crossing made up for it, the sandwiches didn’t.

Two happy people (one slightly red faced), two happy bikes.
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Re: New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?

Post by OnHellas »

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

Post by OnHellas »

Donald Trump and Boris Johnson need to up their game!!
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DavidS
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Re: New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?

Post by DavidS »

That approach into Picton is fantastic on the slow moving ferry, especially after the 40mph winds all the way across the Cook Straight.
We turned right to go along the tiny coast road towards Abel Tasman in our 24ft camper - a bit of a squeeze on the winding bits.
2023 Husqvarna Norden 901
2014 KTM 690 ENDURO R
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Re: New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?

Post by OnHellas »

It was probably after 5.30pm by the time that we rode off of the ferry. During the crossing we’d visited our old mate Booking.com and reserved a room at a motel in Blenheim.
The newly wed couple riding his and hers Suzuki V-Stroms, 1000&650, that we’d met on board said that the campsite in Blenheim was good. We rode with them until they peeled off to the campsite. The motel was the way to go for us, despite the chain smoking heavy drinking semi permanent resident in the next room.
He was insistent of which routes we should take....oh the joy of being able to ride away.

And ride away we did, in to the Thursday morning sunshine. Heading south down highway 1. Through various sections of roadworks. Viewing a seal colony. Riding along the coast. Stopping for fuel just in time.....the onboard display said that I had 4 miles left!! Nearly.

My bike has developed a bit of an issue holding a full tank of fuel. It’s happened before, once in the US and once in Australia.
I’ve tried tightening the offending article but how far do you go? I had to syphon some petrol out back in Auckland due to the enthusiastic leak.
It maybe that the rubber seal dried out due to lack of use over the shipping period. I’ve looked up the part numbers for the seal and associated parts and will get them ordered when we have more of an idea where the next service will be booked.
There’s just over 2000 miles to go so it’ll not be to long.

So we headed on south towards Christchurch and an arranged meet up with Guy. We first saw Guy at Ayres Rock and got chatting to him a couple of days later at Kings Canyon. Since we last saw him up near Broome in Australia we’ve kept in touch via email.
He is a Kiwi but lives in Oz. He’s over here on a borrowed Harley.

Camping didn’t happen and we ended up in Rangiora. A nice clean quite kind of a town.
As it turns out, Guy had another meet that happened to be in Rangiora. He found us at the motel on Friday morning, got booked in and sorted and we then headed in to town for tea, cake and catch up. An excellent way to spend an afternoon.
I also found a Barbers so that took care of another job.

Today, Saturday. A ride over Arthur’s Pass. Very beautiful, lakes, mountains, left over snow, rivers, narrow bridges.
We met a chap from Manchester on a rented Honda NC750 (he didn’t like it...at all) and ended up stopping at the same places for photos, lunch etc.
He was thoroughly enjoying where he was riding if not what he was riding.
Apart from the hoards of tourists, I know that we’re tourists too, it was a great day. We stopped short of our intended destination as a place to stay presented itself.

So for now it’s...
Two happy people, two happy bikes all be it with less fuel between them than normal.
Last edited by OnHellas on Wed Feb 06, 2019 5:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New Zealand...4 wheels good, 2 wheels better?

Post by OnHellas »

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

Post by OnHellas »

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

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

Post by OnHellas »

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I think that number 9 is the one that needs replacing but numbers 7 and 10 may be compromised and don’t appear to be silly expensive so I’ll get them all done.
They’re the bits that hold the fuel pump in the top of the tank. Under the seat.
Last edited by OnHellas on Wed Feb 06, 2019 5:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
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