New Zealand Tour 2011/12 part 1

New Zealand is a fabulous place for motorcycling. I did a bike trip in 2006 on a hired BMW 1150RT for a week; shipped my '06 Yamaha FJR1300 over in 2008 and spent 4 weeks touring, so it was time to do it again.

Probably as a result of the Earthquakes, the Australian company that specialises in bike shipping, Get Routed, who I used in '08 only had enough takers for one shipment this year. This meant that my bike would have to leave in early November and would only be returned in February. Inconvenient but worth it given the quality of the riding in NZ.

Get Routed fills a container with bikes destined for the same place, saving thousands of dollars compared to shipping a single bike. I paid my $1650 and had to deliver my bike at the loading point in Melbourne on 5 November at 9 am.

I made all my preparations and on the 5th at 8.15 am I thumbed the starter. The bike spluttered..... It would not start. Nothing doing, nada, zilch.

Now this machine, in the 5 years I have owned it (bought brand new) has not missed a single beat! 100% reliable. I was mystified. The dash lights were all on, the battery was fully charged ? There was nothing at all I could do to start it. All I could do was call for help.

An agonizing half hour later I got hold of Jason, the workshop manager at Yamaha City and described what was going on. "Why didn't you bring your bike in for the safety recall?" came the question. Whaaaaat? ??Came the answer. No siree, me no getta no letta!

Turns out, a safety recall had been issued on or around 25 June 2011. I was obviously not on the mailing list. After explaining my predicament and impending deadline he said " how quickly can you get your bike into the city?"

I quickly rang Dave Milligan of Get Routed to tell him my exciting news. " 10.30 is you absolute deadline" was his ultimatum.

So, quick as I could, I trailered the bike into the city, hoping against hope that they had the right spare and enough time to do the fix so that I could still get it to the warehouse in time.

But it was not to be. The job was going to to take to long for me to make the cut-off, and it looked like New Zealand was not to be. I was shattered.