GREG FRAZIER
New Zealand By Motorcycle
From: Dr. Gregory W. Frazier
RE: New Zealand
The hardest part about riding motorcycle in New Zealand is getting
there, a twelve- hour non-stop flight from Los Angeles, if you can fly
direct. The next most difficult part is becoming accustomed to riding
on the wrong side of the road. In the last year I'd dodged errant
drivers in South America, been knocked down by a rain deer in Finland
and narrowly missed a ladder lying in the road in Los Angeles. Riding
in the wrong lane in New Zealand was a snoozer. The long flight was
tough.
This was my fourth trip to New Zealand. It is a small country,
about the size of Colorado, with just less than four million people,
most of them on the North Island. While the national symbol is the
kiwi, I seriously doubt they really exist. In all four trips I have
yet to see one, other than on signs, stuffed in museums and in printed
material. The four million residents have managed to hide their
national bird. I did see one about twenty feet tall, but it was
manufactured. A visit to something called The Kiwi House had sounds
and a couple of dark fur balls moving around, but behind the glass
they looked mechanical. One night I stayed with a BMW motorcycle owner
who told me I could hear kiwis in the woods after dark, but a day of
riding thirty miles in sand, two miles up a river and two hundred miles
on pavement and gravel, then knocking back a bottle of wine caused me
to hear nothing after the dinner he served up. The net result is I
have concluded there are no kiwis in New Zealand, that they really
nothing more than a Madison Avenue marketing ploy to get us foreigners
to visit New Zealand.
I was working on a book this trip. One section will include a
description of the better motorcycling roads in New Zealand. That
,research was fun. What was not fun was that while I concluded there
are no kiwis in New Zealand there are millions of possums, up to 40
million. The New Zealand car drivers are very adept a killing these
possums, especially at night when the possums freeze in the car
headlights. Just about the time I would get hooked up in a nice turn
on a better motorcycling road I'd find a whacked possum in the apex of
the curve. One a sad note I learned that while the New Zealanders have
managed to nearly eliminate kiwis from their paradise, they have been
less successful with the possums which are devastating some of their
environment. The drivers have no impact on the population growth of
the possum.
On my previous three trips to New Zealand I had been able to avoid
bungi jumping. I had hoped to on my fourth trip but a serious error in
judgement changed that. Instead I found myself standing 150 feet above
a cold stream tethered to a pretty girl, asking myself why I was being
brainless, again. For those of you who have any thoughts about doing a
bungi jump all I will say is I screamed the whole one hundred and fifty
feet to the water below, then all one hundred feet back up as the bungi
cord tried to rip my legs off the rest of my body. My back still hurts
thinking about it. On the upside was the adrenaline rush, which stayed
with me for the next couple of days. I would also suggest if you try
this do not swill a gallon of beer the night before, then soak up the
buzz the next morning with a large breakfast.
Traveling by motorcycle in New Zealand by motorcycle was
,inexpensive compared to places like Europe. Gas was about twice what
it cost in the USA. Motels were reasonable and camping was cheap. I
carried my tent and sleeping bag but often opted for a small cabin
(bathroom not included) or a backpacker hotel (like a youth hostel).
The campgrounds and backpacker places were good places to meet other
travelers (most foreign and many Germans). I did not cook often on
this portion of my trip because food was cheap, as were well-stocked
grocery stores.
I did not see too many other motorcycle travelers as I was in New
Zealand in March, pretty much after the hordes of tourists had
dwindled. Those I did meet were usually on rental bikes. The
motorcycle tour operators marketing in the USA have usually completed
their program by this time of the year so I did not run across many of
them. I did meet one couple on a tour but they were the only members
in the group.
In Queenstown a German motorcyclist came up to me and introduced
himself. He is working his way around the world with his motorcycle
and had seen me at the Tesch Globetrotter Meeting in Belgium the year
before. He knew I was on my second tour around the world and wanted to
know about some entry requirements in countries he would be entering.
We traded stories and agreed to stay in touch. Typical for a German he
has the rest of his tour completely mapped and planned out. Unlike my
tour, which I call my "leaf in the wind tour," or "try to avoid the
snow tour," or plan/map according to where I will see beach bunnies
with bouncing breasts. Email will keep he and I in touch as I doubt
out paths will cross again, unless it is on my third motorcycle trip
around the world.
Most motorcycle tour groups in New Zealand operate on the South
,Island. While the South Island has the Southern Alps, less people (and
traffic), and large expanses of open space, the North Island I like as
well. I particularly like 90-Mile Beach, the Kari Forests and several
of the roads on the North Island. I guess it is a trade-off of time
and money. If someone only has two weeks to do New Zealand, then the
South Island is probably best. At least a month is needed to do both.
While I was often hot on the North Island, especially in the far
north, I found snow and cold rain on the South Island only days later.
I used a Darien riding suit from Aerostitch both places and found it to
be just fine for the changing weather. However I did long for an
electric vest once or twice on the South Island. I should have known
it would be cold before I went and carried one with me but I forgot
about the penguins.
