New zealand by moped (loads of photos) 56k:(

[Al]

I did this little tour over a year ago now but have never really written anything about it down, which is a shame as I've forgotten a lot of the details now. So I'll just bore you with loads of pictures instead and the stuff that I can remember..
This is the basic route we took although I might be slightly wrong.
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I was traveling with two mates Drew and Scott, the reason why we decided to use mopeds to tour was for a few reasons, we'd just spent the last month traveling around the US in a car
(13,000miles in 28 days)
Whilst it was fun we were pretty tired of spending hours on end sitting in a car, also NZ isn't that bigger place (about the same sort of length as the UK but split into two islands)
So you could probably drive it in a few days, wheres the fun in that . One of the ideas was to travel NZ on bicycles ! In a bid to save money and get really buff bodies for when we arrived in OZ and spent our days laying on the beach.
But that wasn't really going to work as we had way to much stuff with us to cycle any distance(and we were to lazy)

We couldn't use proper motorbikes as neither of my mates had bike licences, so the idea of a 50cc moped seemed like a good one, they were cheap to buy, you could ride it on a car licence and you didn't need insurance.
So we set about trying to find some for sale.

We were in Auckland at the time staying in a really busy backpackers hotel just off of the main shopping street (queens st).
The rooms were clean if a little box like, there were 4 beds and only 3 of us so they could of moved somebody else in if they ran out of space.

We wanted to buy our mopeds soon as we were wasting money staying in Auckland, it didn't help that the hostel had a bar and nightclub built onto it where everybody seemed to go to in the evening mrgreen: .
It had been a few days and we came across an ad in the local paper, a guy selling a load of scooters.
So we hopped on the bus, and then we hopped straight off again as we'd gone in totally the wrong direction!! doh: lol:
Eventially we found his house he seemed like a nice enough guy, he was a massive great Maori bloke so we wernt going to haggle him too much.
The scooters were 50cc honda dio's, which is just a rebadged honda vision.
The basic story was that he imported container loads of people carriers and SUV's from Japan and when he had a bit of space left in one of his containers he'd fill it up with mopeds.
So they were fresh imports and didn't have any reg-o(tax) or even number plates. He told us that all we had to do was go down with the documents for them to the local transport office I think it was.
We said we wanted the scooters as they did seem a bargain but we wanted to make sure we'd be able to register them quickly, he said this was no problem and even gave us a lift down to the transport office.

He was true to his word we had to pay a small fee for the reg-o but we were now the proud owners of
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2 TSU, 3 TSU and 4 TSU, they didn't have the option of number 1 but we got to choose the plates from what they had so picked matching ones.

We dashed back through the busy Auckland traffic and loaded all our stuff up from the hostel ready to hit the road.
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It was mid afternoon by now and the weather was starting to look like it was going to spoil our first days riding.
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The plan was to head north of Auckland find somewhere a little more remote to camp and spend a few days up north before starting to head down the country.
It didn't take long for our plan to go wrong.
We got a little lost trying to avoid the motorway (there isn't that many in NZ but mopeds can't use them)
We'd been riding around for a couple of hours and seemed to be going around in circles, we were finding it a lot harder to map read then when we had the car in America.

It was now almost fully dark and we were still in a fairly built up area, we pulled into a big supermarket carpark to decide what to do.
Drew and Scott were starting to complain that they were finding it hard to ride when it was dark and they didn't know where they were going, plus all the added weight on such small scooters made them pretty hard to handle.
I wasn't finding it too much of a problem as I've ridden scooters and bikes for years, but I could understand there complaints as they were far experts on 2 wheels.
There was a hotel (travel lodge style) across the road from the supermarket so we ended up staying there. It was pretty expensive and not really what we wanted to end up doing on the first night.

It was a bit of a miserable night nobody said that much as we sat watching TV , but I could tell that they were thinking that the moped idea might be a bad one, it was me who really pushed the idea forward as well.
I don't think they would have been that fussed if we'd just brought a car, but I kept going on about how it would be loads more fun on 2 wheels. It wasn't helped that the storm that had been brewing all day had just hit at full force.
Really heavy rain,thunder,wind, the lot!

