New Zealand - A few weeks on a 690

4.7l Rotopax fuel cell mounted on the back, will be empty most of the time. My rear tire (Motoz Tractionator Desert H/T) is about 60% worn already, but should (hopefully) be enough to get me down to Fairlie where I have arranged a replacment to be delivered.



My first night camping was planned for a lovely spot I had camped at before near Waiouru.



The campsite under Mt Ngurahoe



A great spot for a swim, water was deep and cold. But since it was such a nice day and the rocks in the sun were nice and warm, I rocked a nice dip.



It took me a while to get the hammock setup correctly, I think I need to get a fixed ridgeline, which would make it quicker to setup.



Dinner of champions/too lazy to cook.



I have started using lightroom and it is amazing how much detail you can pull from your RAW images.



Stars over my hammock camp setup







The stars came out and the temperature dropped.



Yep it was quite cold. With my summer sleeping bag and no under quilt I only got a few hours sleep.



My Grand Trunk fly did a great job. Need to get better at setting up tho. It took longer to setup the hammock & fly than a tent due to my inexperience. Should be quicker next time.



Tuesday AM warming up in the sun.



Tank!



Parked up for a rest on a great series of gravel roads somewhere west of the Ruahine Ranges



Best seat on the bluebridge ferry (maybe second best after the Captain's chair)



A great spot for hanging the hammock on the ferry.



Beer and hammock setup time. Only took minutes to setup this time. But I did still freeze my ass off. Time to get the 3 season sleeping bag and try and make an underquilt.



Lovely spot to throw up the hammock near Blenheim



Parked up on the beach south of Blenheim.



A lovely spot for a swim on the Wairau River, it was about 28 degress.



Burning off on the Canterbury plains, just before the rain started.



Fairlie summer. Fresh snow on the hills.



There were dozens of fun fords on the Godley







Parked half way up the Godley Valley



Anytime is wheelie time for Brett



Right Pannier (French army backpack) - plate, condiments(sauces, salt & pepper, tea etc), food, cutlery, cooker pot, solid fuel cooker, waterproof layers, leather gloves, shoes, toiletries, spare firekit (matches, lighter), field bandage, trowel, towel, camp knife, and my pair of teva sandals attached to the top of the 2 panniers.



Mick riding his quad like a champ



Following the track mostly.















All the bikes parked up near the lake, we did push further up so we were right on the lake edge.











Apparently this is how your park an XR



The team on the lake edge, Myself (ktm 690), Brett (xr400), Sam (yz450), Pete (crf450) and Mick (quad with flat tires)



A quick stop at the Red Stag hut to say gidday to some hunters.



From the Macauly Hut looking towards the west coast



Parked up outside the Macauley hut.



A quiet sit down in the hut with the legendary picture of Sir Edmound Hillary in the bath which is near the hut.



Panorama from the Macauley Valley Hut



And this is where the first phase of Motozelander2 ends. But as you can tell from my reading material it was not the end of the world. - I ended up in Timaru hospital with Acute Pancreatitis, I got a ride in an ambluance and spent a couple of days under a haze of morphine then another couple trying my hardest to get the hell out of there. I am now back home reseting up before I schedule my gall stones operation and once I am healed from that I shall being on phase two.



Phase 2 of my trip started with a very wet ride down to visit friends in Waimate, I wanted to do a couple of short trips on the bike to ensure I could handle it. Heading off into the backwoods and not being prepared would not be a good idea. (I was still recovering from the pancreatitis and the gall bladder surgery from a couple of weeks earlier)



Another gentle day ride around Lake Opua, this photo is from below the dam



The Weir at Lake Opua



Lake Opua



The lake track is pretty mucky in places, was no problem with a half worn T63 rear tire.



Steve (my brother) riding the other side of the lake, too me a while to find him, but I could hear him no problem.



Steve on the way to Blue Mountain



Our old family campsite near Blue Lake, we spent many a summer day riding around on our motorbikes and swimming at the lake



Steve checking out the trees where we carved our names about 25 years ago.



The campsite and one of the hills we used to ride up when we were young fellas.







Steve on his Husaberg 390.



Mighty stag near Dry Creek.



Lovely birch trees are pretty convinced it is Autumn







Mikelburn Saddle







Brett riding up Four Peaks station



Later in the day we headed out to Four Peaks for a trail ride with a couple of other guys.



Looking North



Brett and Steve pushing up one of the tracks which was pretty well washed out (they made it look pretty easy)



Parked up having a rest, while the others rode up a couple of very rough/slippery (too hard for my recovering body)

The 690 parked up on a side track while I had a peek at the river, caught this shot on my way backup to the bike.



Lake Opua in the distance and Burkes Pass behind that.



Parked up on one of the high points of the ride.















A lovely morning in Fairlie for the A&P Show



Another ride, another problem with the bike. On the bright side, the brake still works fine.



I went for a ride down the west side of the Tekapo River track, this is one track I had been meaning to check out for ages. This photo is from a spot down by Pattersons Ponds







As the sun was getting down it was throwing great light through the trees.



This was as far as I made it down the Tekapo - Pukaki River Road, this crossing was underwater concrete beams which were covered in slime and too slippery to even walk across. I think during summer I would cross to on the upstream side, would get quite wet but would be easily doable.



Some of the side tracks were lovely.



I found a great place to camp for the night (arrived nice and early so I had plenty of time to set-up with my new whoopie sling/marlin spike hitch hammock suspension)







Some local schrooms, was not keen (or hungry enough) to test the ediability of them



The track leading into my campsite



Time for a hot cup of tea. Was lucky I had a tea bag left. I do have half a dozen packs of of hot sauce but just the one teabag (must restock)



I managed to capture a meteor from the Lyrids meteor shower but poorly timed for when I was playing with the laser pointer and trying to paint with light. I did not manage to see any with the naked eye, but the camera doing 10,20,30 second exposures caught a few.



