New Zealand by Transalp

Our first days riding was dictated by the weather bureau because torrential rains and gale force winds were predicted on the west coast. We quickly shelved our plans of riding Arthurs Pass and opted to ride across the Canterbury Plains towards Lake Tekapo. Unfortunately the winds followed us, with gusts of up to 100 K's making me feel more like a sailor than a motorcyclist. The scenery made up for the inconvenience but by the time we reached the lake I was praying for a comfy bed and good weather the following day. I was so buggered I booked 2 nights accommodation, figuring we could either stay put or cruise up to Mt Cook the next day.

As it turned out the weather cleared so we treated ourself to some spectacular scenery on the way to Mt Cook, each time we put the camera away we'd turn another corner and it was back out again. Unfortunately the mountain itself was covered in cloud so we wandered out to the Tasman glacier where we were confronted with a sign saying “Road not maintained, vehicles travelling beyond this point do so at their own risk”. Hehehehe, we had the Transalp so off we went, bouncing from rock to rock along the edge of an old glacier, passing a few walkers along the way. Eventually we came to a vertical drop which would have involved removing the panniers to negotiate, I scouted ahead and realised the “road” stopped a few metres on anyway so we parked the bike and took off on foot. VIEWS? We just had to sit back for a while and soak up the valley, lined by rocks which were effectively the rubble left as the glacier retracts, in the distance the ice and snow capped mountains. More photos, then back along the track and off we went.

Again our plans were moulded by the speculation of the weather reporter then fine tuned by the quality of each café we stopped at. The promise of a few good days on the west coast and the standard of lunch at Wanaka meant we spent the evening sailing around Lake Wanaka on a catamaran , rested in a ski lodge then awoke to clear skies. We overheard a German rider talking about the beauty of the Matukituki valley so we started our day with a “short” detour. Lovely windy dirt roads, magical views and a few thousand sheep on the road equated to lunch at Wanaka again then a quick run over the Haast pass to our next nights accommodation. In transit we noticed an idyllic caravan park on the shores on Lake Hawea, next time maybe?

The Km were clocking up slowly, mostly because we kept finding great cafes but also the strain of riding the TA two up on the race track which is NZ was taking it's toll on my concentration. By Franz Joseff I was stuffed (gastronomically as well as mentally) so we trundled over to Okarito on the coast to escape the bulk of the tourists. What a magical little town, this is where many of the people who work at Franz live, it's basically a bunch of houses on the coast beside a tidal lagoon, the only concession to the tourists being a couple of basic backpackers and a canoe hire shed. We stayed 2 nights, spent the day wandering the beach and kayaking the lagoon and the evening we joined the locals around the campfire. Unfortunately by this stage one of the transalps CDI's was playing up (surprise, surprise), worse still my spare wasn't much better, so I made a plea for help on the ozhonda email site. I spent the next few days in a constant state of paranoia: is it going to cut out as I pass this car? Can I really afford to commit to this corner? Eventually I moved the unit over next to the air intake where I could get to it quickly for roadside fiddles and naturally it stopped playing up , naturally I then couldn't access my email so had no idea what was happening.

Further north, through Hokitika (great pancakes) we took the wrong road over the ranges and discovered yet another magical dirt road through stunning scenery. Signs warning of multiple fords turned out to be a slight exaggeration, with mostly small creek crossings although one in particular crossed the track then cascaded over the edge creating a small waterfall - more photos. An all too brief run along Arthurs Pass then a detour through Lake Brunner up to Lewis pass and our overnight accommodation at Maruia springs. Anyone for sharing a rock lined thermal spring under the stars? Pity about the sulphur smell which pervaded my shorts for the next week.

Next day was yet another fantasy of fast sweeping bends and stunning scenery as we headed north to Murchison (more great cafes) then over towards Picton for our intended 3 days rest before meeting the official Andy Strapz tour. Unfortunately the Blenheim wine festival meant all accommodation in the region had been booked 12 months ago so we cruised along the Queen Charlotte Drive to the last 2 beds in the Havelock YHA (highly recommended). The road was pure heaven, basically the best bits of the ocean road repeated several times. It was so good we had to do it the next day, and the next, then we discovered the detour up to Portage which was even more of the same and Tam actually got motion sickness on the back! Somewhere in the middle we made it to the wine festival and spent a day lazing around a beach. Life's a bitch.

