South Island, New Zealand: 10 days on two rented DR650s

[Rubberchicken]

Arrived in Christchurch on sunday, stayed with friends for 2 nights to get back to feeling somewhat human after flying to the far side of the world, pick up the bikes at City Motorcycle Rentals, and re-pack for the road trip.

Day 1. Tuesday, april 7.

Start from Christchurch, heading west towards Arthur's Pass. Flatlands and straight roads at first, which together with the building style put me in mind of an American road movie. The first stop in Springfield did nothing to put an end to that feeling:





After Springfield things quickly changed. Corners appeared, and we were slowly but surely entering the mountain range that had been looming on the horizon for some time.

Side note: This Dutchie is used to flatlands, and the appearance of a mountain range on the horizon took quite a while to sink in. They were already quite pronounced by the time I noticed. (Yes that was way before this pic was taken, obviously.)





The weather by now was clear blue skies and sunshine. Lovely. But there was trouble ahead. Rain clouds. Time for a quick roadside stop to get some waterproofing in place and pack away things like cameras.




We'd been told that the bikes could easily do 200 km before hitting reserve, so I was somewhat surprised when it started coughing after just 150. Quite in the middle of nowhere, I was on reserve, with Arthur's Pass still some time away. Oops. Turns out the fuel tank wasn't quite as full as they said at the bike shop.

Got to Arthur's Pass in the rain, ever so slightly nervous, after 20 more km on reserve on a bike that's completely unknown to me with a tiny 13l tank and no idea exactly how much reserve it's actually got. Oh well, made it.

Filled up the bikes and the spare canister with what must've been New Zealand's most expensive petrol after having a cup of tea, and then we set out to find a place to stay for the night.

We didn't particularly feel like figuring out how our (borrowed!) tents worked while it was cold and raining. A hostel, then. We were pointed at The Sanctuary as a good and cheap place to stay, and were they ever right about that...



This wasn't an ordinary hostel. First of all, the place was deserted. A sign next to a phone said ring the owner, who told us he was in Christchurch and that it was run entirely on the honesty box principle, and then gave us the code for the door.

Inside, we were in for a shock. The 8 bunk beds weren't very surprising, but the living room with full kitchen and wood burning stove were. Never mind the bathroom with an actual bathtub and plenty of hot water for us to use...




A little internet cafe off to the side completes this lovely picture, all with notes attached stating the cost and that we're trusted to put the money in the honesty box. Brilliant.

We had a fish&chips in the local pub, a bath, and then called it a night.

[Rubberchicken]

Day 2. Wednesday, april 8.

Arthur's Pass. Breakfast, from the little too expensive store. Snow! Not in a particular hurry to get going on cold wet roads, we chopped some more wood and fired up the stove. Hung around a bit, drank tea, went online a bit, checked the weather...





Spent a leasurely morning there, and then went for it. The next stop came fairly quickly: the Otira Viaduct.





On towards the coast. It was a rainy grey day on fairly boring roads once we were out of the mountains. Next stop: Hokitika. The greenstone capital, apparently.



Things improved for a while after that. We got our first taste of rainforest. Met some tree ferns...





More bad weather, and excellent roads:




Finally, a growing need to find a place to stay for the night. Spotted a sign for a campsite, followed it right into a hailstorm, and ended up with a clear evening on the coast in a town called Okarito.

Which is *much* smaller than it appears to be on google maps, which we found out when we went looking for something to eat. Wikipedia says it's got about 30 inhabitants. The feel on the ground is that it's just a few houses, said campsite, and an Abel Tasman memorial. No shops. No restaurants. Nothing.

We weren't quite prepared for that, so we had our breakfast for dinner.

First night camping. Time to find out what our borrowed tents looked like. As in, what kind of tents are they, actually? Mine turned out to be a fairly roomy tunnel tent.

[Rubberchicken]

Day 3. Thursday, april 9.

Helloooo sunshine.



Not a bad view first thing in the morning, this.



First order of business was to check out the beach, as the ocean had been an audible presence all through the night.




The pannier rack on the yellow bike seemed a bit lopsided, and on further investigation turns out to be broken. Crummy Givi stuff built to a price apparently, it doesn't look like it was ever meant to take load. Nothing that can't be bodged with some straps however.

