Touring NZ

A rest day in Christchurch means a nice slow start to the day, then tackling a few things that needed sorting. Both of us were going to check-in for the TT2000 in the evening, but while I would head south in the evening, Toto was heading back to the accommodation for sleep, then leaving early in the morning. With that in mind, and most places offering a late checkout of midday, we booked the accommodation for Friday night as well, to give us the most flexibility.

9am and by mutual ...

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8.30am and we’re up. The night’s sleep had been OK, only disturbed a couple of times by ol’ freight train. We head down to the breakfast bar for the complimentary breakfast of scones and cornflakes (and to admire the female batch of backpackers of course). The day had started very promising with nice sunny skies, but the rain clouds were in the distance looking threatening.

Breakfast complete, we packed and got ready for the day. I ended up chatting to Forklift Driver for a while, ...

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I could probably sum up the entire day with one word… wet. However, GiJoe has taught me real good, so why say 1 word, when several hundred will do?

Up at 5am (yes, really), and most of my packing has been done the previous night. I have breakfast, finish packing and I’m out the door just before 6am. Down the road for gas and I’m only slightly late to meet Toto at the BP Papakura Autobahn. He’ll try to claim 5 minutes, but it was 3, and he can’t argue with a BMW clock!

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Saturday

The reason for fitting the dual purpose tyres was a weekend of exploring the Queen Charlotte and Pelorus Sound. I’ve been around the Nelson-Picton area several times already, but normally on tight schedules, going up Takaka Hill, across to the West Coast or heading south to Christchurch.

This time, I guess I could have done a couple of long days going down the west coast for example, but I’ve done most of the roads before, and will do a lot of them in February. ...

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Once again, I was tasked with the burden of work requiring me to be in Wellington for the Friday, to complete some new computer installs and some other items. With the staff in Auckland for the company function I would be left to my devices (and make sure it was all functional for their return on the Monday morning).

The boss was prepared to fly me down to Wellington and back on the day, but it would mean a long day… and oh wait… no riding. He knew I would prefer to ride (is there ...

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Sunday morning, and it appears no-one is being suicidal, and the alarm rings me instead, at 7.30am. Time for another… interesting… shower. Perhaps the only downside of the weekend, as it’s rather annoying, but it was the last shower anyway. Down for another breakfast and instead of making the same mistake again, I had the bacon first in a bacon sandwich, then I had some cereal and topped it off with peaches in juice. Oh… and a sausage, because it said it didn’t like its friends.
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The thread (here: http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...20-November%29) had started ages ago, and the learners got more excited as the time drew nearer. Indeed… it seemed like it was akin to Christmas, with x number of sleeps to go.

I’d asked the boss earlier in the week if I could skive off early, and provided we had everything done, he was fine with that. Things didn’t go according to plan however, as I got home around 3pm in the ...