The day before joining the tour proper I discovered the cush drive bearing was on its way out, unlikely to make it through 3 more weeks so my best option was to replace it. All bearings had been replaced prior to the trip which reinforces my belief that washing motorbikes is bad for them. I dropped into the Blenheim Honda store - they didn't have the part but offered me the use of their workshop after I bought one from the local bearing shop. Quick fix, thanks guys.

Eventually we had to meet up with the Andy Strapz tour, and 10 days into our trip we rocked up at the Picton Van Park to join the rest of the crew. How the face of motorcycling is changing! About a third of the bikes had the BMW badge, most of the group were over 40 and apart from the poor old Transalp most of the bikes were shinny. We broke the ice by opening a few cheeses we had picked up at the wine festival and waited for Andy to arrive. How surprised do you think I was when he rolled up holding two CDI units and telling me how his evening meal was interrupted by some strange bloke bearing gifts…thanks Peter Holt! To top things off I then found out Mike had been trying to track down Tony (a clubman tourer who was also on the tour) to donate one of Trevor the transalps CDI's, meanwhile I thought Paul from WA was posting a unit to the next nights accommodation! Feeling warm and fuzzy I joked about cornering the CDI market, thanks again guys.

FOUR THIRTY AM, what the hell are we doing sitting at Picton waiting for the ferry? It's dark and we should still be in bed. This is supposed to be a holiday. ^&$^%# Dave &^$#^ Milligan (to be known as FDM from here onwards). He was still in bed because HIS ferry left at 10.30.^&%$*%^&$!!!!! Anyway, after the mayhem of watching a bunch of road riders trying to secure their bikes (heheheh, love those wide bars) we wandered up stairs and passed out for a few hours. There already? Too tired to know any better we detoured out to Castle Point, a short couple of hundred kays of stunning scenery (as usual), bit of a walk along the beach then blast up the route everyone else had taken to arrive late at Napier.

Just before we left Napier Andy mentioned a dirt option (route 38), the road is carved into the ranges that pass by Lake Waikeremoana then winds through the Huriarau range. It had about 100 km of easy dirt so it only seemed natural than Brian should join us on his Dominator, setting the theme for the rest of the trip. Most of the others put in a several hundred K detour around the Raukumara ranges and thoroughly enjoyed themselves, although I doubt they realised what they had missed out on. We spent the night at Whakatane, probably the highlight of the FDM factor with seven people crammed into a filthy cabin, the symphony of snorers guaranteeing complaints all round in the morning.

Whakatane to Waihi Beach we played tourist (too tired to play racer), dropped into the bird garden and wandered around for a while, rolled into the caravan park early and went for a swim on the surf beach, much more like a holiday. Everyone else made the detour up to Rotorua but we'd been to pongy town in the past so there wasn't much appeal. Besides, the Coromandel peninsula was on the agenda and we wanted to be nice and fresh.

What can I say about the Coromandel? The owner of the Thames van park owned a Mk 3 Lemans and a DB1, we took his suggestion on the better bitumen roads then continued on along the north west out to Fletcher bay (the tip). Magical scenery, twisty roads and a lovely relaxing beach at the end. On the way back we crossed over to the west then back to Coromandel for another feast, finally arriving at the van park as the sun was setting over the Firth of Thames. I wanted to forget the rest of the north island and spend a few more days exploring the region. (still wish I did)

Heading North we wasted a few days clocking up the kays over to Kerikeri then Dargaville, back down through Auckland and onto Otorohanga. Admittedly nice scenery and the ride through the Waipoua forest was some of the best bitumen we'd seen, but far too many K's on major roads. Brian decided to go the whole hog and ride out to cape Regina, silly bugger. From Otorohanga it was another big day down to Wanganui, at which stage we decided it was time to take a break, after replacing my rear wheel bearings (I'm never going to wash my bike again) we caught some feel good Hollywood style movie to numb the brain cells then had dinner with the local Ulysses mob.

