Greetings and salutations (gegvasco)

[gegvasco]

G'Day. New to the forum so doing the right thing and saying G'Day before I do anything else.

Currently living in Canberra and I am planning a 4-week NZ riding trip in Nov/Dec this year. Starting to map out must-do roads and areas. Also trying to get a feel for the Kiwi riding scene. I don't expect I'll be posting much as I'll probably be in receive-mode most of the time I spend on the site.

Have had a couple of short stopovers in Auckland over the years but without a bike and hardly any time to get out of the city (one day trip to Waitomo Caves is all I have seen outside of Auckland). Can't wait to get over there and soak up the roads and scenery.

Probably going to use "getrouted" to get the Wee-Strom over there as that seemed the cheapest and least hassle way. I have my Strom set up just how I like it so hiring a bike would have been more expensive and I would have missed my baby. Whenever I go anywhere special it is on the Strom so touring NZ on a hire bike would have felt like cheating on a wife.

Regards,

gegvasco

[cold comfort]

Welcome. Just browsing this site with regard to Touring/Ride reports will throw up a number of options. There will be no shortage of opinions from those who consider their "patch" to be best and plenty of offers of accommodation. Give us a call if you're in need a down this way. Maybe the KB bash at that time also (venure to be determined). Cheers.

[fire eyes]

welcome to the site :Punk:

[Mom]

What is this getrouted you speak of? Never heard of it. Welcome to KB too mate, as coldcomfort has said, have a look in the touring threads, you will confuse yourself many times over trying to pick what is best.

[gegvasco]

What is this getrouted you speak of? Never heard of it. Welcome to KB too mate, as coldcomfort has said, have a look in the touring threads, you will confuse yourself many times over trying to pick what is best.

Thanks for the warm responses.

Getrouted is a small company based in Melbourne, run by an ex-pat Kiwi and his wife, that specialises in bulk periodic bike shipment to major riding destinations. They run services to NZ, UK, USA, Isle of Man etc. They have set dates and if they get at least 10 bikes(up to 20 on a load) then it is viable for them to package them up into the one shipping container and ship it by sea. They do all of the customs, quarantine, rego, warrant of fitness etc so apart from delivering them a clean bike that will pass quarantine, all you have to do is turn up at the other end, reconnect the battery and ride. Takes almost all the hassle out of international moving. One of the cheapest options around as well.

I priced out a 4 week trip for a V-Strom hire in NZ (NZ$130/day) and then to ship my V-Strom via getrouted, and apart from a few smaller extras and non-financial pros/cons that differ between the two, getrouted was about half the price of rental. That is for a standard size bike. Larger bikes like Goldwings or some Harleys cost more as they take up more space in the container so they can get less bikes on a load.

They also have a lot of positive reports from those who have used them and their business has been growing for 11 years so they must be doing something right. Hopefully I will be able to sing their praises by Xmas as well.