The Abel Tasman and sea kayaking

Abel Tasman National Park is one of NZ's newest and is its smallest NP. Sitting on the north west corner of the South Island, it is blessed with more sunshine than any other place in NZ. The surrounding area has long been a haven for hippies and artists, plus the odd dope grower, with rolling hills of lush forest and valleys filled with apple orchards and hops, it's an easy place to kick off your ridding boots and take a few days off.

My travel buddy Julie was in a past life, a sea kayak guide in the marine park, so we head off for a three day watery adventure along the verdant coast line. I'm the first to admit that water is not my 

natural environment and frankly I feel uncomfortable on anything other than mill pond conditions. However our heavily laden tandem kayak makes good progress through the slightly choppy early morning sea. 

We stop for lunch on a beach of yellow sand flanked by lush native bush. I say native as the NZ government is putting a great deal of effort in to eradicating introduced species of trees and bushes, that have been introduced over the years. We paddle along the coast entering still lagoons and spot the odd seal lounging on rocks warming up after a long day feeding in the deep chilly waters.

Our camp for the night is in a delightful little bay, know incorrectly as Mosquito Bay, no mozzies, just sand flys! We make camp, then head for a swim in the inviting blue waters, which after a long sweaty days paddle is a delight. With a bottle of red wine opened, we get to cooking up one of my favourite foods, green lipped mussels. And they don't get freshers than these, before entering the marine park, we simply paddled up to a rock in the ocean and plucked off a few. Cooked in just some sea water, they are absolutely scrummy 😉🍷

Hong Kong

 I arrive late in the evening of Sunday 5th February and take the shuttle bus to my hotel in Kowloon. After a limited amount of sleep I shuffle down to breakfast famished after not eating any of the inflight food, it really did look unappetising. I spend a good hour grazing over a buffet ranging from dim sum and seaweed , to eggs and bacon. Washed down with three cups of coffee, I'm starting to feel human once more ,though I'm not sure I look that way.

I stroll out on to the streets of Kowloon for the first time and your head is instantly drawn upwards to the emmense apartment blocks that abound and then back to ground level to take in the sight of men pushing barrows competing for space with new Mercedes and Masaratis. 

Hong Kongs Victoria Harbour has loomed large in my travel mind for many years and even though it's a slightly foggy day, it does not disappoint. The rickety Star Ferrys slill ply the waters between the mainland and Hong Kong Island as they have done since 1888. With the iconic back drop of the multiple skyscrapers that line the shore of the island, there are few sights that are quite as enigmatic.  

In any vibrant city , parks are an oasis of calm and Kowloon Park is an island of lush tropical vegetation, punctuated with the sound of bird song that drowns out the busy traffic, but not th banging of drums! In a hangover from last weeks Chinese New Year celebrations, there are some dancing dragons taking part in a theatrical dance through the park; it doesn't get more Chinese than this.

After an afternoon nap to try, unsuccessfully, to recalibrate the sleep pattern, I head to Temple Street market to buy some reading glasses, as I left mine on the plane and grab some food from the plethora of street side restaurants. I indulge my hunger with salt and chilli squid and some pokchoi, washed down with a local beer 🍻. 

Take off

Finally the day of departure arrives and I get to Heathrow with plenty of time to spare for my flight to Hong Kong. I've always wanted to visit the last outpost of Empire, I would have preferred to see it pre 1997, but this is the first opportunity I have had to spend a few days here.

Airports are now just a way to sell you more shite you just don't need and it's almost impossible to escape the cocktail  of multiple perfumes as you walk through to your departure gate. It's a force feeding of the nasal passage , to try and make you buy the must have aftershave or perfume of the day. And I've only just go through security ..... Long haul flights are something I have come to loath, I love the excitement that lays at the end , but the process has zero glamour, despite the best efforts of the advertising industry; it's an awful experience. 

The answer,  large gin & tonic and a sleeping pill 😎

Bike arrives in New Zealand

After two months at sea or at least in a container somewhere around the world, the BM has finally arrived in Auckland. This is when the argument between flying a Nike and shipping comes in to play. Port charges and handling fees! These can make or break the cost saving of shipping and this instance , it's not working out much cheaper at all. Mainly due to a poor shipping agent, however I yet to find a good one. So there is a small battle being played out for a refund of port fees (I must stress this is from the UK side, not NZ). There is one thing that pisses my off to a huge degree, not returning calls or emails. So I was greeted with a not to small amount of shock when I turned up in person at their office. I think they hadn't worked out I live less than half a mile from them.

All of a sudden we have emails............

But most importantly, the bike is there, safe and ready to be ridden. I simply can't wait to re-establish the relationship 😉

Cheap Way Round 3 - the begining

Every journey starts with an idea, a desire, a sense of adventure. Its been almost 10 years since I first started the wheels turning on this little adventure, but there has been a long, long break and its time to get in the saddle once more.  The world has changed a lot recently and as seems the direction at present, arguable not for the better. I don't pay much heed to the mainstream media or at least, you are a fool if you don't read between the lines of what you are being told.

To believe all that we hear would be folly and we would never leave the comforts and safety of our own privileged worlds. So I have chosen my next destination with this is mind, a land full of creatures that would take your life as soon as look at you and these are only the ones with two legs! Where giant rats roam freely, where tiny spiders can kill you in a moment and women will eat a man alive - Australia!