Our North island traverse was completed with a rush down the highway for a midday ferry out of Wellington, another run along the Queen Charlotte Drive (where I scraped my pannier), new tyres for most of us (wore out the edges for my first time, getting really good at pulling the back wheel out by now) then 2 spectacular days at Takaka . Here we met Roscoe, a retired American who leaves his 2002 model Transalp in NZ for his annual 3 month holiday, the rest of the year he tours Canada and the Baja Peninsula. What a life! Perhaps the highlight of the trip was when he told me he'd traded UP from a BMW 1100 GS to the Transalp. As you can imagine I'd been getting all types of flack over my poor little Transalp so I took great pleasure in passing his sentiments on to the main culprit (who incidentally rode a BMW). The ride from Takaka out along the north coast to Putarau was pretty bloody special, dirt road along the edge of a mountain-lined bay, then over the ranges to wild coastal scenery, howling winds making progress interesting but still well worth the trouble. We opted out of crossing the river at the end of the road, it was high tide and flowing hard, I'd have even thought twice about crossing on my KTM. Dinner was another treat, café dangerous in Takaka makes an awesome “southern style” pizza, how does smoked chicken, brie and cranberry sauce sound? Just another excuse to go back one day.

From Takaka it was south west, the road would have been awesome on a big sports tourer. The scenery was the usual snow capped ranges behind crystal clear rivers, the road a constant succession of smooth high speed sweepers, then we were treated to a run along the Buller Gorge. Passed a few vintage britt bikes and several vintage cars, drooled over a KTM adventure, then continued on to Greymouth. Scenery overload.

Huge day next, all the way from Greymouth to Franz Josef , theoretically about an hours ride to yet another FDM night. Naturally Brian convinced us to lead him on a Paul Dandy “where the f#@k am I?” tour. My map said there were some dirt roads between Dunganville and Dillmanstown, his map (which was newer) didn't, so we wandered around over moss lined rocks until we found a sign saying “Billy goats track, no exit”. Naturally we had to see where it went….eventually we came to a fairly major dirt road, only to find we were 50 metres from where we started. Onward to Hokitika where we diverted around Lake Kaniere , got a little geographically challenged and found our way to Hokitika Gorge (not even on my map). We had a lovely walk along the gorge (turquoise waters lined by sheer cliffs, just the usual spectacular NZ scenery stuff) then went in search of the rest of the group.

Life is hard when you get to do the Haast pass twice in sunny weather, even worse when you have to stay at Wanaka twice in the same trip. We procrastinated about going on some of the adventure touristy things and decided to spend our money in the café instead, good decision. Huge wildberry pie. Yum. Wanaka probably has another year or two left until it becomes too touristy to be worth the visit, so get there soon.

The Lonely Planet advices against taking the crown ridge road from Wanaka to Queenstown because it's “too windy and steep”. Duh! At Queenstown we decided to visit the local bike shop because we'd been told of a dirt road leaving from the other side of Lake Wakatipu and going all the way to Te Anu, it would mean loading the bikes onto the paddle steamer which sounded interesting. After sounding out the shop guy we decided it might take a little more time and preparation than we were capable of, so instead we took his advice and rode out to Skippers Canyon and the Shotover River gorge. Yet another great dirt road amongst “wow” standard scenery. Brian compared it with his trips through India but “without all the tanks”, I reckon the 4WD's carrying rafters make up for the lack of tanks. We thought we were being serious adventurers until we discovered two of the Adelaide boys had taken their sports bikes out there to do a bungy jump off the swing bridge. They never noticed the views though, apparently they were too busy trying to stay upright. By lunchtime we were still at Arrowtown, munching away on a well earned feast with about 300 K's to Dunedin. The day would have been perfect if we'd stayed put but off we went.

Dunedin was so nice (and I was so tired) that we stayed an extra day to look around and explore the peninsula / architecture / cafes. John, Brian and Lyle had the same idea, although they stayed in the FDM van park whilst we found a motel with a king sized bed and clean sheets. A well deserved rest, a much better option than racing across the country for another peek at Mt Cook. We were missing our Labrador so we paid a visit to a seal colony, the similarities are remarkable. Since the end of the trip was looming we went in search of more dirt roads, finding the east coast of the Otago Peninsula far less developed and much more scenic. Our days riding finished in time for lunch at Dunedin, followed by another stroll around town admiring the architecture (and a new looking 87 Transalp).

Unfortunately this meant trudging up the coast highway the next day for our final stay in Littleton. Two more FDM nights, punctuated by an attempt at riding around the Akaroa peninsula (curtailed by low lying sea mist), then time to clean the bikes. Quarantine again, though this time we didn't have a steam cleaner so it was off with the plastic, a few hours scrubbing with kerosene and in the morning she was still filthy. Down to the supermarket for trusty old spray and wipe, another blast with the hose, some more scrubbing then I accepted defeat and took my chances. Of course it rained all night so the bikes looked dirty again as we loaded them at the depot…. More waiting around at airports and 12 hours later (FDM) we arrived in Melbourne.

