This event was the initial motivation for the tale that is about to unfold.

A fellow Krew member, who shall remain nameless, floated the idea of attending the event billed as the largest motorcycle rally in the southern hemisphere to Tom and I somewhere through the middle of 2018. Being gentlemen untroubled by the demands of employment we immediately responded positively.

As the third quarter of the year rolled around Tom and I received the news that said nameless member had been unsuccessful in securing leave from his workplace for this period in 2019 and would not be able to go but was very keen to do it in 2020. As good friends in these situations do, Tom and I responded with "*!#^ it!" (insert your own expletive) let's go anyway and if its good enough we'll go again in 2020.

Decision taken, we had to make some arrangements. I had an interest in trying out a smaller capacity lighter bike for the trip (I'm now closer to 70 than 60) rather than making arrangements for a K bike from one of the forum friends and Tom was happy to go along with that so he arranged the hire of two Hondas in Christchurch. A CB500X for me and a NC700X for himself. I set about finding accommodation for February 3 in Christchurch as the ex-Sydney flights touch down about midnight and February 7,8,9 in Invercargill - we planned to wing it the rest of the way. After many hours on the internet and several phone calls across the ditch I managed to snag a B&B in Invercargill and the required one nighter in Christchurch. Once those arrangements were in place I made the airline bookings and we were committed.

Oz departure and NZ arrival went smoothly along with the late arrival arrangements with the motel. Early next morning (not so bright after the short night) we taxied to the bike hire place, did the paperwork and loaded up ready to ride. The hire bikes came with Givi panniers and topbox so we had packed for the trip in our own inner pannier bags exactly as we would at home then put them into a suitable size suitcase for the flight. We had arranged for the empty suitcases to be left at the bike hire shed. This worked a treat and was in stark contrast to another Aussie couple picking up a bike who were wandering around trying to work out how they could load their bike.

First up was a quick look at the uptown section of the city as we had both been to Christchurch prior to the earthquakes and were keen to see it now. The rebuilding is progressing but the only part I recognised was the ruins of the cathedral at what was the main square and a section along the riverbank nearby. From a historic landmark point of view it was good to read that the cathedral is going to be rebuilt.


After a bit of lunch we decided to follow a pattern familiar to some of the Hunter Krew by heading in the opposite direction to our final destination - you know, "the long cut". So north out of the city up the east coast we went. There is a snapshot below of our ramblings and a link to a Google Map of the same for those who may have insomnia and want to follow along.


Google Map of our track  All of the waypoints have the date included in the title for clarity.

At Waitara we turned inland heading for Hanmer Springs. The day was hotter than we expected so pulled up at our first NZ pub at Waikari for a cold beverage - and its closed! NZ's version of the pub with no beer.


Had a quick break at Hanmer Springs, which is a lovely spa town, chatting to a north islander rider under the shade trees in the main street. Seems like every bike is heading to the Burt Munro. Onwards up through Lewis Pass into the mountains and the scenery is stunning, the roads are superb - I am going to enjoy this. At this southern latitude the daylight hangs about much longer than in OZ so we continued through to Murchison where we roomed at the Hampden Hotel and started our quest to try as many local brews as possible.

Slept well, up early and breakfasted at the cafe in the Commercial Hotel diagonally opposite the Hampden then onwards towards the north west corner of the south island.
Near Glenhope we turned off Highway 6 onto a regional road and tracked up to Motueka on the coast of Tasman Bay. Fuelled up we then aimed for Collingwood riding over Takaka Hill where there are long distance views over Tasman Bay to Richmond and Nelson further east.


At Collingwood which is almost the end of the road in a north westerly direction we broke for lunch then retraced our track back over Takaka Hill through Motueka, along the coast of Tasman Bay through Richmond and Nelson (no stops as they are relatively large centres) then back into the windy (as in winding road) stuff through the Rai Valley to our overnight stop at Havelock on the shore of one of the beautiful landlocked bays in the Queen Charlotte Sounds area.
A room was found at this fine establishment and Tom can testify to the quality of the local mussels served up for his dinner.


Not sure of the origin of this local mascot but he obviously likes the water.


and that's the marina at the end of the street behind the pub.


So, two days on the road and 730km in we are having a ball. Both days over 30degC surprised us and sadly we could see the column of smoke from a large bush (wild) fire that had broken out just to the south of Richmond as we passed by.

I'll post this as Chapter 1 so I don't lose any of my ramblings and will continue the journey as soon as I can.

Cheers

Love it Gaz, keep it coming!

Looks pretty awful....glad I'm not there.
What's the story with the hire bikes? Any sidecars for rent?
Sean

Who did you have to translate for you? That number 6 can cause problems.

Can think of a couple of witty and cheeky rejoinders to the last 2 posts, but I’ll keep them to myself to avoid risking totally unintended offence. 😉
It would never have been possible with the OS family in residence, but very envious of the excursion, Gaz & Tom. 

Bill

OK, if there is anyone still with me here's Chapter 2

Just to round off the tale of our stay in Havelock - On arrival at the hotel we admired a very nice example of an original Triumph Bonneville parked beside us and when our initial round of beverage testing was complete we wandered back out to the bikes to gather our belongings for overnight. We noticed that this lovely Bonneville now had a pool of oil on the road under the engine so went straight back inside to find the owner. When he emerged he was shocked and told us that he had only just that day got the bike registered after being stored for a few years and had enjoyed a spirited run over to Blenheim and back with no issues. While telling us his story a few of his mates gathered around looking very concerned until one of them cracked and it was revealed they were the source of the oil. The owner had been sucked right in to the delight of all - good to see traditional biker friendship alive and well.

Wednesday morning was a little grey overhead as we continued on the tight winding beautifully scenic (seems like I'll have to use that description over and over again) Queen Charlotte Drive, past Aussie Bay Campsite and a timber export port at Shakespeare Bay then on to Picton which is the port for the inter island ferries.

Shakespeare Bay


Picton has been a port since the 1850s. This is looking north up the sound from the hill overlooking the town.


Picton township with part of the harbour in the left foreground.


The inter islander ferry.


As you can see from the photos the grey skies were still with us as we headed for Blenheim after a welcome morning coffee at Picton as it was much cooler than previous days.

Once through Blenheim we were soon onto the Kaikoura coast. In fine weather this is just another spectacular part of the south island with the mountains rising literally a few hundred metres from the sea with the railway line and roadway running parallel in that space. On a previous visit I was able to go out whale watching where just 500 metres off shore the water depth plunges to over 1,000 metres and the sperm whales dive for deep sea squid and we were able to look back to shore where there was snow on the mountains - alas, this day was not like that.

The rain had set in and there was a cold easterly gale howling in off the sea 100 metres or so to our left while we either sat at road works traffic lights for extended periods or trickled along through said road works at 10-20 km/hour. The road works were still in progress following the earthquake in 2016.

Here is a photo off the net showing typical damage in that area from the earthquake and shows how close the road and railway are to the sea.


Once into Kaikoura township we needed warm food, a rest and then properly kit up in our wet weather gear - obviously too late. Onwards down the highway heading south (please note - now generally towards our destination) until we got to Amberley where we turned inland to follow the "Inland Scenic highway".

We pressed on through Rangiora, Sheffield, the locality of Mt Hutt where we had to make a decision on where to aim for accommodation as it was getting late and we were bloody cold. Quick check of the map on the phone (signal everywhere over there) and we chose Methven, a short distance away slightly off our intended path. As you might expect after the day we had experienced the pub was booked out. I had noticed a motel with a vacancy sign a couple of blocks back on the way in so to hell with the expense - in we went and cranked up the air conditioner on heat. I had got a case of uncontrolled shivering by then so it was the right move.

The recuperative power of a hot shower and change and half an hour in a warm room is amazing as we were then ready to walk down to the pub and continue our quest to sample local brews. We were hoping for a fine day for Thursday as we were behind schedule and needed to be in Invercargill at our B&B for Thursday night.

Thursday dawned fine and pleasantly cool for riding (we obviously deserved it after Wednesday) so we headed south through Mt Somers, Geraldine, Fairlie, through Burke's Pass, past the magnificent Lake Tekapo, then a quick stop at the nearby Lake Pukaki for today's photo.


Pressing on ever southward we were making good progress on our 600km target for the day enjoying the vast expanses of water that we were passing by, truly a wonder for people like us from the world's driest continent. After Lake Pukaki came Twizel, Omarama, through the dry brown hills over Lindis Pass and along Lindis Valley then many kilometres along the eastern shore of Lake Dunstan into Cromwell for fuel and cool drinks as the day had heated up to 30C.
Once out of Cromwell we had 22 kilometres following the Clutha River through the Cromwell Gorge (more water!!) then onwards south through Alexandra to our turn off at Raes Junction putting us on the home stretch to Invercargill.

Tapanui looked like a good spot to stretch the legs, get a cool drink and in my case enjoy an ice cream before the final push through Gore to our destination. I think its fair to say we were happy to get to our accommodation, get unpacked and freshen up. A bonus was finding out that the local tavern at Waikiwi was just a short walk down the road where we could continue our quest to sample Kiwi brews.

So here we are, four days and 1,790km in and we can claim to have ridden almost the entire length of NZ's south island.

End of Chapter 2. Much more to come.

Cheers

great read so far Gaz
keep it coming

only ever seen picton  from the air as leaving Wellington , heading further north

always amazed at the green landscape when over there , perhaps another exploratory visit is calling ?

Been a bit busy the last couple of days (looking at another bike purchase) - but here I am back for Chapter 3


So its now Friday morning 8 February and time to get into the Burt Munro action by taking in the beach races at Oreti Beach where Burt ran his famous Indian Scout. The races are timed to coincide with the low tide to give enough width on the hard sand for the circuit which is a half mile straight, hairpin turn, half mile straight back to the start, hairpin turn and so on for as many laps as the event has been designated. Various events ranged from a couple of laps out to 50 laps for the final race.
Here's a start of one of the races - that's Stewart Island in the background.


and here's a bit of chaos at the turn right in front of us.

It was good fun watching the antics. Some of these riders were seriously good at sliding into the turn from probably 50 metres out. Its not a great photo but they ran two of the replicas of Burt's bike made for the movie. I think Burt's son was one of the pilots.


With the tide coming in the competitors were literally running in the edge of the water on the return legs of the final race of 50 laps. So the show is over folks and Tom and I headed back into town and made our way to the E Hayes & Sons hardware store which is home to Burt Munro's actual bikes along with many other famous and historic models.

So here it is - the actual "World's Fastest Indian" that Burt set world speed records on.



Here's one of the streamliner replicas made for the movie.



and then!



more info


After spending all day on our feet at the beach and in the hardware shop we needed to get back to testing NZ brewing at the nearby tavern.

Invercargill turned on another cracker day around 30C for Saturday as we headed uptown to visit the Classic Motorcycle Mecca which is an unbelieveable motorcycle museum in the centre of town. I think we rushed through it in about 5 hours - I'm not exaggerating. I have no idea of how many bikes are in there but it must be one of the most comprehensive collections in the world.

So by mid afternoon we were museum-ed out and to freshen up we cranked up the bikes and headed down to Bluff, south of Invercargill and it is literally as far south as you can go without getting in a boat. Looking south with Stewart Island on the horizon. Directly below us is Stirling Point where the road ends - I think it is fair to now claim we have ridden the entire length of the South Island.


We paid an interesting visit to the Maritime Museum while in Bluff before heading back to Invercargill for the late afternoon speedway event back out at Oreti Park. The events that I enjoyed the most were the sidecar racing and the kids on miniature speedway bikes on a small oval in the centre.

I'll be back with a rundown on our last day in Invercargill in Chapter 4.

Cheers

Great stuff Gaz -what a tremendous tour and nice pics too. 

I sense a theme between a couple of your comments...
Post 1

Gaz wrote:I had an interest in trying out a smaller capacity lighter bike for the trip (I'm now closer to 70 than 60) 

and Post 8

Gaz wrote:Been a bit busy the last couple of days (looking at another bike purchase)

I hope this is not the beginning of the end for your K's.

I have friends and rellies in NZ (Christchurch and beyond), so your report has certainly whetted my appetite for planning a visit. There is actually a family gathering there this April, but the timing was wrong for me.

This caught my eye...

Crikey! I saw the film (great film) and saw Anthony Hopkins flying across the Bonneville flats- just imagine how fast he would have been with an engine!! Probably even faster than Bert Munro. Clever people these film makers.

Looking forward to part 4...

Chapter 4


OK, I'm back! Trying to get this tale completed today by working at it in the morning - might help prevent almost falling asleep at the keyboard in the evenings.

So Sunday 10 February and yet another fine clear day in Invercargill. After enjoying breakfast with our hosts and packing the bikes for our onward journey we waved goodbye and headed downtown for the street races. Since we were early we were able to get a position right at the fence near a 90 deg corner just after a chicane so the action should be interesting. The programme had a large range of classes and since the P.A. near us was not working Tom & I found it challenging to follow but there were entries from the girder fork period right through to the latest superbikes.

One of the highlights was a guy on a motocrosser with road tyres running with and often passing the superbikes due no doubt to riding skill being able to slide into corners and short straight sections where the big bikes didn't have time to wind up. There were quite a few red flagged races due to falls and apparently some injuries as the ambulance came past a number of times - but I guess that's street racing. A westerly wind had sprung up and built steadily during the day which would have added an extra risk for the riders. I very much doubt this event could be held in Australia as our governments are determined to protect us from ourselves since they know what's best for us.

Around mid afternoon we decided it was time to make a move so we headed out to the west with a loose plan to stay the night at Manapouri. We passed through Riverton and Colac Bay which brought us along the coast of Te Waewae Bay where the road turned north and the wind from the west built up even more than at the races, to a point where it was a real challenge keeping the bike in the lane - luckily there was virtually no traffic. An obvious sign that windy conditions are the norm around here was the coastal trees,

and the huge windbreaks of trees planted around almost every farmhouse. Here's one near Clifden.

We made it to Manapouri and had a quick stop at the Lake chatting to two British couples who had shipped their bikes out to NZ and were to attend Triumph Rally. One of their bikes was a Triumph Trident.

No accommodation to be seen in Manapouri so off we go to Te Anau. The town was very crowded and no vacancy signs were everywhere so we popped into a local bottle shop to ask the attendant about old style pubs - no such thing but a customer helpfully pointed us in the direction of a hotel down the street - no luck there either but the company had another property with some cabin style units, one of which was vacant, so we were in.

Once parked and unpacked we walked up the street to a bar for food and refreshments (of course, overlooking the lake). The sun about to set - it was tough sitting here with beer in hand.

and a seaplane that had just landed as the sun went down.


Monday morning had us on the road to Kingston at the south end of Lake Wakatipu. Kingston was once the northern terminus of the famous Kingston Flyer steam train. We pulled in for a coffee at the old train station building, now a cafe, and had a lovely chat with the lady who runs it about some of the history of the area.

and here is the original wharf where passengers from Dunedin or Invercargill would disembark the Kingston Flyer and board a steam ship to carry them up the lake to Queenstown.


Lake Wakatipu is a dogleg shape with Queenstown in the centre section. It's about 50km from Kingston to Queenstown along the eastern shore with the lake on your left and the Remarkables mountain range on your right. Here's Tom at a viewing point called The Devils Staircase.


Since neither of us had been up to the northern end of the lake before, we decided to head to Glenorchy for lunch. Unfortunately there is no way to get there other than go through Queenstown which is teeming with tourists and blocks and blocks of walking pace traffic.
Once you have cleared there the views from the road are great. Here's a shot from the Mt Creighton area.

Having reached Glenorchy and found the pub,

this is how you do it.


The old railway building next door to the pub,

and looking from the pub up at the glacier in the mountains overlooking the town.


Here is the shoreline at the northern extremity of Lake Wakatipu and yes, those white flecks are snow still on the mountains at the peak of summer. So we have traversed the entire 80km length of this magnificent lake.


Having survived our back track through Queenstown we headed through Arrow Junction down the Kawarau Gorge road to Cromwell where we intended staying for the night. No luck there but some local advice pointed us to the small town of Clyde which we had passed by on our way south last week. This historic town was established in the 1860's and sits on the banks of the Clutha River. The river is apparently the swiftest river per volume in the southern hemisphere. Tom and I had a walk along its banks late in the evening and even though it is dammed above the town there is still a huge volume of water passing through.
Our lodgings were at the Dustan Hotel (Dustan was the original name of the town).

I saw this building in Clyde and thought there might be a forum member who could comment.


On Tuesday morning we rode back up through Cromwell and stopped for a brief look at the car/bike collection at "Highlands" which is a privately owned race track in Cromwell where you can drive a Ferrari if you are willing to part with enough cash. Now heading for the west coast we called into Wanaka for a coffee and then along Highway 6 which runs between Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea.
Ahead of us was the Haast Pass where we would cross over the main range. As we crested the top of the range the countryside changed from brown dry hills to lush rainforest within a few hundred metres. Quite amazing as we were now riding in what seemed like a green tunnel. A short break for a snack in the village of Haast then pushed north with views of the Tasman Sea and big surf at Bruce Bay, through Fox Glacier village and onto Franz Josef village. We had both been to the glaciers before so chose not to go up again - also there was heavy cloud/mist on this side of the mountains which would have restricted the views up there anyway. Both of these villages these days are packed with tourists.
As it was getting late we did a bit of research and phoned ahead to the pub at Harihari about 75km up the road and reserved a room. Over a couple of beers on arrival we chatted to a north islander couple travelling on a K1100.
While sitting on the verandah of the pub I noted a strange thing - we couldn't see a lake from there.

The end of our adventure was in sight with two days to go.  We decided to stay in Greymouth that night, Wednesday, and get across Arthur's Pass and be back in Christchurch to hand over the bikes at 2.00pm tomorrow. So the day's plan was to ride into Greymouth, secure accommodation, then go up the coast to Westport and do a loop around through Reefton to get us back to Greymouth.

Our route took us through Ross then into Hokitika where we had a quick stop and look around. Here's the town clock which was built in 1903 as a memorial to New Zealand soldiers who served in the South African War.


On arrival in Greymouth we were able to find a room at the Union Hotel so we were able to continue our day with confidence.


The road up to Westport hugs the rugged coastline for much of its length. Here's a couple of photos to give an idea of the typical views.



Lunch was had at Westport, a reasonable size town with substantial art deco style municipal chambers.


The run from Westport up the Buller River Gorge to the junction at Inangahua was good fun then the trip south down the high plateau to Reefton was flat and fairly featureless. There were two pubs in Reefton, with quite a lot of bikes about, that beckoned us for a rest and cool drink as the temps were back up in the 30 degC range.

We were back in Greymouth late afternoon and very glad we had secured our room in the morning as the pub was booked out by the time we got back.

Here it is again!!!


We savoured a few "handles" of the local brews over dinner in the pub and yarned away about how good the trip had been as this was our last night in NZ for this time.

Thursday morning we were on the road fairly early and riding through a few misty patches as we steadily climbed through the foothills heading to Arthur's Pass. The ride up over the pass is great and one I would be happy to do many times over. At the summit, 920 metres,  the temperature had dropped dramatically with the altitude and we were happy to stop at the village about 5km further on for a warming coffee inside the cafe. We both remembered to bring our helmets etc. inside with us to make sure the Kea mountain parrots did not destroy them. They have a very powerful beak and are known to destroy items out of curiosity.


and looking back up the road towards the summit.


The trip down to Christchurch is about 150km and takes a good couple of hours. As we approached the outskirts we realised that we had a bit of time up our sleeves so decided to go out to Lyttelton, which is the port for Christchurch,  for lunch.


Here's a view from the back deck of the pub out over the port.