The next day we all woke late to the sound of the cleaner knocking on our door, we were supposed to have left 20 minutes ago.
We grabbed all our stuff and left. The good news was the sun was now out and after a coffee at the supermarket across the road we all seemed happy and up for hitting the road again.
We picked up a few supplies from the supermarket and headed off.

The roads were nice, most of the out of town roads have a lane a bit like a hard shoulder but I think its for cycles so we just rode in this to keep out of the way of cars.
The scenery was great and what I expected NZ to be like because so far all we'd seen was a city.
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We spent a couple of nights camping rough which was a good laugh and really relaxing.
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We were starting to smell a bit and our stuff had all got a bit damp in the night rain so we made our way to a small village.
It used to be called this.
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But was now called something else a little shorter, but I forget what.
We found a nice guest house for travelers, It was just the home of a middle age couple that had used some of it as rooms to rent, we were in the main room that had 6 bunk beds.
We were the only people staying in the whole place though. They seemed nice and let us put our scooters in the back garden, they also said we were mad riding round NZ on them.
The place had a hot tub in the back garden and they asked us if we wanted to eat with them.
But it soon accrued to us that everytime they spoke with us they turned the subject towards religion, this started to annoy us after a while so we ate at the village pub instead.

The back of the guest house.
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Took this standing up in the hot tub.
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We thought it was about time for us to take the long (on a moped) trip down south now.
A lot of it was a bit of a blur, although not because of the speed that we were traveling. There was so much beautiful scenery that after a while it kind of becomes just normal.

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This bridge was funny, a car hadn't come past us for ages, but if there was one place you didn't want any to pass you it would be here as it was fairly narrow and hard to pass.
We get about 10ft across the bridge and we hear all this roaring in the background, within seconds there is a load of cars behind us.
Its only a subaru impreza rally/cruise of some sort, they start coming past us waving and beeping there horns laughing, about bloody 20 of them.
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We had to stop at this cafe/plane for a bite to eat. You can just see one of the loaded up peds in the corner of the picture.
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It wasn't long before we'd found our way all the way down to Wellington.
This is the view from our hostel, its a good view but the place was a dive, don't believe the Lonely Plant. We had to stay there for a bit though as it was one of the few hostels with parking.
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Around the city of Wellington.
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This boat as been sunk now a little way out as a diving site.
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I went on my first cable car to take this picture.
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The Beehive.
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Drew told me that this building is made completely of wood, although I'm still not sure if thats true or if he was just trying to make me look stupid, if so its worked.
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Me trying to buy some sexytime .
( don't laugh at the orange hair, it was meant to go blonde, I kept it like that for a few months before It was long enough to cut off without having it totally shaved)
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We made some good friends in our time in Wellington, a couple of the guys we'd become friends with were heading down to Christchurch so we said we'd meet them there soon.
It was good to have some other people to hang out with as just the 3 of us spending so much time together was causing us to get a bit ratty with each other.

We booked the Ferry across the Cook Strait, north to south island it was a big ferry full of trucks,vans and cars. It was very busy as its about the only way to cross from one island to the other.
When we payed for our tickets they wernt sure if the mopeds would be classed as cycles or motorbikes.
In the end they said we had to pay the motorbike price which was a bit of a bummer as it was a fair bit more.
Anyway the scooters were chained down and we set sail.
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The views from the boat were stunning , they had a film on inside the boat but I'm really glad I stayed out on the deck even if it was a bit windy.
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Soon we arrived In Picton at the North of the south Island, we took a trip over to Nelson for lunch and to have a look around.

But it wasn't long before we were heading down the east coast in the direction of Christchurch.
We had been warned about the distance between fuel stops, and they wernt joking we had filled the peds up in nelson, plus an extra fuel can.
Its weird as the scooters are exactly the same yet Drew's one was a few MPH quicker then mine and Scott's, this showed as me and scott were flatout all the time and Drew could stay at the same speed without so much throttle.
I hadn't even noticed but Scott was behind me waving like mad, I stopped and he pointed at his fuel gauge, it was completely empty, then I looked at mine and it was the same.
Drew had noticed we had stopped and turned around, he still had 1/4 of a tank left!
We filled them all up with what was in the fuel tank, but now we had to hope there was a garage fairly soon.
Luckily we traveled about another 20 miles and came to a small village with a garage and cafe.

