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Sunday 12th January 2008

Today's ride was a couple of hundred miles from Christchurch to Aoraki Mount Cook. The first half could have been pretty much anywhere but a roadside sign at about the halfway mark had us intrigued; 'Driver Reviver, free tea for driver', what an idea and it was about time for a break. Not only was it a free tea but in a bone china cup with all the trimmings. Whilst we were partaking we saw the days first sighting of the Christchurch Chapter HOG (Harley Owners Group) Sunday ride out to Aoraki Mount Cook coincidentally.

The road alongside Lake Pukaki is a wonderful blacktop for a fully loaded Glide, undulating Rubenesque curves, set her at the 100kph limit and counter steer for a magic bonding of bike and road, marvelous.

	Great sign eh!		Front lawn of the Hermitage
	Almost a view of Aoraki Mount Cook		Not bad for a Room with a View.

Monday 14th January 2008

Today is a rest from packing up and riding day, a chill out day, the focus being to secure our first glimpse of the summit of Aoraki Mount Cook. She has been tantalizing us with peeks but no full on view as yet after 24 hours. We took the time to explore the newly opened Sir Edmund Hillary museum that had added poignancy due to the recent death of New Zealand's finest citizen Sir Edmund Hillary.

	Sir Edmund and Jen look out over Aoraki Mount Cook		First sighting of Aoraki Mount Cook and well worth the wait
	Me, Jen and Aoraki Mount Cook		Aoraki Mount Cook

Tuesday 15th January 2008

Today we check out from the unadulterated luxury of the Aoraki Wing of the Hermitage hotel to give our digestive systems a well earned rest! It took three days before we got a full frontal of Aoraki Mount Cook and it was well worth the wait; she certainly lived up to her billing. Onto Dunedin today and the daily focus of an Albatross Colony. On route we saw a Penguin Colony advertised but apparently the only action is in the evening so we only saw two penguins on a road traffic warning sign. The albatross breeding colony was brilliant, the nesting birds were about to have their chicks hatch so if your in town in February there should be much more activity. It is about a 25km drive onto the headland from Dunedin but well worth the effort to see these magnificent creatures; also a good idea to see the Armstrong Disappearing Gun, coincidentally made not 15 miles from our home in South Shields!

Wednesday 16th January 2008

Dunedin to Bluff but first we will hopefully experience the most Southerly Harley Dealer in the World. McIver & Veitch is his name (well he was one of those two!) and he raced with Burt Munroe! He also told us where we could see Burt's bike in Invarcargill, at E.Hayes & Sons Ltd, 168 Dundee St, Invercargill (Tel:+64 218 2059). It is a regular general purpose store and there in back are several of Burt's bikes and paraphernalia, wonderful. The owner of the most southerly Harley Dealership also recommended the Southern Scenic route; I had already programmed this route into my Zumo but it was reassuring to get the thumbs up from a local. About 60km South of Dunedin you turn off route 1 at Balclutha and prepare yourself for the best Harley Ultra Glide Road ever!

As we were very early starting out we stopped by the wonderful Railway Station in Dunedin and took a side trip to the only castle in New Zealand, Larnach Castle - they call it a castle but in my view it is more a large house! The gardens were very nice though and they did offer accommodation which I guess would be very special.

We arrived in Invercargill at 4pm and made our way straight to E.Hayes emporium, a warm welcome and you would not believe that such a piece of history is sat amongst all the items for sale. The store itself is well worth a nosey around, but having loads of historical things cheek by jowl with sale items is quaint. The staff were friendly and helpful too. A highlight of the trip for me to see such a 'Heath Robinson' piece of kit that I think still holds the under 1000cc naturally aspirated record at Bonneville Salt Flats is truly awesome. This guy was a true Kiwi icon and the film, according to the local people I spoke to who knew Burt, is a true rendition of the man - if you have not seen it then you must. Anthony Hopkins in 'The Worlds Fastest Indian'.

Onto our overnight at Lands End (Stirling Point) about 25 km South of Invercargill and the Lands End B&B which was exceptional. Whilst there I noticed a couple of youngsters on Hondas' taking their picture with the sign post and their Czech Republic flag, wonder what their story was?

Thursday 17th January 2008

Today was supposed to be Burt Munroe Day but we 'knocked that particular bastard off yesterday', as Ed Hillary would say! So today was about making our way North and achieving our second Daily Focus of the Kingston Flyer. It started off wet but we got a couple of good shots of the bike and THE Lands End sign and were told at the fuel stop in Invercargill; that 20km North and it would dry up, blow me if it did too! The good thing about Alpine weather is that if you do not like the current weather then hang about and it will change!

Arriving at Kingston we had missed the Flyer by 30 minutes and decided that one train ride was much the same as others and we had done some very good train rides in our time like Rocky Mountaineer, North York Railways at Pickering to name but two so onwards and Northwards for our overnight at Queenstown. Getting into town at lunch time gave us the opportunity to scrutinise the available Motels and have time to enjoy this adventure capital. We could scare ourselves shitless in Queenstown with bunji jumping, skydiving, downhill mountain biking but we went for the much more sedate lake ride TSS Earnslaw. TSS means Twin Screw Steamship and boy was this a good one, she had two triple expansion steam engines with open crankcases and a pair of smoke tube boilers being fed one ton of coal an hour by two stokers, authentic 1902 ship that had been plying lake Wakatipu for these 100+ years. She had mainly been used in the early days to open up the wealth of the area before roads were built and she'd carry 1600 sheep if required. It was a fantastic lakeside trip in idyllic weather.

We also had time to see a Kiwi. Not a native New Zealander but the nocturnal bird that New Zealanders take their name from. It was at the Kiwi and Native bird park at the foot of the gondola ride in Queenstown. A family run business helping to educate and maintain the delicate balance of some rare and endangered species of birds, with an MP3 sound system the perambulation around the aviaries was informative and educational in an excellent embodying way;I highly recommend it to you.

Friday 18th January 2008

The focus of today was the Mountain Helicopter ride in Fox Glacier with an 06:30 departure we were up for it! The GPS advised a left turn not far North of Queenstown and as we were nice and early I took it; it was up the Crown Range through Cardrona Valley and a wonderful ride as the sun came up to improve an already idyllic situation. It was miles before we found our breakfast stop. The riding was perfect alongside the Wanaka Lake and over the Haast Pass; perfect and magical. Arriving in Fox Glacier before noon was brilliant in that the weather was perfect and Nathan of Mountain Helicopters could get us up a couple of hours before our scheduled flight, he also knew a good motel, Rainforest Motel; sorted. Mere words cannot describe the wonder of a tiny helicopter flight over the Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers with a stunning view of Mount Cook, a trip highlight - we'd be hard pushed to forget our thirty fifth happy wedding anniversary!

Saturday 19th January 2008

Riding the 160km to Hokitika is what riding is all about. Perfect weather, perfect roads and virtually no traffic; words alone cannot describe how perfect it was. Arriving in Hokitika early we decided to use the iSite (Tourist Information Centre) to get a motel and the inside information on Jade; after all the raison d'etre of the journey was to get Jade.

Annabelle Motel, 214 Weld Street run by Les and Maree Smyth is the best we have been in. It has a two seater whirlpool bath, broadband and is meticulously clean and new; highly recomend it to you. iSite also came up trumps with the Jade information and directed us to Tectonic Jade in Revell Street where we met the carvers (Rex Scott) partner. She helped us select a triple twist for me and Jen which we are both very happy with.

 

 

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