13 Dec

2015

New Zealand – 10118 km in 37 days. (2015)

Here’s a little summary of some maybe useful information and some stuff I liked. These are not in any particular order, but are things that I’d love to share, just for fun!!

Useful Random Information:

• the smallest denomination coin in New Zealand is a 10 cent piece. All sales are rounded to the nearest dime so they have 10¢, 20¢, 50¢, $1 and $2 coins only, no use for quarters here.
• the BBH Backpackers network are, for the most part, good and economical places to overnight while you’re traveling in NZ. It cost $50 to join the BBH Backbackers network for a year. As a BBH member you save either $3 or $4 a night off of the posted rates, depending which one you are at.
• For the 17 nights I stayed at a BBH I’d always take a shared room which are the cheapest. I did not buy the $50 membership so my room costs averaged me $31/night with a range of $27 to $36. These BBH’s also have full shared kitchen facilities and all you have to do is bring your own food.
• Red Baron Motorcycles in Auckland have a very good “buy back” program. They charged me 30% of the purchase price of the motorcycle to ride it while I was in New Zealand. When I brought the $8000 Buell back to Red Baron, once they’d checked it out, they deducted $2400 and paid me the balance on the spot.
• I can also tell you that I paid exactly $1096.77 NZ for gas. (less than $30NZ/day)
• The Buell averaged 53 mpg so my fuel cost was $0.108 per km.
• As a comparison, both my FJR1300 & Super Tenere get 44 mpg and cost me $0.077 CDN per km.
• Everything in New Zealand is a bit Alejandro Villanueva Kids Jersey expensive so I should have been prepared for a $370 tire cost. While planning this trip I didn’t even consider needing a new tire …. silly me.
• The Continental TKC 80 tires I used were good on the pavement and on the gravel. T.J. Watt Jersey I did get 6000 km from the back tire before replacing it.
• On the currency exchange, it cost me $0.90 CDN to buy $1 NZ last September and when I got home the bank would only pay me $0.83 CDN for $1 NZ.

Stuff I Really Liked:

• It was nice to be able to fill up with gasoline first and then pay for it after.
• It didn’t take too long to realize that my picture taking strategy worked best if I stopped once and took a bunch of pictures as opposed to stopping lots and only taking one or two photos each time.
• New Zealanders (Kiwis) love company and would you give you the shirt off their back if they felt you needed it.
• It was so enjoyable driving on their great roads and without traffic! Biker’s heaven!
• Riding in November rocks and with so many things still to see here, I’d like to come back!
• I just know  the old Buell was much happier at the end of the trip than at the beginning.
• And of course the daily reminder, first thing every morning, STAY LEFT Chris, was also good stuff!

If you have any questions about any of this trip or anything else, I’d be more than happy to talk to you about it.

cheers mate

chris white