New Zealand Tour 2011/12 Part 11

Heading home. A lot to get organized today in Christchurch, so I hit the road early out of Blenheim.

State Highway 1 carries a lot of traffic and so even though there are mountains to cross (of course, this is New Zealand) this road is mostly sweepers as opposed to the tighter twisties you get elsewhere. Most of the traffic seems to be campervans -no sweat, just flick past them - they don't even see me coming. I really enjoy the exhilaration of the fast curves in the early morning half light.

Pretty soon the road is right up against the coast. There's a high layer of cloud and the sun is still low. The light has a bluish tinge to it as it shrugs off the darkness. The sea is very calm - like a millpond. Dark rocky outcrops dramatize the shoreline. I stop two or three times, switch off and just take it in. Magical.

This is a fun road. A couple of tunnels, good surface, light traffic, nice and windy (that's wine-dee) - just what I love. Cove after cove, beach after beach. Look, a shack: "fresh crayfish" Says the sign y- no, not open yet. Of course not.

At every lookout point there are 4 or 5 campervans parked; doors closed and curtains still drawn. No early risers here. Must be great to find a beautiful spot as the sun is going down. Stop, crack open a nice New Zealand red, make a bit of dinner and just stay there. Waves crashing around you. Hmmmm. Might want to try that one day.

"Ching" - low power alert on the iPhone. I am coming to the end of "Ghost in the Wires" the fascinating story of Kevin Mitnick, the worlds most wanted hacker. I have to finish this audiobook - need to hook up the charger. When I pull over to do this I discover that it's not working. Damn. It was working fine yesterday. And I need enough juice to do a few Google searches when I get into 3G range. Damn. Damn.

A coffee shop in Kaikoura comes to my rescue. 20 minutes plugged in while I enjoy a morning latte does the trick; enough oomph for the 2 hours to Christchurch and more.

Suddenly the wind picks up. Before long I am being blown all over the road. At times the bike seems to be leaned over 10 degrees just to keep going straight! This isn't fun, especially as there is much, much more traffic as I close in on Christchurch.

When you ship a bike you are allowed no more than 1 litre of fuel in your tank. The bike has averaged 19.4 km/l for this type of riding. I put 11 litres in in Blenheim - should be right. As the reserve indicator comes on I mentally check my calcs again. I am not exactly sure how far I need to travel in Christchurch - could be tight. It's always a bit unnerving riding on reserve for 60-70 km. First stop is for bubble wrap to protect my panniers and top box which are accompanying me as checked luggage. Last time I was here this was quite hard to find. Have to circumnavigate the city to get to Officemax. Earthquake damage in the way. I am about 30 minutes behind on my schedule - can't be late.

Got the bubble wrap and packing tape, now off to the hotel at the airport to check in, dump my stuff and remove the top box bracket to get the overall bike length down to 2.4m for shipping. Simple 10 minute job in the parking lot. A car pulls into the parking next to me and this Israeli dude gets out and starts chatting. "Dat's a verrry nice bike you got derrr." "thank you" I reply. "how much costs a bike like dis" comes the question.....don't you just love 'em!

Now to the car wash. The bike has to be thoroughly cleaned to get through Australian quarantine, otherwise you have to pay hundreds of $$$ for them to have it cleaned. The car wash is 10 K's from the airport. How's the fuel situation looking? Hmmm. I have done 80 k's on a reserve of 5l. Its 9 k's to the drop off. Nuh. Not going to risk it. All I heed is to run out of juice. I get a strange look from the guy in the petrol station when I plonk my $2.20 down on the counter. 1 litre exactly.

Off to the shipping depot. It's like going to Laverton (or Booysens). Trucks, cars, traffic everywhere. Finally get there, disconnect the battery and hand it over. Receipt please. I have to explain to the bimbo that 1 x motorcycle is not enough info on a receipt. I can just see the scenario. Another earthquake. Bike gets squashed. I make a claim. My only documentation that they had my property is 1 x motorcycle. I don't think so.

I tell the Samoan taxi driver that his Schmidt taxi meter is made by a good friend of mine in Melbourne. "very expensive" he replies. Back to the airport hotel. Stuff packed and wrapped. So that's it then. Holiday is truly over. 5.15 am check in tomorrow. Good night.