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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Wrap-Up for the New Zealand - Australia
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Home Again! After very long airplane rides, Deane arrived home to Albuquerque on April 16th, and Jack on April 17th. It's sure good to be back home!! It was a great trip, but its always good to get home. It seems like a trip this long should have a little wrap-up at the end, to summarize the overall trip. so here it is. Statistics of the Trip Number of days on the road: In New Zealand - 2 In Australia - 32 Some might think that New Zealand deserved more time, and we would agree, but stopping and riding there, near Auckland, was kind of an after-thought in our planning process. We had originally planned just to go to Australia, but our airline routings allowed us to think about a "couple of days" in New Zealand, on the way to Australia. We had a good ride there, and can always think about going back for more. Total Miles Traveled In New Zealand - 465 In Australia - 7,700 Miles (12,400 km) on Bikes, plus 500 Miles on Melbourne to Tasmania Ferry & back. Cost of Gas Australia - Low - $1.20 per Liter (Australian Dollars) - About $3.77 per Gallon, US Dollars Australia - High - $1.60 per Liter (Australian Dollars) - About $5.03 per Gallon, US Dollars New Zealand - About $5.00 per gallon. Miles per Gallon About 50 miles per gallon, with each of the Suzuki V-Strom 650cc, V-Twin bikes. Highways Highways in Australia were from very good to excellent, with little exception. Most of the highways we traveled were two-lane, with very light traffic. One thing we took particular notice of was that the signs on Australian highways are excellent and abundant. Whether in metropolitan areas or in the Outback, the signage was excellent. Motorcycle Problems Almost NONE - The Suzuki V-Strom 650's were extremely reliable. Deane's bike had to have the chain replaced, at about half way in the trip, but the chain just wore out, having had some miles on it before we started out. So this was a normal maintenance item. The V-Stroms were extremely capable, and gave an excellent ride. Rental Experience We decided to rent motorcycles for this trip, to eliminate some of the logistics and costs in getting our own motorcycles to Australia. This worked out very well. With the selection of the V-Strom 650, having a pair of GIVI hard bags mounted, and insurance coverage for our 32-day trip, the motorcycle rentals cost us about $100 per day (Australian dollars), (or around $85 US dollars). We rented the motorcycles from Dave Pearce's company "Aussie Biker", and our experience with Dave was outstanding. Dave maintains his motorcycles in top condition and he is very fair and easy to work with. We would definitely rent motorcycles from Dave again. His addresses are: www.aussiebiker.com.au and 4/15 Venture Drive, Noosaville, Queensland, 4566 Australia. All in all, we had a wonderful trip, excellent weather, and in the process met and made friends with several Australian motorcycle riders. What a great time!! |
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