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For me, touring New Zealand and Australia proved to be a wonderful trip. With good roads, friendly English speaking people and interesting wildlife, it could hardly be better. If they would just drive on the right side of the road, it would be perfect.
I did not travel the (east) coast road, preferring to ride north from Melbourne (my start) and stay just west of the coast range. I came to the east coast at Townsville, then went west to Darwin and on around. My tour was quite fast, touring around Australia in 3 days less than 5 weeks. Only problem was a broken chain. For some reason it popped the master link but I had one with me and it was only a minor delay.
I was worried about strong headwinds, having read about them in a magazine and also talking to several bikers in Australia. But I choose the right direction of travel and did not have any headwinds. Coming across South Australia (Nullabor) I had strong tailwinds, making me thankful I wasn't going the other direction. I was very happy with my choice of the time of year (May to June) and also my direction of travel. It worked out very well--probably I was lucky. Oddly enough, 4 times I met motorcyclists on tour and they were all going in the opposite direction that I was.
Norm
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