It was there that we met 3 guys touring on proper bikes, I'm not totally sure how they knew each other but there was 2 English guys on hired Suzuki V-storms and a kiwi guy on big honda, a CB1300 I think?
We chatted for a while before saying our good byes and heading off. We were just going to keep riding until we found somewhere to stay.
The journey was lovely running along the coast for miles with hardly any traffic passing in either direction. We were enjoying the journey so much that nobody took any pictures .

we noticed that it was getting really cold, this was because there was mountains right next to use covered in snow.
We arrived in a place called Kaikoura before long and found a place to stay there for the night.
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It was freezing outside but we'd made the right choice, the cabin was very cozy and warm inside.
It was the first night of luxury for a while with a comfy bed, big TV, ect.

The next morning when we went out to the scooters they were covered in ice it had got that cold over night.
We would have liked to have spent another night in the cabin, but it was a little expensive for our budget.
So we continued heading south down the coast until we arrived in Christchurch.

We booked into the hostel where our mates that we met in Wellington were staying.
We didn't have much of a chance to look around Christchurch as our friends were going fishing and asked if we fancied going.
They also had some other friends with them so now there was quite a big group of us which was cool.

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We were in a line along this pier , I don't fish myself so just watched and criticized everybody else .

This whopper was the biggest catch of the day, it was released again as the beast was to big to fit into the back of the car.
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After that I remember we got really drunk in the hostel, some obviously more drunk then others as I managed to keep all of my hair(nobody was touching my golden locks)
Others wernt so lucky .
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Credit to them for going out on the town in that state
People had made comments about my orange hair ever since I'd bleached it in America. Now finally I was with people with worst hair disasters the mine .

Fishing went slightly better the next time when Col caught a ray, although he'd have probably been a bit more careful handling it if he'd of known what was going to happen to poor old Steve Irwin (RIP) in a few months time.
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Pictures of Christchurch, they say Christchurch is like an English city which I guess is true, it reminded my very much of Cambridge.
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I'd did really like Christchurch, it was very modern,bright and clean looking. I was happy to spend some time there getting to know the place.

But we had one more trip to make and that was all the way down to Invercargill on the southern tip of the island, we'd also been recommended to take a trip over to Stewart Island.
We headed down to Invercargill and the miles went fairly quickly, we stopped in Dunedin for a bit as Drew had a family friend there, he also had a friend in Invercargill who owned
a massive sheep farm. This was who we were going to stay with.
When we arrived in Invercargill the town itself seemed a fairly dull place, apparently its one of the southernmost settlements in the world.
But Drew's friends farm was absolutely massive, we had our own little hut that was kitted out with beds and stuff, it was small but we didn't really spend that much time in it.
Round the back of the hut we found an old Honda Scooter, it was like an offroad C90.
Laying on its side we dragged it out of the bushes, it looked like it had been there for years, the rust keys were still in it.
We kicked it over a few times in hope, but we really couldn't believe it when it fired into life after only a few kicks.
They later told us that they don't think it had even been used that year, so god knows how the fuel hadn't gone off.
We had fun razzing around the field on the ancient machine.
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Hunting empty beer cans.
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I've been told I look like a pikey with the caravan behind me.
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We could have stayed in the caravan instead of the hut but the roof had leaked and it was completely flooded.

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After we left Invercargill we headed just down to a place called the Bluff, there is very little there but its where you have to get the boat to Stewarts Island.
Its a small island just south of New Zealand, I think its about 10km by 2km and there is very few roads on the island. We left the peds in 'the Bluff' as its only a small passenger boat.

Stewart Island is absolutely stunning, some of the beaches and bays are so empty it like have your own little private part of the world.
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We spent a few days on Stewart Island and each morning I came down to this little spot for a few hours to just sit on the rocks and listen to my I-pod just looking out to sea.
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Just sitting there, for hours with out being disturbed by a single soul is probably the most fulfilled I've ever felt.

