*Part one of the story is here
Day 5: Brighton to Colac Bay
We started day 5 at our ocean-side camping spot in Brighton, a small beach town on the Southeastern coast of New Zealand. We knew we weren’t riding far today, so we spent the better part of the morning leisurely making a few sightseeing visits; first stopping to check out the Nugget Point Lighthouse.
The lighthouse was built in 1870 and was originally an oil lamp which was changed to and electric one in 1949. It’s still in use though it was fully automated in 1989.
From there we continued on to Curio Bay, where we managed to spot a Yellow-Eyed penguin, (arguably) the rarest penguin in the world and found only in New Zealand. Here’s a terrible photo of one (you’re not supposed to get too close to them and the zoom on our little camera is not great):
Curio Bay is also the site of a 180 million year old petrified forest. The trouble with petrified wood is that it looks exactly like rock, so it’s also difficult to pick out of a photograph. In the photo above, the little bumps that look kind of like tree stumps are exactly that.
In anycase, it was a beautiful location.
But both of those stops were just preludes to the big destination of the day and the conclusion of a story arc that started on the 3rd day of our trip, 30,000 miles earlier in the desert of Utah.
Every year at the Bonneville Speedway, just outside the town of Wendover, an event called Speed Week is held. Racers come from around the country and around the world to roll their vehicles up to the start line and on a straight course on a flat, dry, salt lakebed try to go as fast as they possibly can.
In 1962, at the age of 63 Burt Munro traveled from Invercargill, New Zealand to Wendover, Utah to see exactly how fast he could go on his highly modified 1920 Indian Scout Motorcycle. In doing so he would become a motorcycle legend, ultimately setting a class speed record that has stood to this day.
In 2005 the movie The World’s Fastest Indian was released, with Anthony Hopkins starring as Burt Munro and chronicling his trip to Bonneville.
It’s a great movie, even if you’re not a big motorcycle buff, and does a fantastic job of capturing the excitement and history of Bonneville.
“This is it, Bonneville. This is the place where big things happen. Do you realize that the fastest Man has ever gone on land is here? Right here, where we are now. Malcolm Campbell did it here with Bluebird, first guy to go over 300 mile an hour. And then later his son Donald Campbell was here with Proteus. He crashed at 350 mile an hour and lived to tell the tale. John Cobb was here… first guy to go over 400 mile an hour. All the great attempts. George Easton with Thunderbolt and Mickey Thompson with Challenger… I’m telling you, Rusty, this place is Holy Ground mate, Holy Ground. And I made it here.
Here’s the trailer for the film, complete with narration by the classic “In a world…” voice guy.
And this is us arriving in Invercargill.
Burt’s motorcycle is on display in Invercargill, typically at the E. Hayes and Sons hardware store, but while we were there it had been recently moved to a shopping pavilion and put on display.
After checking out the bike, we had lunch at Waxy O’Shea’s, a pretty good Irish Pub where Anjel had an order of the green-lipped mussels that Southern New Zealand is famous for.
I (for some reason) decided to go with their version of a full Irish breakfast.
From there we rode out to Oreti beach to lay our own tracks on the sand where Burt used to take out his Indian for speed runs and where they filmed several scenes for the film.
With our visit done, we continued up the coast until we lost the light, stopping in Colac Bay to camp for the night.
Day 6: Colac Bay to Milford Sound
Day 6 took us back up into the mountains on our way to Milford Sound. Milford is an absolutely stunning region and home to several world famous treks. It was overcast with light rain falling on and off most of the day, but though it slowed our speed through the winding mountain roads, it did give a fantastically ominous look to the mountains.
It was here that we had our most upclose encounter with some Kias – a New Zealand parrot species. When we rented the motorcycles we were warned to NEVER leave the bikes unattended in certain parts of the country – and if we did have to leave them, to at least take the seats with us.
The danger wasn’t theft, the danger was Kias. Like most birds, Kias love chewing and shredding things and apparently a favorite treat is motorcycle seats and automobile winshield wipers. One of the first things they do is jump onto a motorcycle seat, dig their claws into them to get a good purchase, and start picking away at the leather and foam.
Anjel and I stopped at a scenic lookout spot where there happened to be four juvenile Kias playing around. We parked the bikes next to a large RV, and walked over to where the birds were. As we watched 3 of them play, one hopped away behind the RV. Luckily, just seconds later it occurred to me where he was heading and I turned and ran back to the bike to find him perched on top of my seat, moments away from digging in. I yelled as I ran back towards the bike and he hopped down, stopping about 10 feet away, and puffed up, very pleased with himself. Anyone familiar with bird body language can tell you that this is a picture of a very contented bird.
From our little bird stop we continued further up the valley while the amazing vistas just kept coming.
The road continues on until reaching Homer Tunnel, which cuts 1.2 kilometers straight through the mountain
and exits to an amazing view of the canyon on the other side.
The road ultimately dead ends in the Park and no camping is allowed in that area, so we made our way back out to one of several camp sites located nearby.
Day 7: Milford to Omarama
Today was supposed to be Milford to Mt. Cook, but thunderstorms shortened the day a bit. The day started out beautiful though:
We stopped in a small town and had meat pies for lunch. The V was Venison, I think the C was chicken.
We then stopped in Queenstown to look around and I decided to get a haircut. I’d been complaining about how long my hair had been getting for a couple of weeks at that point. I hadn’t wanted to get a haircut while in Korea, for fear I’d come out looking like a Korean Pop Idol, so I thought NZ would be a safer bet.
