Welcome back to Part 2 of our Motorcycle Trip through New Zealand.

 

If you missed Part 1 of our Motorcycle Trip through New Zealand, click here….

 

1.2.19

Ok….. heading down on State Highway 1 through Kaikoura.  Onwards  bound through Waiau, Reefton and finally stopping for the night at  Greymouth.  It rained from Waiaua to about 20k’s out of Greymouth. Had to rain sooner or later. We were incredibly lucky with the weather as New Zealand was having a heat wave and it only rained a couple of times. 

Somewhere between Waiaua and Reefton.

 

2.2.19

After a huge breakfast at Greymouth, we were off to Kumara and up over Arthurs Pass.

If you have never been through Arthurs Pass, you gotta go.   You have to make it part of your motorcycle trip through New Zealand.  Arthur’s Pass National Park is situated between Canterbury and the West Coast in the South Island of New Zealand and Arthur’s Pass runs straight through the Park with a quaint little Alpine Village nestled amongst the Alps.

 

Arthur’s Pass Store

 

I can’t explain how incredible it is. It is rugged and mountainous and the weather can change quickly with little warning. Though we had perfect weather on our day…

Do your research and read up on Arthurs Pass before you go so you know what to expect. There are a few websites about this magical place but I like this one as it gives you all sorts of information and helpful hints.    https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/canterbury/places/arthurs-pass-national-park/

Be warned though, petrol that day was $2.54 ltr!

Arthur’s Pass National Park

Arthur’s Pass National Park

 

Otira Viaduct, Arthur’s Pass

 

From Arthur’s Pass to Darfield Hotel for the night. What wonderful staff! They even let us do our washing…they could probably smell us coming. No, seriously we didn’t have to put undies on inside out once!

The rooms were comfy and clean and so, so friendly.

3.2.19

Today we rode on over to the magical Akaroa. OMG! (I had a lot of OMG moments.)

Akaroa is a historic French and British settlement and is nestled right in an ancient volcano. It is amazing!  The roads were twisty and the view was incredible.

Akaroa

 

One of the main attractions here are “swim with the dolphins” Tours.  It is truly beautiful.

Check out the video I made for the ride into Akaroa….click this link here.

And it is only 84 kms from Christchurch. The day that we were there for breakfast so were about 40 other bikes. What a wonderful sight!

Akaroa

 

It was quite a windy ride to get there which was fine and I was getting used to the wind…that is until we went to Mt Cook…but I will get to that!

After having breakfast at Akaroa we then went back over the hill through Lincoln, Burnham, Ashburton for lunch, Geraldine, Fairlie, over Burkes Pass to Lake Tekapo.

Ahhh Lake Tekapo….another OMG moment.

 

 

Lake Tekapo

 

The turquoise coloured lake gets it’s intense colour from the glaciers. The glaciers grind rock into a fine dust which travels down towards the lake and then is suspended in the water giving it’s magnificent colour.  Photo’s just do not give the colour justice. I have never seen anything like it.             

Lake Tekapo

 

Lake Tekapo

After Lake Tekapo we rode into Twizel for the night. We get around don’t you know!  Twizel is the largest town in the Mackenzie District and is a handy place to base yourself if you are out exploring  Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park.

There are so many things to do around this area like mountain climbing, hiking, horse trekking, kayaking, mountain biking and of course skiing.

We stayed at Twizel  Holiday Park. It was comfy, well priced, clean and really close to Aoraki/Mt Cook. What more could you ask for!

I would definitely recommend it for a cabin. And if my little mate Kian is there, say hi to him. He has the best attitude!  You can check prices and availability on this link here….Twizel  Holiday Park.

4.2.19

Today we headed off to see Aoraki/Mt Cook. (OMG moment). It was sooooooo windy getting there. I had to lay on the tank to stop the front wheel lifting and you felt like you were being pushed from one side of the road to the other, which you were!.

Truly an experience. But such an awesome, sunny day. I couldn’t believe we were so close to the snow.

The road to  Aoraki/Mt Cook

 

Aoraki/Mt Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand and runs the entire length of the South Island. 

You can’t visit the South Island without checking it out..I didn’t know but this mountain helped Sir Edmund Hillary develop his climbing skills in preparation for the conquest of Everest. Wow! 

And  then there is the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre which showcases the Aoraki Mt Cook region and consists of a cafe and bar, the world’s southern most digital dome Planetarium, a state-of-the-art 3D Mount Cook Magic movie, a museum and of course, you can’t go past the mountain views through the floor to ceiling windows.  You should take a visit to it… here is the link ……

 

Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre

On the way back from seeing Aoraki/Mt Cook we stopped off and had a lavender icecream at the New Zealand Alpine Lavender Farm. I have never had a Lavender icecream before…..interesting!

 

New Zealand Alpine Lavender Farm

 

This Lavender Farm is in the middle of nowhere on Mount Cook Rd, Ben Ohau, which is on the way to Aoraki Mount Cook.  It was fun place to stop at as they had heaps of lavender products and it was great to try the Lavender icecream ‘cos it was a bloody hot day!  

We rode on to Omarama and at this point the group split up.  But I am going to stop here as the page is getting too long with lots of pics and it will take forever to load in your browser.

There are heaps more things to tell you and pictures to show you so I am going to put the rest of the pics into a little video for you to peruse through.  As soon as it is up, I will add it to the blog.

If you haven’t taken a motorcycle trip through New Zealand you should really consider it!  All these words and pictures just can’t explain how awesome it is.

This is a map of the South Island and the route we took.

 

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/pacific/new-zealand/south-island/

 

Click here for Motorcycle Trip through New Zealand to the Burt Munro Challenge PART 3 –  February 2019.

Cheers and Stay upright.