New Zealand     At the airport in Auckland.   Heading home.

This phase is complete. Heading home for a couple of months. Vivo safely on the hard in Mackay. Hard to believe its been 10 months already. What a ride!

Giant tree fern in bloom. Hard to see the scale of it but this branch (if thats what its called) is about 2 foot long.

Another nice waterfall. I wonder how many waterfall pix I have. Has to be hundreds.

A waterfall on the hike to see the other waterfall.

Camped just down the hill from here. This is the valley where they filmed a lot of the Hobbit movies.

Home here we come. 

M

New Zealand     Back on the north island

Ferry back north.   Uneventful.   Blast through Wellington and head north.   Wind, raining and cold.

Some friends of ours on a catamaran called Nexus have a young man from NZ named Finnbar on as crew. We don’t know him. He got on Nexus in Bali. Through the captain of Nexus I asked for some advice from Finnbar on top 3 things on the north and south islands. Got some good advice and an introduction to his parents who live on the north island.  They invited us for dinner. Typical Kiwi hospitality. Three degrees of separation. A friend of a friends parents. Lovely people. They showed us around New Plymouth and had a very nice dinner and conversation. They put us up for the night. Hope to repay the kindness one day. And, small world, she knows the wife of the fellow John Britten, mentioned in a previous post.

Cool bridge in New Plymouth. On a nice sunny day…..  even nicer.

In the area of New Plymouth is a volcano called Mount Egmont. Also called Mt Taranaki. We went up there monday afternoon but it was pouring rain and blowing stink. You could not even see that there was a volcano there at all. Hoping for better luck Tuesday morning and after leaving our new friends place we headed there again. Completely socked in. Cloud cover probably 1000 foot or less. Drove up it anyway in the hopes of it clearing. Which it did nicely. Got some great pix and did a brutal hike. Like an hour on the stair climber. Thighs are a brining tonight for sure. Then after about 2 hours it socked in again. Hit that one just right.

It is said to be a perfectly symmetrical volcano. It closely resembles Mt Fuji in Japan and was used as a backdrop in the filming of The Last Samurai staring Tom Cruise.

From Wikipedia:

“Although volcanic eruptions are notoriously chaotic in their frequency, some scientists warn that a large eruption is "overdue". Research from Massey University indicates that significant seismic activity is likely again in the next 50 years. Prevailing winds would probably blow ash east, covering much of the North Island, and disrupting air routes, power transmission lines and local water supplies.”

I hope not.

From the north looking south. Hiked up about 1/3 of the way. About killed me!

Coming to an end here. Only a couple more days. We will have put about 5000 Km on this RV before we are done. Hope I had the unlimited millage deal!

M

New Zealand     Last day in the south island.

Prettiest house in Nelson.

The Queens Gardens. Nelson. She wasn't there.

A green stream with huge Brown Trout.

Church in Havelock. 

The costal drive. Heading back to the ferry in Picton.

M

New Zealand     West coast     Paparoa Conservation Area

No stories. Just a lot of beautiful places.

Campsite at the Dolomites. 150 feet behind us is the shore line.

Tasman sea shoreline. A place called Punakaiki or Pancake Rocks. This is one of about 100 pix I took there. Quite something. The blow holes were blasting that day.

Hiking Cape Foulwind. Nice name eh?

The longest suspension bridge in New Zealand. Better be for the 5 bucks a head they charge you to walk over it.

Working our way north and west. 3 days till the ferry back to the north island.

M

New Zealand.   South Island.  West coast.   The Alps.   Franz Josef and Fox Glacier area.

Hokotika Gorge. The water is that color. Yesterday it was glacial ice. Today its on its way to the Tasman Sea. This was a 5 minute walk from our camp.

Lake Matherson near the Fox Glacier. Also called mirror lake. Look real close though. Your eyes are tricking you.

No photo shop or color enhancement. Its that perfect.

So….

For my birthday….

I got……

A helicopter ride to the top of the Fox Glacier!  How awesome is that!!!

The O'l Ball N Chain trying to whack me with a snowball. She throws like a girl.

We are at 6500 feet. The ice under us is 900 feet thick.

The blue way out there is the Tasman Sea.

Fun day!

M

New Zealand      Motorcycles

This post is a long-winded story about motorcycles. It’s raining and we're out in the boonies with not much to do. I have nothing but time on my hands so this should ramble on for a bit.