Penguins like places where it is cool. In Oamaru I discovered a
penguin colony and this is well above Bluff (the southernmost town in
New Zealand). Just after dark each night the penguins swim ashore,
climb a small cliff, cross a road (closed at night) and bunk in some
man-made penguin houses for the night, reversing their trip in the
early morning. I watched these penguins (Blue Penguins) as they made
their way up the small cliff and felt sorry for the one that crashed
when it lost its balance and rolled backwards. It was ok and made the
cliff on the second try. I figured its pink feet were numb from the
cold water, like I was from riding in the same all day. That is a
downside for the South Island, it can be cold.
It was in Oamaru where I met a Harley guy who is a housetrucker.
Housetruckers are people who convert school buses or trucks into
rolling houses and live in them. I saw a great many of these rolling
houses in New Zealand. This guy was a tattoo artist and he organized
,housetrucker meetings (like swap meets) for 40 or more housetruckers,
all being arts and crafts people. They move from town to town, usually
spending a week in one place. He pulled his Harley behind the bus
stowed inside a van. Two pit bull dogs guarded the house/bike/van when
he was not around. He invited me to travel with his group for a month,
an invitation I may take up in the future. As I still have my
converted school bus these housetruckers and I would have a lot to
converse about. This Harley guy, with cell phone and giant truck
battery, showed me how I could live with my computer "on the road." It
would be an interesting life and I could carry a lot more than I do
with the motorcycle. I'd pass on the pit bulls though. They looked
like they could eat a lot of food which they would convert to large
piles of shit. If I had a BMW behind my housetruck I probably would
not need the pit bull security system he had, no one would want to
steal the BMW.
Indians are in New Zealand. It seems that after the war (number
II) the USA left about 5,000 of the military models down there, along
with a couple of tons of spare parts. So there are lots of Indian
military models still running. The New Zealanders are also great
motorcycle collectors so other Indian models have found their way to
this far away place. The newest Indian Motocycle in New Zealand is a
1948 model, shipped in from the States. Each year there is an Indian
Motocycle Meeting and it looked like several hundred were present for
the last one. Two Indian owners I met invited me to their next meeting
a promised to get me an Indian to ride if I was able to get to New
Zealand. They remembered me from when I raced my Indian up Pikes Peak
a couple of years ago and was featured in some magazines. That goes to
show how small the globe really is and how much smaller is the world of
Indian Motocycle owners.
Motorcycles in New Zealand have become very reasonable in price.
On my last trip they were much more expensive (used) than in the
States. Now they are much closer in price and I saw several that were
better deals than in the USA. If someone were going to be in New
Zealand for a month or more and wanted to see it by motorcycle an
economic option would be to fly in and buy one, then peddle it when
leaving or ship it on to Australia to use over there. I had purchased
bikes on earlier trips and found that to be a good way to go instead of
renting or shipping one in. Now the market is even better. And just
about everything was available, from Harley (pricey) to Triumph.
Off-road riding in New Zealand is a little difficult, as they do
not have the great number of public areas as we do in the USA. Much of
their off-road stuff is privately owned. I worked a deal for a day
with an off-road motorcycle tour group to ride along with them. The
owner questioned me about my skill level and I assured him I would be
able to "keep up" with his group. I did not know his group was being
led by his son who must have watched Dusty Demon's Of Dirt about 1,000
times and liked to "get air" or jump his bike. They put me on a 350cc
dirt bike then told me to follow this demon with the rest of the group
of youthful crazies. An afternoon of cow trails, jeep trails, ATV
trails and 20-60 foot jumps left me with shaking knees, both hands numb
and a sore back, but I kept up. As we parted the eighteen-year-old
leader told me I "did pretty good for an American. Usually you Yanks
fall down in that first cow pasture." I tried not to grimace as he
squeezed my swollen hand and tried to maintain a steady shuffle on
spaghetti legs as I moved over to my road bike, a much more sedate BMW
GS. That night vodka taken with some pills that says on the label "Do
not mix with alcohol" made me half-well and I decided the day ride and
photographs were well worth the pain. New Zealand has some beautiful
backcountry, the problem is getting to it. Groups like this motorcycle
company rent access from farmers and make it possible to get away from
the paved and gravel roadways, and unsteady German drivers in rented
motor homes (a serious danger cited by New Zealand drivers/riders).
As I left New Zealand I felt I would return. I'd like to try the
housetrucker life for a month, I missed a couple of good roads and the
Indian Motorcycle meeting sounded like fun. The Maori people I met
offered a lifestyle and culture I'd like to experience. I would like
to return to the solitude of riding and camping on 90-Mile Beach (where
the beach is actually a designated road and it is free). I have
started to acquire an understanding of the New Zealander's slang
("G'day mate, Yank and wanker), their sense of humor and their backward
driving style. I even came to like their thin sandwiches and tasteless
Big Macs. Their beer is as good as Bavarian swill and costs far less.
And, maybe when I return, I might see a Kiwi.
END
Return to the Greg Frazier Homepage or NEW ZEALAND HOMEPAGE
31 May 99