Ain't over till it's over

Home again. As much fun as it is to be on holiday it's nice to be home. We had a blast!
Already planning the next big trip, and a few little ones.
Kymbo did'nt go parasailing yesterday she said she wanted to get home to get her cat,so we will have to make a point of her doing that this year.
The weather was good all the way home, we stopped in Morrinsville for brunch and visited Shane to look at the trike he is building. Traffic was good for Auckland.. the only holdup was in Kumeu for the A&P show (agriculture & pastoral fair or farm show ) for a one light town it gets quite busy twice a year for the Hot Rod show and the A&P show and I had to go that way DOH!.
The daughter took good care of the dog so I made a point of hugging her first then the doggie.
Kym went right out to get the cat from the cattery. Two very happy animals.
Then just because we haven't had enough of each other we sat in the office and played Scrabble and drank some summer vino, perhaps to much. for me at least.
There is a lot more of 2010 and we plan to make it a comprehensive tour, so I ain't done yet!!

Heading to Lake Taupo

We left Nelson the weather was great the road is great winding and twisting, the only problem is all the campervans and old people that drive 30kph under the speed limit, yes a vickers machine gun mounted to the front would sort them out..he he he...
Had lunch/ brunch at a place called 'The Barn' in Picton would recommend it as the place to stop and have a feed.
Well we are on the North Island, as usual the Wellington weather was crap, rain and wind and dumb asses driving fast and lane changing to get one car length ahead.
The ferry crossing was pretty good the sea had a bit of a chop but not so you would notice.
Got dinner at the same place we did a few weeks ago Kym loves the tofu special. and I had some port and black bean beef. Well we must get going we have a big ride today.

PHOTO : leaving South Island

Are we there yet ?

We travelled to Nelson today we went through the 'Upper Buller Gorge' and stopped in Murchison for lunch .
The weather was great again. Didn’t have the SD card in the camera so no photos for today.
It is our last night in the south island and we still didn’t see every thing we wanted to.
We payed Kym’s uncle a visit while we were her in Nelson after I had a few Mexican beers and a few tequilas at the Mexican restaurant we ate at.
We are going back on the ferry tomorrow afternoon to stay at Upper Hut then to Taupo so Kym can go parasailing. Home on Saturday and a bit of a rest before we start the second faze of the tour.

The Pass

had another great day weather wise. Went through Arthur's Pass today it is a great place to go through, I have been over the Rockies to the Grand Canyon,dove on the great Barrier Reef and the pass compares to any of those. I guess what make so special is that it is all accessible without a bunch of no go areas or paying to see. The Department of Conservation does a great job, you could go caving in an under ground river or walk for miles hell base jump if that what your into. The roads are typical NZ roads with those damn orange cones but if you take the time to go slow and look around it is a truly great place to spend a day. Just be on the look out for the naughty Kea's they will steal your food, rip the rubber from around your windshield, or try to eat your stuff and if they don't like it they will just destroy it for the hell of it. (Kea- a native bird of NZ like a large parrot with attitude ). Kym never saw one in the wild before and wasn't disappointed, it lived up to its reputation.
we are back on the west coast at a place called South Beach about 100 meters from the Tasman Sea, after dinner we went down to watch the sunset . HOW SWEET ...

Blues

We left Omarama and continued north,The blueness of the water of lake Tekapo and the sky is a bit surreal With Mt Cook as a backdrop it is postcard material.We along with all the other tourist stopped and grabbed the cameras to take photos.
We saw some unfortunate Asians that forgot about the stupid give way to right rule but there were a few car stopped and lucky it looked as if nobody was hurt so we slowed but keep going.
Had lunch at the town of Lake Tekapo, Kym reckons we should make a point of spending a week in the McKenize high country lake district.I was explaining why some of water was so blue and other water was darker but she told me I was a know-it all so I will let her bask in her ignorance..
We stopped at the Rikaia Gorge and did the photo thing and it was such a nice day for riding I went as far as Darfield, we decided to treat ourselves and checked into a motel, AHHHH.

Let the sun shine in

We had a nice visit in Oamaru walked to the Victorian part of town that has all of the old buildings and had a pint of beer and our mates had a soft drink, looked at some bizarre art gallery with faces on everything had some takeaways for dinner and chatted for a while then called it a night.
Woke to a beautiful morning had a coffee and gave the bike a quick wash to remove the salt spray, packed up and thanked our gracious hosts and roared off north.
We got to Omarama found a camping ground checked in and went to the airfield so I could do the gliding that I wanted to do. The folks at Southern Soaring were great, We met the pilot had some ground training hooked up to the tug plane and started off ,the tow rope snapped before we even moved 20 feet ! I thought maybe this is not going to be so good after all. A new rope was attached and off again, we climbed to 5000 feet with the tug and cut loose and went searching for thermals to soar in, found a bit of one and gained altitude and then I took the controls and got a feel for the craft, the sky was clear and visibility was great .
The pilot asked if I wanted to do a loop and some cantering , of course I did, returned control to him and went for it, what a rush .Took over and glided back towards the airstrip and then Don setup for the landing and we touched down it was the smoothest landing I ever had in any aircraft. I was not disappointed and will be going up again, it was a bit expensive but worth every dollar to see the Southern Alps and the lakes from that perspective. As I was walking back to the hut with a smile from ear to ear the first thing Kym said was “I guess you want to buy a glider” . She knows me so well !
We were going to the ‘Clay Cliffs’ but the road was all gravel, I started down it but it started to get deep and the bike really didn’t like it so we turned around and drove to Twizel not much there. We came back had showers and off to dinner.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE

We left Invercargill and headed over to Bluff the rain and wind was really bad maybe the worst wind I have ever been in on a bike but it can't be a tour of NZ unless we go to both ends of both islands. We didn't sick around to take any photos because the camera would have been destroyed from the rain. And we have plenty from last time we were there.
Headed to the Catlin's the rain still persisted down but we got to the place we were going to stay at and when we arrived the rain eased a bit, we hiked down to see some water falls, when we got there some jagoff was standing in the middle with a tripod and camera waiting for the perfect pitcure, I waited for a while then got impatient and told him to move so I could take a few photos without him in it needless to say he moved pretty smartly when he saw I wasn't messing with him and then some kids tried to get up and I enlighten them as well. I got the photos people free. We had a nice dinner and a few drinks at the Whistling Frog Cafe, we went back to our cabin and when we woke it was raining again.GRRRR
We headed to Oamaru with out stopping because it was terrible weather. Going through Dunedin the rain got real bad and as we were going up the big hill on the way out I moved out into a passing lane to overtake a slow moving truck there was a roadworks with loose gravel all over the road and no signage to alert me I thought maybe I missed the sign but Kym didn't see any either. On state hi-way one in the pouring rain in the fast lane with car speeding up behind me ! I was shitting bricks it made the trip to Bluff seem tame !
Anyway we made to Oamaru safely and are going to spent a few days here with one of Kymbo old mates from back in the day and her husband and kiddies. we head north on sunday.