Then it's time to pack, and hit the road.





Since we'd already had our breakfast last night we immediately stopped in Franz Josef to eat something and call the rental company if they're ok with us getting their rack welded somewhere.



After breakfast and shopping for dinner and tomorrow's breakfast we find a place with a welder, just out of town. The guy goes over the rack, finds a few more weak spots, and ends up welding the rack in 3 places.






Job done, we carry on.





Then stop for lunch somewhere off the main road next to some impenetrable looking bit of rainforest.



Onwards, to Bruce Bay.





Which is a wide pebbles and driftwood strewn beach, where lots of people have created lots of little stacks of the pebbles and other creations involving driftwood.





The roads here are quite something else. I do most of my day to day riding in and around Amsterdam, which is about as different from this as it's possible to get. At home, the main roads are overcrowded and boring, so you tend to avoid them as much as possible.

Here in NZ, the main roads are fine. In fact, it's not a matter of main roads, it's just the road. The one road, it's all there is. One ribbon through the landscape, 100 km/h, 2 lanes, and harly any traffic at all.

(And plenty of keep left arrows, thankyouverymuch.)

Rainforest to the left, Tasman Sea to the right, I could get used to this. Oh yes.




Then towards the end of the day, we were crossing the long bridge across the river towards the town of Haast, where we hoped to find a campground.




The town of Haast, which would become our little in-joke for the next few days. "Haast" in Dutch means hurry. It's a town of 300ish people, no cellphone reception (and they like it that way, apparently) and very little else apart from a little supermarket and a few campgrounds.

And my suddenly very flat rear tyre.

Which turns out to be a little more than just flat.




Destroyed, is the word I'd sooner pick for it.

So there we are, stuck in Haast, tomorrow is Easter friday, we won't be going anywhere for a while I'm afraid...

[Rubberchicken]

Day 4. Friday, april 10.

Haast Township. Not in a hurry.

The receptionist at the lodge told us that there's a local AA guy in Haast Junction, so we get on the phone and he comes over, checks out the bike, and takes it with him with the warning that he'll see what he can do but it might be a while as finding a tyre could prove difficult, especially over Easter. We'll probably be stuck here until sometime monday.

Monday! We've only got 10 days. This hurts...

So with little else to do, we decide to walk around the town a bit, see what's there, and get online through the slow and expensive kiosk system. Send some mail to the people at home and to the rental company (they communicate well via mail, which is good given the lack of cell coverage), and basically hang around for the day as our precious time ticks away.

We went for a walk, with the idea that we'd set off along the main road and then duck into the first little side turn we got to. Right... This is West Coast, NZ. No side roads. Just a road along the incredibly wide river with impenetrable native forest on the other side. We ended up walking 5 km along the main road, and then 5 km back again.







Got back at around sunset, to find the parking lot full of big offroad cars, and the kitchen full of 4x4 nuts. Nice guys. Quite mad though, in a good way.

[Rubberchicken]

Day 5. Saturday, april 11.

Haast Township. Again.

The weather's caught up with us, so bye bye sunshine and hello clouds and rain. More hanging around, tempers are getting shorter with the not knowing what's going on, when we're going to get the bike back...

When it seems to be dry for a bit we decide to walk the other way towards Haast Junction, to see if we can find this AA guy and see what's going on. It's another walk along the main road, though this side is a bit more populated and there's actual man-made stuff to see along the way.




As well as some cows looking sheepish. (This is NZ, after all.)



But our quest pays off. The bike has been fixed. They've found a tyre. A second hand tyre. A second hand sportbike-sized BT020. Yes, it turns out you can get a 170/60ZR17 onto a stock DR650 rim, even if it's half again as big as what's supposed to be on there. Handles a bit funny, but not as funny as it looks. Still, it seems to hold air, so I'm not complaining.




(I'm going to have to wear the panniers down to the bare rack before I get rid of that chicken line.)

But first, we have to walk back to get our bike gear. We both get on the yellow bike and ride over again. It's her bike, so she's riding with me on the back, which must've looked silly as I'm a foot taller than her.

