Riding in New Zealand | GTAMotorcycle.com

Riding in New Zealand

shanekingsley

shanekingsley

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I'm heading to NZ for the first few weeks of September and was wondering if anyone here has been riding out there before. I've been out to Australia before, but didn't have the time to make it over to NZ, so here we are. Stopping in Hong Kong for a few days on the way there and it would kinda nice to ride to there as well. I don't mind crazy traffic or congestion when on the bike.

We aren't taking our gear with us, but were hoping to rent a bike and ride 2 up for a either a few days or as long as 10 days. The only website I've checked out so far is NZbike who has locations in Auckland and Christchurch and they have a newer DL650 for around $200/day all in, including gear.

Planning on spending about a week on the north island and then about 10 days on the south island.

Since it's tourist low season there, we haven't booked anything and will do all of that on the fly as we move around. Normally we stay in hostels when we travel, but this time we may do the AirBnB or Bed & Breakfast thing as well.

Any experiences, suggestions or insights are appreciated!
 
I was there a few months ago but didn't do any riding there so don't have too much advice. It was extremely wet when I went so I'd pack lots of corresponding clothing. The south island is the best and a week on the north island seems like a lot. Lots of winding roads which would be fun.

I stayed at a couple AirBnB places and had good experiences. I didn't book more than 3 nights ahead of time and didn't have problems and that was at the "high tourist" season.
 
NZBike is amazing. They know their stuff and will look out for you. The DL650 might be under powered in some stretches especially if you're doing two up. If budget allows get a 1000 if possible, you'll have a better time in the hills. The south island is where you want to be but the north is OK for some roads. September could be a little dicey in terms of weather so pack plenty of layered riding gear.

Check out this guy's blog about riding north/south islands and he has good maps too. You can also get the riding maps and gps from NZbike.

http://www.motorcycleparadise.net/2011/11/new-zealand-is-wonderful-place-to-ride.html

Oh, watch out for cops, photo radars. They don't play by mercy rules down there...one of the guy I talked to showed me a ticket for 3 over. Enjoy, it is one of the best riding roads/country in the world.
 
We spent a bit over two weeks riding around the South Island. Beautiful! Pretty much every geography and climate within such a tiny space. You'll go from arid drylands to glaciers to rainforests to beaches all within a few hours ride.

We used a company called http://www.gotournz.com/ but we made a mistake booking the self-guided tour. They charged us an arm and a leg pre-booking the guest houses and giving us a GPS with pre-loaded routes. There's only one main ring road that everyone has to use to go around the island, the only choice you have is clock-wise or counter-clockwise.

If I were you, don't bother with any of the guided/self-guided tours. Just book the bike and follow the itinerary and routes on their website. Or you can look at ours:

http://www.RideDOT.com/nz

They've got quite a few interesting bikes. They used to be affiliated with a Triumph dealership, so back then we rented a Sprint ST and a BMW R1200GS. Good selection of road and adventure motorcycles. They are based out of Nelson, I believe, but they will deliver the motorcycles to any major city and have them waiting there for you at a guest house.
 
Thanks for the advice so far. I will look into those tips!

We will have our rain gear fur sure and bring high quality layers for warmth. My wife is attending a conference in Auckland for 3 days where our nice hotel is paid for 5 days, so we will take advantage of that. I plan to ride around the north island by myself for a day or two while she is in her conference and then we will ride the south island together. We are definitely going to be doing a lot of stuff off the bike, so the challenge is also about when and where to rent the bikes, so they best fit into the plan of other things we want to do like hiking, bungee jumping, beaches, etc.
 
Shane!

Nice to see you're heading to NZ!. September is the beginning of spring and views in the Sth Island will be STUNNING .

. When you're in the Wellington Area make sure to do the Rimutika Hill Road.. amazing.. road.. we used to drive/ride it back in the 90s.. I don't think much has changed there..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plt3e_TbPzM

Lots of great roads throughout the country.. near Picton, there's some great roads up towards the lookout on the west coast side. Make sure you get to Aurthurs Pass from Christchurch and also for sure You'll do Queenstown. When I went to Fiordland, it was incredible. I'm actually thinking of heading back down next year myself!!

