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

New Zealand      Wellington

Very nice city. I like the country better but this is a cool place. You could have lunch and dinner at a different little place every day for a year and probably not run out of new places. We are in a caravan park in the middle of town. Really just a paved parking lot with elect hookups. On the waterfront.  Not to peaceful but sure is convenient. We walked all over the city from this base. Two nights and there and off to the south island. Done with the big city for now.

So we go from this. In Bowentown.

To this. In wellington.

Nice harbor. If you look really really close you can see the yellow crane we are parked under.

                                                                                  Right about here ^ on the opposite bank just up                                                                   from the shore line.

Very nice parks and walking trails.

Taking this ferry to the south island. 95 Km. Takes about three hours they tell me. Off to Picton tonight. No idea what to expect there.

Got a few items on the to do list but that always seems to change as soon as we get rolling. But its a nice sunny day out. Lets roll!

M

New Zealand

Stopped off at a friend of a friends place in Tauranga.  We got a local knowledge tour and camped out in their driveway for the night. Thank you Paul and Christa. You were very kind hosts.

Then off again. We gather no moss.

The middle of the north island is a very active geothermal area. We did a stretch of road called the Thermal Explorer Highway. The views were spectacular. And to many steam vents and sites to even count. One particular park has, what it calls, the youngest geothermal area in the world. This one started up in the late 1800s. Before that there was no activity in the area. It claims to be the only spot like it in the world that can trace its origins to the exact day that it formed. And it is still forming and changing. Kind of scary actually. Makes you want to snap a photo and get the heck out of there. Many of the spots are named for people who were killed by eruptions or geysers run amuck. Including one entire family. Hard to get it on camera. The picture don’t really show how beautiful the features are.

And a couple of nice waterfalls along the way.

Caldera lake. Steaming and bubbling. Once in a while the steam would swirl up like a little tornado. Could not capture it on still photos.

Little steam vent right on the trail.

This pool changes colors as the chemical composition of the water changes. We caught it on a day when it was sky blue. Looked like a swimming pool. It rises and falls several meters cyclically. And no, I don't know whats wrong with her hair. It just does than sometimes. Scares me!

Looks fake but it really is that color.

Then the surprise for the day. Tooling along I see a sign for a car museum. A row of beat up tin sheds. Place is run by an old eccentric fellow named Ian. Nice guy. In the sheds are over 400 cars. "Count them if you want." All British. Most stacked up like cordwood. You can imagine the smell. Gas, oil, burned up engine, old rubber, mold. I have some nice shots but this gives you a flavor of the place. Nothing is for sale. "I'm a buyer not a seller" says Ian. He has an old hearse in the pile there somewhere. And in the hearse is the casket he is to be buried in. Which I think will not be long now. Not kidding. He says 80% of them run. I think he added a zero. But it was an interesting stop off for sure.

Heading now to Wellington. The big city. Furthest place south. Once there we ferry down to the south island.

M