But we've got the bike back! Tomorrow we ride again...

[Rubberchicken]

Day 6. Sunday, april 12. Easter.

Haast Township. Yet again.

Tonight's been ****e. It's been raining all the time, and my brave little tent turns out to be ever so slightly not watertight, which plays merry hell with my down sleeping bag. Cold night, then.

It's still raining in the morning, so we're going to have to pack everything on the bikes while it's still soaking wet. Lovely. All the bike gear has been hanging in a puddle as well, just to make this even more unpleasant.

Oh well. Today, we ride again.

We pack the gear after sticking the sleeping bags in the tumble dryer and hanging the bike gear in front of the wood stove (which doesn't do much but at least it warms up the water).

Then we're off towards Haast Pass, and one of the most gorgeous roads in the world.







The weather improves, which does wonders for our moods, and we stop for tea before carrying on along highway 6 past Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea, an even more gorgeous road. This makes up a lot for the past few days.









We reach Wanaka, and stop for supplies, and to stretch our legs a bit.



Then we go on to Queenstown, our destination for today, and pitch our tents in Frankton right on the lakeside while the sun sets over the mountains.






It's a clear evening so we leave all the gear out in the open to dry out a bit, and walk over to some shops and grab a nice Indian meal.

[Rubberchicken]

Day 7. Monday, april 13.

Frankton, near Queenstown.

Dry. Cloudy. We're heading south.



We've already decided that there's no time left to go to Milford Sound, which is a shame. Then again, even if we did have the time, it was soaked in rain at the time so we wouldn't have seen much of it anyway if we had gone there.

Still, more than enough other things to see...

The landscape has been changing around us. Haast was still very much evergreen rainforest, yesterday on the way to Queenstown it slowly started to change, and today we're riding through a real autumn landscape. Yellow trees lining the scenery like a net-kook's exclamation marks!!!!!



We decide against Invercargill and make a loop towards Alexandra, via Gore. Which on this gray easter monday looks a bit deserted and run-down with its pretty old buildings desecrated with hideous awnings.



Somewhere near Alexandra we find Lake Roxburgh with a big hydro dam, and stop for a rest. I was getting a bit tired by then...





Good example of the changing landscapes:



In Alexandra we're staying with a friend's parents. We've got a street address, but no clue how the city is laid out. So what do you do then? Ask for directions? Or stop at the nearest internet kiosk and print a google map...

We get there in no time, and they are the friendliest people ever.

[Steve C]

Stunning scenery Rubberchicken... I have thought once or twice about a trip over there - I lived in Blenheim briefly thirty years ago and still have family there, in Wellington and here and there. Those roads are abit flat though...

[Rubberchicken]

Ofcourse, I haven't got pictures of the most exciting bits as I definitely do need 2 hands present on the bars for those.

[Rubberchicken]

Day 8. Tuesday, april 14.

Alexandra.

Our hosts give us a quick tour of the city before we leave, and the view from the hills is lovely:




With only a few days left in the trip it's time to make plans for getting back to Christchurch. We decide to take the inland road instead of the boring straight east coast road. This gives us a basic route and plenty of distractions, like possibly heading up to Mt Cook. We'll also be going back to Queenstown, to ride across the Crown Range that we missed on the first attempt.





Plan for the day is back to Queenstown, then Arrowtown, the Crown Range to Wanaka, and then see how far we can get.

This plan is cut short when we find this on the yellow bike:



Yep. Same tyre as was on the blue bike. Different type of damage, and this one still holds air so it isn't a problem just yet, but still not something you'd trust to take across a mountain pass. So we call the rental company and tell them this, and that we'll try to find a new tyre in Queenstown.

In Queenstown, we find an internet kiosk to send pictures of both tyres to the rental people, and we find a local offroad rental shop that may be able to help us with tyres, as they've got the same DR650s parked outside that we've got.

Inside, they tell us that they've already been contacted by our rental company, who will send a courier overnight with new tyres for both bikes that should get here tomorrow morning. Excellent, except for the "overnight" part. We're stuck here for the rest of the day...

So we end up back at the same campground, on the lakeside in Frankton.