3am photo strangely looks like day light.



I went for a day ride up to check out Mt Cook station road, this is from the end of the road/track overlooking the Tasman river with the Southern Alps in the background.



The road to Mt Cook Station



Mt Cook hiding in the clouds



I stopped for a read and a rest and figured i might as well set the hammock up.



The rain had set in up in Mt Cook village, glad I was far enough south.



Hanging on the side of Lake Pukaki



Rain up at Mt Cook Village







The Pukaki River with no water (it is often used to control the flow from the lake and is pretty impressive when it is flowing)



All that remains of a house, It would make a great campsite with a fire place already built.



Looking North(ish) up the Pukaki River Track



One of my favourite roads on the way to Geraldine



The Huruni Riiver, this little diversion to have a peek at the river from a high point started a great follow your nose journey through a great farm track.



The road slowly but surely transformed into a farm track.



And started to climb over the range.



Giving lovely views of the track previously covered.



After reaching the highest point on the saddle I was greeted with a lovely view down into the Amuri Basin



A nice spot for a quick diversion to the beach.



Parked up trying to get some blood back into my hands (heated grips are still not working properly, must sort that out)







Getting closer to Blenheim I was starting to get worried about my gas reserves (for the 2nd time today, I really should be making better use of the rotopax fuel cell i carry)



Wine farming



A warm morning in Picton, all set to catch the interislander (bluebridge my usual ferry of choice was fully booked out)



Heading over to Wellington on the Arahura



The early morning sun and great clouds were doing the sounds justice



Wellington being as Wellington as it could with some impressive (read horrible) wind, but almost worth it to see the ocean doing its best to wash it (Wellington) off the face of the planet.



I arrived at Wanganui just in time for the clouds to part to show me just a little blue sky before turning dark and rainy.



The Wanganui river was looking dirty and moderatly flooded, there was plenty of evidence of a recent flood. Many dislodged tress and washed out banks











Parked up just before the rain caught me.... again.



A nice spot for a rest under a tree. Was a nice change to be able to stop somewhere without having to find a suitable rain shelter. It had been raining most of the day on my route from Wanganui to Auckland. But from Otorohanga to Auckland was actually quite pleasant.

Awesome. I was just in NZ with my wife and we toured around in a campervan and minivan.. What a country. Great pics and report.

I took a picture of the same Fireplace 8 years ago. How do you like your 690, seems like it would be the perfect bike for NZ.

Awesome report


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Fantastic scenery and beautiful pictures! Nice bike choice too

Thank you for sharing!

Amazing photos, it looked like quite the trip.

Thanks for sharing

Great RR + pics.



Thanks.

JM.

Great pics! I need to do more South Island gravel...

Nice Chris

Thanks, was a fun tour. I just wish the weather was better, so many places were inaccessible due to the heavy rain.

Yep I reckon it is. Love it to bits, would only trade it for a newer one

Thanks.

Glad you enjoyed it.

I am heading back down there for Jan next year. So much more riding to be done, I hardly got to any of the really good riding due to the cyclone that blew through.

:)

It is pretty hard to beat the south for adv riding.

Cheers :)

Chris,
Great pics and a sample of New Zealand.....beautiful country you have
there.


And maybe you know this....BUT....this is a powerful hallucinogenic:

AMANITA MUSCARIA:



Not for the omelet in the morning.....unless you want to visit the gods in the back of your brain....

Great to know, might just give them a try next time or maybe not.

Love the light-through-the-trees shot. Getting more sold on the hammock - was it warmish?

Hope you don't mind, I stole one of your pictures for my background at work. It has already raised some questions. And of course I directed them to advrider to check out your thread. Awesome pictures man! I met a lovely lady from NZ this past weekend at a gun show of all places. Her name is Tiffany Piper( ) and I guess she is kind of a big deal over there. She told me about small spiders though( i.e.: as big as her hand) and now you never have to worry about me tearing up your wilderness lol. Safe travels bud, hopefully I will get to travel around seeing half the stuff that most of the inmates here get to see.

Nah, the hammock was pretty chilly, even with my DIY underquilt, I need to buy a proper down one. Then it should be warm.

No problem, which image did you use for your desktop? (just curious)
Never heard of Tiffany Piper (but google has), but she may have been pulling your leg about the spiders, we don't have bugger all spiders and only a few that are poisonous. And none of them are very large.

Good stuff mate, you're getting pretty handy with that camera!

There are so many cool places to explore in that area, even after many trips to the South Is over the years we still have a big list of interesting tracks that we haven't done.

Cheers
clint

Yeah, I know what you mean.

I am planning to head down for most of January next year. Hopefully the weather will be better.

Will plan to head deep south and do Milford sound (where I am yet to visit) and as much stuff along the way as I can manage.

I really want to do Macetown and Skippers Canyon, Nevis, Old Man Range, Poolburn, Lake Onslow, Dunstan Trail, Mt Buster, Omarama saddle, Mt Aspring and a bunch more. So I figure if I do not run into any issues this time I should be able to manage them all.



And after 3 trips to the south island I am yet to do the Molesworth, so have to do that one somewhere. And even tho I have done Altimarok and Mt Patriarch (both in average weather - cloud issues) I would like to do them both again.

Awesome pics Chris. Brings back many memories of my childhood in the Mckenzie basin, especially this 1. My older bro still hunts this region.




I also used to live in Arrowtown & got to race up to Macetown after work at night, also up Tobins track & over to Wanaka...ah sweet!

Plenty of excellent riding here in NW Oregon as well though.

Must plan another trip to the south island & ride.

Cheers for the report.

Great pics- thanks for sharing!