If you want to get some background for this blog goggle John Britten. He was a Kiwi genius of extraordinary talent. You will enjoy this story more if you know of his life and accomplishments.

A friend of mine back home sent me a challenge.

1.     Find the Britten Motorcycle Company of New Zealand.

2.     See a Britten bike in person.

3.     Get him a Tee shirt.

Well…..     this proved to be problematic for a few reasons.

1.     The founder died in 1995 and its headquarters and last known address was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake in Christchurch.

2.     They only made a total of 10 of them. Hand built race bikes. They are scattered all over the world.

3.     Their merchandise web site has not been updated since 2004 and does not function.

Anyway, always up for a challenge I set off. There are two phone numbers on the old website. Both disconnected. The business (Ltd) is still registered in NZ so I go online for government archives of business registrations. I find one more number to try. No one answers but it does have a message stating that it is the Britten Motorcycle Co., Ltd. I called it several times but never had anyone pick up. It also has an address but when I Google it it looks to be in a residential neighborhood in west central Christchurch.

We were done here in Christchurch and were getting ready to head out so we GPS'd Cathedral Center in downtown to cruise by and see what the downtown looks like. Looks like heck. The destruction from the 2010 earthquake is evident everywhere. Buildings ½ way demolished. Or ½ way rebuilt. Roads blocked everywhere. Shipping containers built into buttresses 6 containers high against damaged buildings to keep walls from coming down. In short, a real mess and not somewhere we want to wander around. So on a lark I put in the DBA address from the Ltd registration and it pops up as only a few kilometers from where we are in the center of town. We drive there and it sure is a residential neighborhood. For grins I dial the number one last time. Fully expecting that this one was going in the fail column but after a few rings a woman picks up. After a few questions I learn that this is in fact the office for the company. The old place having been destroyed. And yes, she does have a couple of merchandise items left. Come on in. 50B. Come around the back by the blue car. We are met by an open door, a cat, and a woman, Irene, doing dishes. It is her home. Not a business. She explains that they moved what they could here after the earthquake and she runs the office from her home. The shirts and all are in a back bedroom. In a chest of drawers, in a closet. But I score the Tee shirt.      #S One and three down.      Next the hard one.

At some point during this search. Which lasted over the course of several days. My friend sent me a note that one of the Britten bikes was on display at the museum in Wellington. We were in Wellington at the time so we walked over to the museum only to learn that yes, they had the bike, but it was in storage as they needed the space for a bloody T-Rex head. I asked if I could see the bike in storage but they couldn’t wrap their brains around that concept. So my task remains to find a motorcycle that they only made ten of and is not in some museum somewhere in storage.

So after scoring the Tee shirt I ask Irene if she perhaps knew where I might be able to see one of the bikes. She says oh yeah. The #1 Bike, the one they call The Cardinal, is on display at the Honda dealership in town. We get the address and it sends us back into the middle of the destruction in downtown. Finally find a place to park the beast. Illegally. And walk the construction along the roadway to the shop. All the while thinking there is no way this is going to come together. These bikes are worth over a million each. They are historic collectors items. But there in the back of the shop it is. The #1 prototype Britten motorcycle. Not even behind a barrier. Just out there to see and touch. Which I did a lot of. It’s quite a work of art. Brilliant engineering. Way ahead of its time.

That was a fun challenge. Thanks bro. Your Tee shirt is on its way!

Going to find some glaciers tomorrow. That should be cool.     Get it?   Cool?

I agree. That was bad.

M

New Zealand       South Island

After a very relaxing ferry ride to the south island we have been cruising around checking out the sights. Heading down the east side. Some beautiful drives along the shoreline. Some nice camp spots.

Ran across a WWI aviation museum. Full size dioramas of dogfights and military campaigns. I liked it. Dawn, not so much.

This is the shoot down of the Red Barron. Thats him on the ground getting his boots stolen. Now why would Dawn like this? I just don't get it.

Drive around and see this all day. 

28 bucks a night. Right on the beach.

Took the TransAlpine train. Goes from Christchurch on the pacific side to Greymouth on the Tasman Sea. And then back. Up and over the New Zealand Alps. It is said to be on of the most beautiful train rides in the world. I agree. I could post about 200 pix from that ride. Incredible.

The New Zealand Alps. On a cloudy rainy day

Heading west now. Not enough time to get the whole of the south island in so we are cutting across and heading back up. Have to be back to the ferry on the 27th.

M