But before I depart for this Godforsaken land, I will be calling at the calmer shores to visit Hobbits and Elves; New Zealand. I`ve long wanted to visit the lust country and to see it on two wheels has to be one of the great travel experiences, one which I am greatly looking forward to.

Everything is organised and today I dropped the BMW at the shippers, fully prepped and ready to go. Its a two month voyage for the old queen, so she should be there sometime in January 2017 and I intend to fly out early February. The plan is to be here for 6 weeks, then organise shipping to Oz, there Ill be doing a clockwise navigation of the enormous island, taking in the red heartland and many dirt roads, as well as skirting the coast in the more remote northern regions.

Apart from that plan Ill be making it up as I go, no real plan, no real agender.........  

The final day

Though Canyonville is a dump it does have a cafe, that serves proper coffee!!! After a couple of espressos we hit the road in the welcome cool of the morning air. The route leads us down the highway for the first 20 miles, then we ease in to the mountains on a gentle trail, before it starts to get a little tighter. Nothing technical, however we do have to negotiate two gates that are blocking the road, which means manhandling the bikes around the sides to avoid the ditches that have been dug to prevent public access, but we aren't the public  ;)

A large rock fall does however pose a more intimidating I stoical, due to the 18 inch path it has left between it and the three hundred foot drop to the right :(

 

All safely through we continue on our last few hours of the journey and I watch on the GPS as I see the coast coming in to view via my little digital world. After two more hours of beautiful pine forests, we start to feel the chill air of the Pacific and we are all excited at the prospect of our final destination.

We are greeted in Port Orford by crashing Pacific rollers breaking against the rocky coast and driftwood strewn beaches. 

 

 

We are elated that we have made it safe and sound, is has been an epic two wheeled adventure, 23 riding days and nearly exactly 5000 miles, across some of the most stunning scenery the world has to offer. America may not have the cultural diversity of other parts of the world, but for pure motorcycling enjoyment, it never fails to deliver .

 

 

 

Oregon

I was never should what to expect with Oregon, I know little about it, apart from it has lots of trees. And it does, millions of them!

The ride from McDermitt to Lakeview is fairly relaxed with nothing too technical and easy fast roads. We have worked out that we should be able to arrive into town at a good hour and have an early day, giving us time for some man fence and laundry. You can tell the travel situation is getting desperate when the most existing building in town is the laundrette!

En route we pass a dried out lakebed that is perfectly flat. We ride on to it and blast around for a time, just for pure easier. At time you become so involved with the route that you forget that you are doing this for fun, you get wrapped up in the destination rather ghan the journey, each day can role simply in to another overnight stop and the rituals that go with it.

Lakeview is a curious little town, it had a strange unfriendly vibe where every second car is a pick up truck. Now there's nothing new in that, but everyone is jacked up with straight through exhausts, the driver wearing either a baseball cape it battered Stetson, even though there are no cattle around here. They are known as "yahoos" , wannabe Cowboys and hard men, it's all rather sad.

We get all the jobs done , but while testing his bike Brenton forgets to put on a helmet and in Oregon it's the law!

A brief conversation with PC Plod and everything is ironed out and yet another interesting conversation about guns and the "freedoms" they give the peoe of America.

The next day's ride takes us on to the town of Crescent . The mornings ride is pretty sandy and leads us to a town that is so small I can't even remember it's name. Simon decides to meet Brenton and in at our stop point, so we push on. He made the right choice! The trail is nothing but sand and dust, it's pine forest but scrubby.

For four hours all o see is the trail through the pines, no view what so ever, and I'm dropping in sweat, it's hot. Crescent is a little bigger than the towns we have stayed in reciently, apart from the regulation casino, motel and gas station, it also has a gun shop with a liquor store. You can buy a gun and some booze at the same time, oh what fun you can have in these parts.........

We head to a local hostilely, the only one in town, which like most bar in the yahoo areas of the U.S. has almost no windows, except one to display a few neon beers signs and another that says open, or closed depending on the time of day.

After a few fresheners we walk over to the Resturant/Casino which turns out to be a museum of stuffed animals. Not the nice fluffy ones for kids, but the real deal. I'm at a lose to understand the thinking behind it.

We wake to an amazingly fresh morning, bright sunshine but cold, which given how hot it was when we arrived is a bit of a shock. We divert off of the route today so that we can visit Crater Lake. I've seen many great sights around the world , most of which are described as breath taking or stunning, however few are. Crater Lake is all of that and more. At 6 miles wide , with the drop from the rim to the surface of 2000ft and waters the colour of lapis , how could it be anything else.

Our ride to Canyonville and our penultimate night takes us through the best forest we have seen in Oregon. Well surfaced trails help us keep a good pace as the trail rolls through undulating countryside of magnificent accident pine forests. And we are greeted with large gaps in the tree slowing majestic visas. The downside is the heat, as we depend towards the coast from 7000ft at Crater Lake, to 700ft by the time we reach Canyonville, our overnight destination.

Like many towns we have passed through Canyonville has had its glory days and it's time in the economic sunshine are but a distant memory. A town built on the timber trade being squeezed by both the environmental lobby and climate change. With a series of draught years, the forest pines have started to die , in their droves and once their gone their gone.  

Needless to say, due to the current economic situation of the town, Canyonville has become a hangout of the desperate and displaced. Anyone with the means and/or ability has already moved on.