NORM GOES TO
(Note: see Norm's map below)
I FIRST WENT TO NEW ZEALAND (Auckland) and had my shipping crate addressed to a company that was in the information on your website. But they (my shipping company) never sent it there--sending it to their branch company in Auckland. No problem though and in two days I was on my way, leaving my shipping crate with the trucking company and telling them "I shall return". I traveled from one end on the North Island to the other end of the South Island and it was beautiful. Only problem was in the first 3 days my rear tire went flat twice, not from a puncture but from a tiny hole rubbed in the side of the tube. This was an awful problem when you have no center stand. I finally stopped at a motorcycle ship and put on a new heavy-duty touring tire and a new tube. This ended my problem. The shop said my tire (bought in northern Sweden) was not a real motorcycle tire and my tube (bought in Northern Finland) was the cheapest possible tube made in Taiwan and not even real rubber. Good riddance.
South Island is so different from the North Island and the contrast is very interesting. I loved it.
In 3 1/2 weeks I was back in Auckland, crated up the bike, and shipped it to Melbourne. In Melbourne they are having a dock workers strike and it takes a week before I can get at my bike. Again, I leave my create at the trucking company and return again to ship it to the States. Everyone was very helpful and I even met a cousin that I never had seen before (near Geelong).
I have crossed 6 of the 7 continents, been around the world in an East and West direction, and a North and South direction and as I have no interest in India or china, i am running out of places to go.
NORM
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