When in Auckland, head north to the Bay of Islands. Nice roads and scenery etc. Back in 2006 my brother was living there and I went Scuba Diving up that way. Oh, and if you bungee.. do the NEVIS Pass one.. go big!! lol! that was amazing!

and TRY and get to an International Rugby game! the International games are on now ( NZ vs Sth Africa/Argentina/Australia) - Usually on a Friday or Saturday night.

any other questions, let me know.

B
 
Awesome and thanks for the info.

I will be doing that Rimutika Hill Road for sure and the area around Picton - it's next to the ferry area at the very least.

Looking forward to going somewhere new!
 
New Zealand was as awesome as I'd hoped. Unfortunately for me, it rained during the only days I could rent a bike while on the North Island, and on the South Island the bike rental places were not renting due to recent snowfalls. It seems the ideal time to go there and rent a bike would be Oct-May on the North Island and Nov-April for the South Island. The weather was great for hiking and other outdoor stuff, but it just didn't work out for renting bikes. For a bike trip, NZ would take 4 weeks to really do both islands nicely, and you could probably ride 10hrs/day and still not hit them all up. I look forward to going back!

Both islands are filled with amazing roads for bikes.
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They give good advance warning of what lies ahead
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It's a long way down if you take your eyes of the road to enjoy the scenery
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We even went looking for an old friend
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And climbed up to Mordor to find him
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And then scaled this volcano to find him
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And we checked the beaches
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And didn't see him in the coves
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or even under the waterfalls
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or hiding in the trees
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or in the rainforest
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So we went all the way out to sea and looked under the rainbow
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but dude was just chillin on a rock the whole time.
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Nice!! Welcome back Shane, you're bringing back some memories. I've been to a few of those places posted. You managed to get around a bit eh?! My parents mentioned there has been a LOT of rain this winter in the Wellington area.
Isn't the second photo down near Queenstown? I did a rafting trip down there and it looks very similar to the road back to Queenstown after they pick you up.
 
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Good memory! It's the Glenorchy-Queenstown Road. We rented cars and trying to drive those roads quickly while on the left side of the road took a few hours to get used to. It would have been much easier to ride a bike than drive a car. I didn't see many bikes out at all in fact.

In a few towns we went to, locals were saying that by the beginning of September they had already received more rain than ever recorded in some parts. A lot of grazing fields that were level were quite wet or even flooded out. Temps were nice at around 13deg-20deg every day.
 
shanekingsley said:
Good memory! It's the Glenorchy-Queenstown Road. We rented cars and trying to drive those roads quickly while on the left side of the road took a few hours to get used to. It would have been much easier to ride a bike than drive a car. I didn't see many bikes out at all in fact.
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ha! yeah, I was there in 2008 (OMG - has it been that long??) and the previous day they blew up a barn for a scene in the film - "Wolverine" up up the valley near a place called "Paradise". We rented these blow up canoes and rafted down the river... (just like a Hobbit ;-p ) When we where having lunch I heard a roar and this F-18 Intercepter from the Australian airforce came up the river valley not much more than 500ft from the ground with its wings swept forward, it then pulled up and shot straight up over the range.. most incredible thing I have seen (I've been to a few airshows)... and of course I didn't have my camera with me as it happened so fast. I believe it was part of the air show that was being held in the area.

I see you got to Fiordland. Even after growing up in NZ that area was mind blowing.. We stayed the night on a ship in the cove there :)
 
I'm glad we did all that we did, so that next time can be all about the riding. Gas was pretty expensive at about $2/litre average.

We stayed overnight on the ship too. It was a nice boat called the Milford Mariner and it was pretty sweet to take the boat out to the Tasman Sea and watch the sunrise. I heard that there's another cruise out to Doubtful Sound that is even more rugged and remote than Milford Sound - also twice as long of a boat ride.
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