Had time for a game of golf most afternoons though (not that I'm any good at it)
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That part of the story pretty much ends there, we rode back to Christchurch, spent a bit more time there, had a great Christmas and New year, sold our peds to some surfer dudes from Hawaii that planned to do almost the same trip as us in reverse.

The journey wasn't really over for us as we still had all of Australia and Thailand to cover but this stage was now complete.
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[McGee]

Al that is amazing

And to do it on fiddy's
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Its pronounced Jixxer!

[Dazbo666]

Some amazing photos. I'd love to go too
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[hmmmnz]

good shit
shame you didnt head back up the west coast
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[Al]

Yeah I'm really gutted we didn't get to do the west coast as everybody we met said it was really beautiful.
We just didn't really have the time left or the money to include it..........maybe next time
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[Dan 4RR]

Dam, I always thought New Zealand was full of inbreed, work shy maori's that shagged sheep then slaughtered them, then sent us Brits the leg of lamb as scraps. I've been so wrong for so long (That was a joke btw!!!)

NZ is a beautifull country, probably far more "exotic" than the UK, no doubt the weather plays alot in that factor, plus NZ has a population aroun 15X smaller than the UK so less houses, etc which makes up for more natural scenery. The people are nice
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[southeastpete]

Hey, i went there too. didnt do it on a bike tho, wish i had now.
In auckland i stayed at the same backpackers, the bar downstairs being the globe bar right?
i can recognise a couple of your pics, main one being the cookie time plane..! your wellington-picton crossing looked very calm, i did it in winter though. wellington is The windiest place i have ever been what do you think?
and did you check out the seals and possibly dolphins in kaikouri? i got real close to some big adult seals that didnt seem as happy about it as i was lol...
i didnt get as far south as you, only went to queenstown, really wish i had gone to russel island now, tho it was winter when i did south island, nm. the west coast of south island was cool, the glaciers were spectacular.
and yes, some maoris are workshy... same as some people anywhere though, have babies to get council houses, then dont even look after them, they are handed to "aunties", some other woman in the maori community. all sorts of shit, gangs are real big over there too. but its not bad really, i worked with a lot of maoris, and went to a black power members house on christmas. felt pretty damn welcome though.
gotta go back one day, if not just to be with some more islander girls...
did you make it to the east coast of the north island? the kiwi fruit areas? kaimai mountains? tauranga? mount ruapehu? there is sooo much too see there, i spent 11 months there, only 5 months really travelling, 6 working. but after your pics of russel island, i have to go there. how populated was it compared to the other islands?

[Al]

Haven't looked at the pics for ages, but looking back over them brings back some really good memories

Yeah thats it the 'Globe bar' I think the backpackers was called 'ACB'

The cookie time plane seems to be quite famous another member 'MementoMori' who lives in NZ posted a photo up of it last year.
Not really sure how the wellington-picton crossing normally is but a few people we met did mention that they had a rough crossing so I guess we were just lucky, as the water was really calm.

We did see some seals in Kaikoura but no Dolpines
That was the thing with traveling on the scooters it was great fun, but we were always trying to keep moving otherwise it took forever to get between places, so we did miss out on a bit of sightseeing.

All the Maoris and islanders we met were really friendly, they don't seem to handle there drink very well though for such big people .
Lucy a friend we met whist traveling was from one of the Islands (Tonga) and recently payed us a visit while she was over in England, I couldn't believe just how strong her accent sounded over here and I hadn't even noticed she had an accent in NZ.

The only part of the east coast of North Island I got to see was a tiny bit near Auckland, I'd have liked to have seen more because lots of people have said how nice the northern tip of north island was and the west coast of south island was and I missed both of them out!

It was Stewarts Island I went to not Russel Island, but it was fantastic, I think the population is around 400 but nearly everybody on the island lives in the small village where the boat docks. Only a small section has roads the rest is pretty much just wild, an amazing place to explore.
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[Radar]

Brilliant pictures I will have a proper read later when I get a chance, it looks superb!

[Matthie]

Wow amazing trip I would love to do something like that in the future
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[iand]

awsome trip, i did the north island on a honda shadow, south island by car, can't believe you did it on 50's, did you go up the mountains near queenstown? 50's would have needed pushig up them i'd have thought! !

nice one and great pics too.

[Al]

Thanks, no we didn't do any of the west coast of south island so missed the mountains, probably just as well by the sounds of things
With our bike loaded up with all our luggage a steep hill would make the top speed drop to below 20mph, pretty rubbish I think a mountain would have made us go backwards!
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[TZRD350R]

This reminds me of that song..... "I been through the desert on a horse with no name"

[HappyBandit]

A nicely told story! Pics great too!

NZ looks amazing.... an awesome trip to take on mopeds....
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[Clanger]

Ahhh, you've rekindled my love of NZ...I was there for two months in 2006, it was a brilliant brilliant experience. I went around on the Magic Bus, and tried to cover as much of both islands as possible.

The initial plan was a month on both islands, then to head off to the Cook Islands, but when I got to Northland part of North Island, I was hooked. I made some great friends, was invited into a Maori home and cooked for and everything. I made friends with a mad American who paid cash for a brand new MV Augusta, and took me out touring around Northland on it with him.

I intend on going back, and getting my own wheels and exploring more. Because I was on the Bus journey, I spent a lot of time writing detailed notes on places we passed through, what was there, where I should re-visit...so my journal holds my memories!!!
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Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter won't mind - Dr. Seuss

[Clanger]

Oh, and although it looks like you had fun on your mopeds, I bet you were begging for a larger engine between your legs? You could ride along those beautiful long undulating roads for hours and not see another vehicle for miles and miles....
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[Mudskipper]

Is...Awesome.

Now THESE are the kind of threads to resurrect!!
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CBR125|||GSXR400|||CBR400|||CBR400|||CB250RS|||GSXR750|||CB250RS
"You're clumsy, you eat too much and you behave like a 12 year old boy. But you know what? Every once in a while, you find a thumb."

[Fawbish]

*creams*
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"Oh....it looks like Average Joe's is forfeiting the match!" - "Yeah, its a risky strategy but lets see if it pays off for 'em Cotton."

[kingsknight]

Love the write up, did you have any problems with the peds? 56k is hard core on a 50cc ped mate!
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TS50 (sold) NS125F (sold) NSR125R-K (write off after 2 crashes) CG125 (nicked) XR125L-3 (Sold )-: ) DR125SM '11 (sold yay) XL125V '12 (In love with this bike) XT600E '04 (fun on the dirt)

[Al]

Clanger, I really wish I'd kept a diary as I've forgotten so many details already and it was only a few years ago
I went to a friends leaving do last night who's going traveling for 18 months, I'm so jealous as it was easily the best part of my life so far!

It was great taking in the scenery on the little scooters, but my god did it get tiring sitting at 30mph all day, I didn't want a superbike but just something which went fast enough to need to brake for corners would have been nice
Still it wouldn't have been such a good tale telling people how I rode round NZ on a VFR800.

[Mudskipper]

Can't see it's been mentioned yet, how long did it take you in total?
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CBR125|||GSXR400|||CBR400|||CBR400|||CB250RS|||GSXR750|||CB250RS
"You're clumsy, you eat too much and you behave like a 12 year old boy. But you know what? Every once in a while, you find a thumb."

[Al]

Well I was in New Zealand for about 4 months, but most of it was spent sitting around getting drunk, I even worked for a while, which I haven't included in the report as its not really going to be of much interest to anybody.

We actually covered probably more like 1800 miles including the return journey from Invercargill back upto Christchurch.
The most we did in a day was roughly 150 miles, which at a constant 30mph is still 5 hours riding.
But when you take into account average speed, rest breaks, fuel stops ect. It's more like a 10 hour day!
I did over 600miles in a day on my FZR riding back from Scotland last year and that was a lot easier then 150miles on a ped

On a big bike you could probably do our whole trip in a few days if you didn't take much in on the way and only really stopped to sleep.
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Yamaha FZR400RR 3tj
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