alright here we go... the ride of a lifetime i feel so thankful to have had the opportunity to do! What would have made it better was having more time but obviously being in New Zealand for WORK i can't just take a bunch of time off. It was one day, 500km of riding over the course of about 10 hours. first, here was the route i took...

MAP (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=christchurch,+nz&daddr=hanmer+springs+to:Leader+Rd+East+to:kaikoura+to:christchurch,+nz&geocode=FYvCZ_0d5TlKCimBC3YDPooxbTG_g5lNp_4isA%3BFV4pd_0d1yxNCil_4IZAYHEwbTHi9B9ESfjERA%3BFTKddP0dwF5UCg%3BFf79eP0dsydaCikxgn7MsAE6bTHGjp0YuAOtzA%3B&hl=en&mra=ls&via=2&sll=-42.604652,173.371124&sspn=0.503378,1.003876&ie=UTF8&z=8)

The most intense thing about this ride was riding on my WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD. that took a few minutes to get used to and i don't know if i ever quite got used to it. It like clashes with everything you've ever done riding in the states. Anyway, immediately after getting out of the city you start to hit beautiful natural sights. I called them "rolling hills on steroids". Because it's not quite mountains and it's not quite rolling hills. But it's beautiful. Then I got out towards this place called Hanmer Springs which is a tourist destination. Didn't find much interesting there so didn't stay long and left for the fun windy road i was looking forward to on the way back to hwy 1 before heading north along the coast to Kaikoura. Kaikoura was BEAUTIFUL. Every new corner you take there is some unbelievable new view of the ocean and mountains.

I think total along the way i stopped about 10-15 times for pictures. It was difficult picking where to stop because i wanted to stop the whole time! I would hop back on the bike, start it, go, get not even a minute down the road and like OH GOTTA STOP FOR THIS! But I would have never completed the ride i stopped every single time i wanted to. Overall, i wish i would have stopped more as i didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. Here are some of the pictures from start to finish of the day.

All the panoramics are enlargeable to see 1024w size.


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and finished the day off with this burger of 3 different animals. it was delicious.
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it took me about a week of researching and finding the place to get the bike and figuring out transportation to pick it up and return it and everything. actually got kind of stressful and for about a day i thought the ride wasn't gonna be able to happen with my work schedule of flying down to Antarctica like every other day. But it all ended up working out and only cost me a total of about $180 including bike, insurance, extra mileage (350km/day limit), and gas. It beat every scenic adventure i've ever done here in the US.

I will never forget this ride.

Nice thread! I've thought bout doing this in my tC.

these pics are tight! what the heck do u do for a living that flys you to antartica all the time?

how did your ___ feel after all that?

i love my yamaha but damn my ___ hurts after a long ride!

these pics are tight! what the heck do u do for a living that flys you to antartica all the time?
not all the time. just for those 3 weeks. it's always something different. usually spend most of my time in that big sandbox called the Middle East though. it's refreshing to get to go somewhere NICE every once in awhile after mostly 20+ hour days in the desert. I work for the Air Force as a C-17 flying crew chief.

how did your ___ feel after all that?
i love my yamaha but damn my ___ hurts after a long ride!
yea the butt was SORE. like with any 10 hour day on a motorcycle lol. my gsxr is the same way. i prefer a day at the racetrack over a day in the mountains. your butt doesn't spend as much time in the seat on the track :-)

Very nice photos man.
I actually lived in Sydney for a while... got on the bike to any destination out of the city I could do as often as possible :)