I usually ask barbers to cut my hair VERY short. Even then they still tend to leave it just a bit longer than I’d like – but I always knew that one day someone would take the “very short” literally and I’d end up with a ridiculously short cut.
Well, today was that day.
Before:
And After:
The result was a little shocking, and Anjel really couldn’t hide her disappointment, but I assured her that although my beard was now significantly longer than my hair, it would grow out fast, and besides we were going to be trekking for a week shortly, and having short hair would be fantastic (which it was!).
So, thankful to put my helmet back on to hide the shame, we headed back onto the road. Unfortunately, we left the good weather behind us. Dark clouds turned to light rain which turned to a heavy downpour, which turned into awesome thunderstorms. Anjel and I stood under a gas station overhang, filling the bikes and trying to remember what people say about riding motorcycles in thunderstorms…
“It’s probably not a good idea…”
“I know you can drive through them in a car…”
“Maybe it’s moving away from us…”
We decided not to push things and just ride up the road. We don’t have any photos of the rain, but it was torrential and we were both completely soaked in the few minutes it took us to ride 5 miles down the road to a small bed and breakfast-style hostel for the night.
Day 8: Mt. Cook to Springfield
Day 8 also started out clear but ended up rain-shortened. It started with a ride up to Mt. Cook, which was a little disappointing, but probably because we were cold and a little tired. Also, when everything you see is amazing scenery, you start to get picky. “This is merely beautiful, not breathtaking.”
Nonetheless we did grab a coffee at the Mt. Cook lodge and found a pretty good motivational t-shirt. In Junior High my mother gave me a coffee mug covered in motivational slogans like “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” and after countless mornings of looking at that before heading off to school I’d kind of had my fill of the whole genre, but there was something I liked about the phrasing of this one:
The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there.
Of course a couple days earlier we’d come across another phrase I’d never heard before and thought was pretty amusing:
From Mt. Cook we made our way back up North. For most of the day the weather was poor and the roads were flat and straight.
The most notable sight for the day was outside the Church of the Good Shepherd where they have a great dog statue with the following dedication:
“This monument was erected by the runholders of the Mackenzie county and those who also appreciate the value of the collie dog, without the help of which the grazing of this mountain country would be impossible.”
I did my best to show the appropriate spirit and respect.
As the day wound down the weather got worse and we stopped in the small town of Springfield. Cashing in on the Simpsons association, the town had a large tractor tire spraypainted to look like a pink donut.
However underneath the donut was the following, confusing, plaque:
“This Baby Donut was found inside the “MOTHER DONUT” when she was taken away for major surgery after being set on fire.
The father is unknown but it has been reported that a PIE was seen lurking in the shadows during the hours of darkness.
It is not known if it was a pie from the Sheffield Pie Shop or one from the local Cafes.
It is also reported that the “Ohakune Carrot” had been seen heading south on the Cook Straight Ferry recently.
Never the less Springfield has adopted the BABY (yet unnamed) and so it will remain until the return of the “MOTHER DONUT.”
Weird.
Day 9: Springfield to Pelorus Bridge
The sun came out, the scenery improved, and things were great again.
On Day 9 we rode through the area known as Arthur’s pass. It turned out to be a fantastic decision to stop early the day before as the weather was much better today and the scenery was gorgeous.
Coming around a corner we were rewarded with this amazing view. The bridge you see replaced the older and more dangerous (but awesomely named) “Deaths Corner” road that wound along the side of the mountain.
Everyone we talked to said that the West Coast of NZ was typically wet and miserable, but out experience was exactly the opposite. Everytime we were out there the weather was stunning, and today was no exception.
We ended the day in the very northern part of the island, at a great little out of the way camp spot in Pelorus Bridge.
Day 10: Pelorus Bridge to Kaikoura
For our penultimate day of riding we decided to get off the “main” roads and head up into the small roads that wind along the coast in the very north of the island. The coves up there are gorgeous and home to some interesting sites. Captain Cook stayed in one for a while.
The only downside to the day was that the roads were so narrow and winding that the pace was ridiculously slow. The ride was also punctuated every 10 to 15 minutes with us rounding a corner to find an oncoming car coming in the middle of the lane.
It was a great ride, but by the end of the day it was a little too slow and winding.
We stopped for lunch at a little spot where we were actually able to ride right out onto the rocky beach.
Day 11: Kaikoura back to Christchurch
On the last day we made our way down to Christchurch to drop off the bikes and head back into the city center to spend a final day looking around before we left.
Throughout this trip there aren’t really many photos of things other than us and motorcycles. We met some very nice people in New Zealand, but the trip was almost entirely us riding around the island – circling it almost twice in fact – because the riding was just so good. It is truly a motorcycling paradise and some of the best riding we’ve ever had anywhere.
We rented the BMW GS650s because they were the least expensive option and we though we might be doing some minor off roading. We did take a few gravel roads, but it was nothing that necessitated a dual sport bike. If we did it again, I could see having a fantastic time on a Triumph Bonneville or Thruxton, carving through the twisties with a little more style than the Beemer.
We really can’t recommend New Zealand highly enough as a motorcycle destination. The roads are flawless, twisting and empty and the scenery is stunning. That’s all you need to have the time if your life.
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I think I can clear up some of the confusion regarding the donut plaque. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2907831/Dohhh-the-donuts-done-for the Ohakune Carrot is a similar giant, food-item landmark, of which there are quite a few in NZ.