The detour out to Lyttelton worked out well as we arrived back at the bike drop off location with 15 minutes to spare, so I guess we got the most out of the trip that we could.

A taxi out to the airport, a couple of hours through check in and customs and we were back in the air on  our way home. Arrival in Oz was all smooth so onto the train at the airport in Sydney and through to Newcastle where we arrived just after midnight. I overnighted at Tom's and did my best to help him lower the level in a bottle of Jaegermeister that appeared out of his freezer.

Finally thanks to Tom for his great company on our epic 3,500km adventure. Everything went exactly according to plan.

So as they say in the Looney Tunes, "Yibbida, Yibbida, that's all folks"

Cheers

Thank you so much for your write up. I have never been across the ditch but now I am more tempted to try it. Thanks again and to Tom for being such a wonderful model for your photos. Glad you did not include the photo of Tom sunning himself on the beach. Hard to get away from that Plunket name.

good to read Gaz
im sure tom and yourself had a great time indeed

Littleton is an amazing place ......

safe travels mate see you in a few weeks , southbound again

Plunket? Plunket? Surely you don't mean our good Saint Oliver???

Good write-up Gaz - many, many thanks for that.

G'Day all,
Great write up Gaz and I could not agree more with everything you posted. 
Thank you Gaz for the great company during the trip and the hours you put into organising this trip. It is amazing we had no white knuckle moments at all and everything went smoothly.
The best part of the whole trip was that we did not have to worry about kangaroos jumping out at you and the worst part was certain tourists driving motorhomes and rental cars with little idea of the NZ road rules.
It should also be mentioned that we sampled just about every beer brewed in NZ except the Panhead Ale (or lager) which was brewed to keep the Harley boys happy.
A great journey indeed.
CheersTom

Dai wrote:Plunket? Plunket? Surely you don't mean our good Saint Oliver???

Good write-up Gaz - many, many thanks for that.

He couldn't be... real Plunketts have a double T!
Actually there was/is a well known journo radio presenter in NZ called Sean Plunket. Maybe he means him?  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Plunket

Okay, just because I can't spell. I'll have you know I'm officially an OAP  

http://www.saintoliverplunkett.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Plunkett

I'll have you know I'm officially an OAP

No, you're still a youngster as you can't draw your state Old Age Pension. (bloody awful phrase!). I on the other hand qualify to get mine this very month  

But I still feel maybe 40?

Mike

Okay, mea culpa. My pension is one I'd forgotten about, but it does make for a great round of self-piss-taking at work.

Sorry... I should explain my real name is Sean Plunkett.
Gaz was just winding me up, I suspect.
Looked like a great trip though, and something I'd like to do myself one day, never having been there before.

We would never stir you Seanni.

Just trying to see if you were doing your reading homework Seanii.

Cheers

I know that this breathing life into an old post but you mention that you were planing on going 2020 

Are you still going ? 
Something on the bucket list

As it so happens Matt, YES!!! we will be on the plane this Sunday for a slightly shortened version which will take in the the few roads that we weren't able to traverse last year. Around 2,000 k's this year over 9 days with three riders so our planned track is all south of the Christchurch/Greymouth line.

I'm sure it will be very enjoyable again - watch this space.

Cheers

Thank Gaz  
Are you hiring bikes again or taking your K's across  ?

We choose to hire bikes. We think for short term trips of 1-2 weeks that the drama that could be involved in shipping our own just isn't worth it. I'm sure that people who have shipped their own probably have a different view however the nagging fear that I have would be the scenario where I got off the plane in NZ and my bike had been held up by shipping or customs issues - that would be the end of an enjoyable trip.

We are going on 650 V Stroms this year after having used Hondas last year which was the first time in 20 years that I had ridden anything other than a BMW.

Cheers

p.s. I'll start a new thread for this year's event when I get back.

Good luck to Tommy getting his leg over the VStrom.
Have a great trip guys.
RT

G'day All, Bob thank you for those words of encouragement about getting the leg over the V strom. I've been assured the V will have an adjustable seat which can be set down to 800mm which will do. All shall be revealed Monday morning.
Cheers
Tom