Zooming Through New Zealand: Part I

By Mike Huber

Having both traveling and motorcycling as my two greatest passions in life whenever I have an opportunity to combine them it is always quite magical.  Add on top of that camping, and it’s a trifecta for pure bliss.  Having found myself in New Zealand (and previously hearing tales of the incredibly technical roads and terrain here) was something that I didn’t want to miss, yet I almost did.

One of my strengths as a traveler, which seems counter intuitive, is my lack of planning.  I rarely plan more than a week in advance, and sometimes less than that.  In the past this has been a double-edged sword.  The agility of minimal planning allows me to instantly adjust with few consequences when opportunities arise, but it also has caused me to miss highlights that require more planning.  Still, this is the way I have traveled and for the most part it works.  To be fully transparent, the lack of planning could be due to laziness.  But to be perfectly honest if it hadn’t been at least semi-successful I would absolutely put in the work to lay out a more detailed plan.

This lack of planning almost became a major regret here in New Zealand.  By the time I arrived on the south island to reserve a motorcycle they were booked months in advance.  I was pretty distraught, but I understood the reasoning since it was peak tourism season (and I hadn’t planned).  It didn’t look like riding a motorcycle in New Zealand was in the cards for me.

There was a bright spot as an old friend of mine, Neal from the United States, happened to be on an Air Force duty assignment here. We hadn’t hung out in almost 20 years, so seeing him would be a great way to wash away the disappointment. Neal was in Christchurch and attached to an Air Force unit whose mission was to provide support for Antarctica.  Which I thought was really cool as they were part of the maintenance team for C-130s that delivered supplies to the frozen continent.  I love C-130s as I used to jump out of them when I served with the 82^nd Airborne Division. The only difference (from my limited perspective) is the props had eight blades on the propeller instead of four, and these planes had skis attached to the wheels for ice landings. Of course, I thought all this was bad ass.

Leading up to our visit, Neal kept mentioning this Brazilian BBQ place that is an all you can eat meat on a stick fest. When we arrived along with three of his soldiers, the owner came out to greet my friend like he was the mayor of Christchurch.  Instantly I knew Neal frequents this place quite often.

After we ordered Brazil’s National Drink, the Caipirinha, we waited for the feast to begin.  During this time I began chatting up the owner. He was originally from Arizona and had motorcycled quite a bit throughout the United States.  It didn’t take long for the conversation to turn to motorcycling New Zealand and how I couldn’t find a bike.  Within 5 minutes he had texted the owner of a local family-owned rental company, South Pacific Motorcycles.  They had a BMW GS750 available for the exact days I wanted. This was great to hear. I may be able to rebound from my lack of planning after all! If this wasn’t destiny, I don’t know what is.

I had 5 days to kill in Christchurch until I picked up the BMW.  That wasn’t too hard as it’s a fairly large city with some quirky architecture, botanical gardens, museums, and beaches to occupy my time until it was time to pick the bike up.  The downtime also allowed me to research different routes.  This wasn’t done by online forums or social media groups but by just looking at maps and putting a route together (as I would do in the United States).  Again, this could be laziness, but it’s what works for me.  Things were looking bright and the weather was great the day Kim, from South Pacific Motorcycles, picked me up in front of my hostel.  It was time to get this adventure underway.

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Read the Mike Huber New Zealand posts here:

• • Packing for New Zealand
  • Auckland
  • Tongariro Crossing
  • New Zealand Part 1
  • New Zealand Part 2
  • New Zealand Part 3
  • New Zealand Part 4
  • New Zealand Part 5

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