Hello NZ! The Grand New Zealand Roadtrip

**Mrs Cowboyz** · 6th January 2010, 22:28

absolutely stunning! I look forward to your next blog and lot of photos!

**motoGrapher** · 7th January 2010, 00:11

Day 6 blog updated: Auckland - Coromandel - Oputere

It was the new year eve and here I was riding. The only thing on my mind was the brash young crowd that was sure to create a ruckus tonight. I was going to stay in a YHA and I am always afraid of them. Many times they harbour sleepless youngsters with loud mouths and radios. Ideally I would like to rest in amidst nature after a ride, didnt have any tent (or the space for it) to carry around....

Read the full blog here: http://www.xbhp.com/gnz2/travelogue/?p=38

**motoGrapher** · 7th January 2010, 16:41

Am stuck here in Franz Josef today because of rains. Have tweaked my itinenary a little to accomodate this 'wastage of a day'.

However this gave me more time to update blogs. So here is one more:
Day 7: Jan 1st 2010: Oputere – Roturua

Read the whole blog at : http://www.xbhp.com/gnz2/travelogue/?p=49

**shrub** · 8th January 2010, 07:18

Nice work mate. That's some of the best HDS photography I've seen in a long time and am looking forward to meeting you in ChCh.

**lankyman** · 8th January 2010, 09:19

Good work mate! Excellent photography. Where will we be able to see the final footage of this roadtrip? I'll keep an eye out for you when you head through the naki on the way back up

**BMWST?** · 8th January 2010, 14:35

stunning Photos Sunny!Are they "tweaked" or filtered?Esp 5,6,and 7

**Blackbird** · 8th January 2010, 15:43

Originally Posted by motoGrapher

Day 6 blog updated: Auckland - Coromandel - Oputere

The top photo looking down into Wilson's Bay on the Coro-Thames road is stunning

I ride that road a couple of times a week and after several years, it still hasn't lost any of its magic. One of my riding partners nearly went off the road on his first ride up there, simply through getting distracted by the landscape!

**motoGrapher** · 9th January 2010, 16:05

I am glad you all like my photos.

@lanky: I dont know when the final footage ( the video) will come out, but I am basically a photographer and dont spend too much effort on my videos!
@Paul: Thanks. The photos are generally tweaked (contrast, a little more color vibrance when required, and a technique called HDRI). I use Canon DSLRs and use Lightroom Photoshop and Photomatix to process the photos. No elements or colors are changed drastically.

Yesterday I did Franz Josef to Queenstown and then Glenorchy - Queenstown. It was total magic. One of the best rides in my life. The weather was amazing, the views of the mountains, the sheep, the cows, the clouds and the greens all go together to make it one hell of a ride. It even snowed a little while i was riding just a little before Queenstown!

here are some of the photos from yesterday, I will update the complete blog for yesterday when it's turn comes:

Today i met Vicky (Honda Fireblade Repsol) and her friend (Triumph Speedmaster) in Queenstown before riding to te Anau. Tommorrow I will doing a Milford Sound Cruise, if weather permits I will click some photos!

More updates soon!

**BMWST?** · 9th January 2010, 16:09

Originally Posted by motoGrapher

Tommorrow I will doing a Milford Sound Cruise, if weather permits I will click some photos!

Be careful on that road if you take the bike.Tourists,narrow road ,mad bus drivers.....Make sure you take wet weather gear,it rains a lot and it rains HARD

**motoGrapher** · 9th January 2010, 21:10

Blog updated for Day 8 : 2nd Jan : Rotorua – East Cape – Gisborne : http://www.xbhp.com/gnz2/travelogue/?p=54

**motoGrapher** · 9th January 2010, 22:23

Some people look interested in photograohy so here goes a recent technique I used in the roadtrip.

A Quick Video mount system for motorcycles : 500D + Gorrlia Pod + 10-22 mm
While I was making the NZ roadtrip website I had come up with this, a sort of cyborg comprised of the BKing head, a lens and my face ( i used 3d studio and photoshop for this).

I didn’t realize that it would somehow be implemented in reality in the middle of the roadtrip. The need to take HD videos led me to experiment by mounting the 500D (which is a DSLR with video capabilities and a solid state memory which don’t mind the jolts a motorcycle may have when ridden) on Joby’s Gorrila Pod (a fantastic innovation) around the BKings handle mount head. The 500D was fitted with a Canon 10-22 mm with Manual Focus and focal length at infinity. The result was very nice and involving ride videos with 15 MP photos to boot! The camera can take photos while recording video. A photo taken at 100kmph while entering Nelson in South Island, NZ is below.

This system could be perfected with a L lens with IS and a special mount (probably from RAM mounts, the mount on which the TomTom GPS was mounted) would give you almost bluer free motion photos and videos.

I will be using the videos in the 15 minutes video that will be produced for online viewing post roadtrip.

And this is one of the main reasons why I didn’t buy the 50D and went for the 500D. The headache of lugging around a camcorder is removed + you cant get this ultra wide view from a normal cam without convertors).

of course this is not weather proof but it is cheap and the DSLR doubles up as an excellent video camera!

More later!

**motoGrapher** · 10th January 2010, 18:40

Today I went to Milford Sound from Te Anau Downs. I decided to take a tour bus (yaking vicki’s advise yesterday) and I was almost glad I did. It rained very heavily in some parts of the drive and I couldn’t have even dreamt of taking out a camera.
However the highlight was the Milford Sound cruise with Real Journeys. I experienced a primeval part of this world with thousands of waterfalls, lust green mountains rising hundreds of metres high, glaciers, seals and what not!
A preview:

I will be heading to Dunedin tomorrow and then Mt Cook day after, Will reach Christchurch on 13th.

**BMWST?** · 10th January 2010, 18:44

milford sound is at its best after /during a good rainfall...

**motoGrapher** · 10th January 2010, 21:53

@Paul: yep, true. Last time I did Milford just after rains on the Concours, had a wonderful ride but could do the cruise then.

Heres the link: http://www.xbhp.com/gnz/day16.php

Also day 9 blog updated: Day 9 & 10 : Jan 2nd and 3rd : Gisborne to Wellington : http://www.xbhp.com/gnz2/travelogue/?p=57

^With some KiwiBiker members in Wellington

**gijoe1313** · 10th January 2010, 22:35

Absolutely amazing, loving your photo tour of NZ, been to many of those places and the way you have captured them is awe-inspiring! Makes me want to go back and ride them all over again and again

Loving your urban ninja camo look, I can well relate to it

Looking forward to more of your unique perspective of our wee part of the world.