Would I do it again? I'd ride NZ tomorrow, although I'd hire a bike and do the organising myself. FDM. If time was limited to less than 4 weeks I'd just keep to the south island (better scenery, less traffic), and I'd allow at least a week to explore the Abel Tasman and Marlborough sounds. Most people wanted to get to Milford but we'd wasted too much time in the far north island, and having been to Milford before I can sympathise with them. The scenery was great, the roads were awesome, café's were a treat and my pillion was her usual wonderful self. Now if I can get back to that motorbike shop in Queenstown and hire a dirt bike…..

Footnote by Dave Milligan

Comments from other clients on this tour:

"Dave, Maggie, a difficult job with people who like to be independent. I recommend to others to do the trip". Brian McIllree.

"Overall, had a ball. Best riding I have ever done & met some great people. Not a cross word between any of the group over 3 weeks speaks for itself. When is the next one?" Steve Falkiner.

"Pretty good I thought, especially since this was your first attempt at putting a NZ tour together – good effort. Overall a great 3 weeks. It would be nice to know at each nights accommodation what services are on offer in the town. Where to eat etc". Antonio Anastasio

"Dave and Maggie, you did a great job. Congratulations". Lyle Denny

"Totally happy (minor accommodation gripes in regards overcrowding). Generally met and exceeded expectations. Distance between sites great. Any two day sites should be special quality accommodation. Personally I had no problems with the quality of the accommodation on this trip." Dave Mellows

"I plan to use your shipping facilities again, but would probably plan my own itinerary. Strongly suggest twin share for future trips, but think the standard of accommodation was fine.." Rob Harden.

"Book my bike in again for February 2004." John Rutherford

"Well spaced destinations. Keep Northland, some of the best riding. Gisborne as a base is a great idea. East Cape was well received. Info regarding tyre choices prior to trip would help." Andy White – tour guide.

Paul Dandy:- "Long after paying my deposit and booking my holidays I got around to reading the information package Dave Milligan had posted."

Dave Milligan:- I think this says a lot about Paul Dandy.

Paul Dandy:- Now if I can get back to that motorbike shop in Queenstown and hire a dirt bike…..

Dave Milligan:- Yes, motorcycle hire is the best way to go if you only have a week. But if you want to see NZ properly you need at least 4 weeks. I have clients who went on the tour with Paul who have booked to go back again next year for another 4 weeks to have a better look under their own steam. Incidentally they will be using the same accommodation as used for the 2003 tour.

The motorcycle hire shop in Queenstown does have off road bikes but are not happy hiring them to people unless it’s on one of their guided tours. If business is slack they will hire them out with rigid preconditions and starting at $200 per day (how much is that over 4 weeks?), but if they are busy with tours, forget it. Have a look at www.offroad.co.nz

Cost to ship your bike to NZ (and back) in Summer 2004 – January, February & March shipments will cost $1350 per bike for most bikes and this includes the NZ Tourist registration using your Aussie plates. The bikes will be in NZ for 4 weeks.

As a result of client replies to a questionnaire I sent to all tour participants upon my arrival back in Melbourne 2 days after the conclusion of the tour and further discussions with tour guide Andy White I have made several changes and upgrades to the accommodation. This has meant changing some destinations to achieve suitable accommodation so the 2004 itinerary is not exactly as the 2003 tour. Close but not the same. Having said that, I have not gotten away from the Budget priced tour philosophy. This is still a low priced good value for money tour.

We considered offering a much more expensive tour ($6800 included airfares, bike shipping and flash accommodation) using the same route but with 4 & 5 Star hotel accommodation including breakfast. Using the same percentage margins there is more profit to be made, but in the end we prefer to offer the cheaper tour as it is affordable for more people.

As a measure of good faith and by way of an apology I am prepared to offer Paul Dandy a free bike shipping (for his own bike) to and from NZ in the February 2004 shipment.

Kind regards
Dave Milligan

Ulysses member # 18339
Get Routed (ABN 98 055 447 869)
formerly Superbike & GP World Tours
Motorcycle Shippers to NZ & UK
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