NSZ 2402 New Zealand Tour
Our journey begins!!! Today is finally the day! The start of the tour. The first thing for us 3 tour guides was to bring the motorcycles to the hotel and get them ready for our customers and prepare the meeting room for our welcome briefing. But most of all we are looking forward to getting to know our group. Some of our clients have been on tour with us before so it's a pleasure to meet them again and the rest have been on tour with other tour guides. So you could almost call it an Edelweiss member meeting. And so we met at 5 pm with everyone to introduce the tour and of course the best part was the ceremonial handing over of the motorcycle keys. Afterwards we went to our first meal together where we already had some funny moments. All in all it was a fantastic start to the tour!!! Yes, and tomorrow we'll be heading south - our first day of riding. So be curious what we will experience tomorrow!!! See you tomorrow Jan Domenico and Axel
After a good night rest, filled with lovely dreams, the weather gods are on our side. First picture stop at at lake Pukaka with, again, a good view on mount Cook. The entire day we have the blue sky, white clouds, snow covered mountains and green vegetation. An impressive stop is at the Kawarau suspens bridge. This is where the first commercial bungy jumps were being done in the 80's. Wisely, no one in our group takes a plunge, but there are some other brave souls who do it.
Today's schedule: breakfast starts at 6 am, departure at 7 am... is this really a vacation? :) Well, the things we got to see today made it worth the little effort of starting earlier and to stand the very chilly temperature of the morning. We headed to Milford Sound to embark on a boat that took us for a little cruise in the fiord, what an amazing place! The weather was also perfect and the temperature quickly rose so that, after the cruise, we enjoied a magnificent ride until we reached Queenstown. We are spending two nights here and the schedule is full of activities, starting with a dinner in town tonight... so stay tuned!!!
On a rest day you can do wath ever you want. So some went downtown Queenstown slept in went horseback riding or went for ride out. We had a nice stop at lake Wakatipu, did coffee in Glenorchy and after lunch it was time for the highlight of the day: sailing thrue a narrow gorge on a wild river in a jet boot! That was great fun! After that some cold and well deserved beers
What a day - we barely woke up when it started raining!!! Welcome to the monsoon ride from Queenstown to Fox Glacier. Today we leave Queenstown, a city we have grown fond of, and drive to the West Coast and as it is known to be the wettest of New Zealand, Peter thought we could drive in the rain right from the start. But even that doesn't stop us!!! Out of the city we headed up to the highest pass in New Zealand (Crown Range Road). Once at the top, we enjoyed the impressive view of the sea of clouds over Queenstown before driving to the oldest hotel in New Zealand (Cardrona Hotel from 1863) on the other side. We took a picture there and continued our journey towards Lake Wanaka and Hawea where, after a long shower, we were rewarded with a coffee. From there we continued on the Haast Pass which brought us to the west coast of the South Island. However, this part of the route had it all, from waterfalls spilling onto the road to small water crossings on the road. I'd say we passed the golden seahorse in motorcycling today. And now we are in Fox Glacier and will dance the sun dance together tonight as we actually want to fly up to the glacier tomorrow. You'll see tomorrow if that works out. See you tomorrow Jan Domenico and Axel
One isn't always part off the national news, but because it was 49 years ago since it had rained so much we made the headlines. Despite the severe moist coming from above we all made it save and had a great dinner in Fox Glacier
The rain has gone! And we're in fpr a treat because in front off us is an gorgeous road with many twisted, coastal views and blue skies. One off the highlights are also the pancake rocks
We didn't do many miles on the bikes today, but riding the Queen Charlotte Drive was truly spectacular! The Marlborough Sounds area is a collection of ancient sunken river valleys filled with the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Forested hills rise steeply from the sea around an intricate coastline of sheltered inlets and sandy bays, what beautiful landscapes! Arrived in Nelson, we had lunch and then boarded the ferry to cross the Cook Strait and get to the North Island. Tonight we sleep in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand!
Being in Wellington, today we had many options for the rest day, also considering the very beautiful weather. Visiting the city with its many attractions, walking on the waterfront and having lunch in one of the many restaurants... and logically we couldn't miss a "short" ride on the motorbike to Paraparamu to visit the very rich collection of the Southward car museum. The roads of the Kapiti Coast are narrow and winding, so we really enjoyed the ride! And then tonight everyone chose a different place for dinner. In the end, everyone had a great day!
Let's discover the North Island!!!! So today we're off - we're leaving Wellington and heading for the east coast to start with. 420 km sounds a lot at first, but for our group this is no longer a challenge. Out of Wellington we headed straight through the morning rush hour traffic towards motorcycle paradise. The first destination: Remutaka Crossing/Lookout. This road with little traffic - simply a dream!!! From there we went through numerous valleys with thousands of sheep to the first coffee stop where we had a Tim Tam coffee tasting - carried out by the Tim Tam legend Bruce. After this refreshment, we headed to the next highlight and at the same time a surprise - it was picnic day and Domenico was waiting for us along the way with refreshments. The rest of the day we enjoyed the beautiful scenery and now we are in Napier, where art plays a big part - how much we let our customers explore on a walk. That's it for today from the trio Jan, Domenico and Axel See you tomorrow
It's almost unbelievable, but today was another great riding day. One of the many beautiful things about New Zealand is that the scenery changes every our. And after every corner there's another one. And another one. A coffee stop in the national army museum, and a nice lunch at the shores of the biggest lake in the country were some of the highlights. And also the geothermal pipes, who transport steam which is used to generate electricity. All in all another successful and fun day on our bikes
Last day of the tour for many of the group, with some continuing with the extension (another blog will be set up!). The weather forecast was not encouraging, so we put on our rain gear and off we went. We spent the whole day in the rain, but nevertheless it was an interesting ride! Arriving in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand, we had to face the rush hour traffic to get into the city and then, after returning the bikes, we got ready to go to dinner at one of the coolest restaurants in the city, suspended about 200 meters above the ground! What a magnificent view while we were having dinner! These two weeks have gone by so quickly, goodbye guys, it was a pleasure meeting you and riding with you! We hope to see you again in the future. Axel, Jan and Domenico