FLIPSIDE MOTO
NEW ZEALAND
APRIL 2004
Before kids arrived, our first epic adventure as a couple was a two-week motorcycle trip circumnavigating the South Island of New Zealand. Jason atop a Transalp and Alenna on a BMW we rented from GoTourNZ, we covered a little over 2,000 miles and all types of terrain from craggy passes to glaciers to fiords to sheep pastures and farmland. As you can see from the map, we covered as much ground as a hobbit! (Hi Frodo.)
The first big hurdle of this journey was getting used to the other side of the road. When the bikes arrived on our first day in New Zealand, we took them out for a spin. Jason, eager to get going early the next morning, thought a bit of "practice" that night, without daytime traffic, would be helpful. How incredibly nerve-wracking! But we quickly found ourselves drilling in "right-left-right" as we crossed intersections. Thankfully this switch didn't cause us any major concerns a day or two into the trip, save a frightening encounter with a few roundabouts as we left Christchurch. Mastering the art of the roundabout should be a driving class all by itself. We were both excited to be on the open road when we cleared the urban boundary.
This was also our first experience using an in-helmet, bike-to-bike communications system. The silence of a ride, even a group ride, is really part of why motorcycling appeals to many, but in a foreign land on the wrong side of the road, we thought it would be a real bonus to not have to stop incessantly and check with each other about directions, bathroom breaks or snacks. So, not wanting to be too spendy, and since it was the pre-Bluetooth days, we essentially rigged up a push-to-talk, walkie talkie-type system with in-helmet speakers connected with a wire to a push-to-talk button on our handlebars.
While it worked fairly well, our morning routine included running a frustrating sound check and we cursed the many other stops that we frequently made to get things working again when someone cut out. Somehow our comms system survived until the very last day, through rainstorms and daily use, but ultimately died. On that last day, Jason could hear Alenna, but not vice versa. As we drove in the dark, rushing to get back to Christchurch in time for a meal at a favorite restaurant, the art of yes/no questions and hand signals kept us connected and on track.
While we both kept small diaries of the trip, they didn't cover much other than the basics of the journey. However, just collecting the photos for this recap is a reminder of so many standout moments -- talking to kids (who are always interested in motorcycles) on the road to Kaikoura during our first day, going "crafts-mad" in Hokitika, taking a helicopter ride to see the Franz Josef glacier, a 30 degree (Fahrenheit) pre-dawn ride to see penguins at the southernmost tip of the island, recovering from a dreadfully cold white knuckle late night ride in Maruia hot springs, and touring around Lake Te Anau where we floated through famous caves with gloworms hanging from the ceiling. We avoided major mishaps thankfully, although we both "dropped" our bikes once each (no damage thankfully), Alenna got a miserable head cold, and we nearly didn't find lodging when we rolled into a couple of very, very small towns after 5:00pm. (Country Kiwis tend to go to bed early.)
With the technology we have today, we are so excited to embark on our Europe adventure with Bluetooth headsets connecting us, and maps at our fingertips, but we are probably both wondering about the type of adventures we will find when so many of the challenges of our relatively small New Zealand journey have been removed.
