Day three in NZ, part 1. (Image limits, yo!)
After a night of cracking jokes and drinking beer with my friends Pete and Mark we awoke early and meandered out for breakfast. The boys took me for my first Kiwi meat pie. Think a pot pie. Except you eat it with your hands unless you are a damn savage.
I drank yet another flat white. I think I spent approximately 20% of my travel budget on them.
Walking back from breakfast the blokes found a child's teething ring on an electrical cabinet. They decided he would be my mascot for the trip. We used a zip tie out of one of their kits and attached him to the handlebars of Red.
Meet Trevor the Giraffe, my fearless companion.
And we were off to ride the Lewis Pass (State Hwy 7).
I love how the cloud is wrapping around the top of the mountain.
I soon found that there was a lot of road work happening in NZ. The roads are nice (chip sealed regularly) but this means that crews are out there frequently putting in the work. It also meant I needed to behave, which I managed to do.
They are strict about speed enforcement in NZ. 100 km/hr is the max. We'd been hooning through a twisty section when my spidey sense tingled. I rolled off, crested the hill and saw a car in the shade on a long stretch of straight road. It was a Highway Patrol car.
I do have to say that getting so used to monitoring my speed all the time was one of the stranger things at first. (Here in CA the CHP is not as strict as the HP in NZ.) That and being on the other side of the road. But I digress! On to Lewis Pass, which was sweet and curvy. I was too busy having fun to snap a picture. Sorry. Luckily someone else has so here you go:
After a few kms of lovely, rhythmic curves on the descent we stopped for... you guessed it - a flat white.
Our coffee stop:
My buddy Mark fiddling with his SV.
And this big ass bee that decided to say hello. WTF is it with this country, me and the bees?
After coffee Pete said I should ride his KTM950 - *if* I could get my leg over. Challenge accepted. I have style, I have grace.... and I got my leg over. I win!
I finished up the remaining bit of Lewis Pass on the 950 but it hurt my soul deep inside to keep it at the speed limit.
mmmm, orange.
At Junction Springs my mates were like "GO AWAY HORRIBLE WOMAN!". But Pete did give me some tubes to deter flat tyres. He ended up getting a massive flat just a few kms down the road. Sorry. He did meet a nice doggy, though, so there's that.
Here's Pete being weird.
I turned left to head west and the vegetation quickly changed. I didn't know it yet but I was to spend the rest of the
day trip being wowed by the natural beauty of NZ.
Bam! A change from the golden grass I had been seeing everywhere. Now trees and ferns and all the green. The air took on a sweeter smell.
Note the arrows to remind folks which side of the road they belong on.
And a sign for a train. Look how cute the damn thing is.
As I came nearer to Westport the road paralleled a river.
Here the lane is narrower and accommodated by carving out the rock.
And some rain fell.
Road sign:
