Deane & Jack's Motorcycle Trip in
Australia and New Zealand
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Deane & Jack's Motorcycle Trip in Australia and New Zealand |
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March 12 - Auckland, To Whitinanga, New Zealand 154 Miles |
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Renting the motorcycles took longer than we thought, but we managed it. We put enough "stuff" in our GIVI Trunk bags for two days, stowed the rest of our baggage with the rental company, and took off, Jack on a Honda "Hornet" - CB600, and Deane on a Suzuki "Bandit" 1200.
These both have 4-cylinder in-line motors, Jack's a 600cc and Deane's a 1200cc. These turned out to be just fine for the type of riding we were to do. Auckland is a big and very busy city, and our rental company was essentially right down town, so it was a bit stressful until we left the heavy traffic and got out of town. Now, to the "riding on the left side of the road". This was kind of tough at first, with Jack averting an on-coming car in his "wrong lane turn" in the morning, and Deane doing the same just after lunch. The worst part of trying to "Think Left", and "Keep Left", is when one makes a stop, such as for gas or for lunch, and then tries to re-enter traffic, in the correct lane. Ingrained habit takes over, if one doesn't say to oneself "Think Left". But by the end of the day, we were doing well.
Our route took us around the Coromandel Peninsula, on the North Island of New Zealand, said to be very scenic. The first part of this led us through green rolling pasture hills, with lots of dairy cattle, not many beef cattle, and some sheep. With green trees and bushes in the small draws, this was beautiful riding. Then following curvy roads along the sea shore, right at the edge of large bays, it was fun riding and quite scenic, but not stunning, until the road led up the steep mountains pushing the sea shore. Then the views were superb.
The day was overcast, and by after noon we started to hit light rain, which turned into steady and fairly heavy rain. About 4 PM, we decided to give it up and find a place to stay, in the tourist town of Whitianga. We were lucky to find a beautiful farm & ranch with very nice "cottage" type accommodations. The rain keeps up, with peacocks, geese, and ducks vying for cover under our patio roof. The horses, cows, and sheep aren't so lucky. We didn't go very far today, but had fun riding the many, many curves, and just enjoying the scenery. Tomorrow we'll make it back to Auckland, hopefully without rain. |
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